Thanks Hannah
I'm pleased to say that I have some exciting news here...
This is how Wingnut looked about three weeks ago
On Friday March 14th we heard pup squeaks, Wingnut magically got a lot thinner again and I can finally announce that she has seven pups
We think they're three females and four males but we'll need to recheck the sexes shortly before the males get their own cage at four weeks of age. We'll be keeping all seven, we'll also probably be sticking to the nut theme for names as they technically moved into the flat with the other thirteen nuts... They were just specks in Wingnuts belly at the time. So far one pup has a name and we're seeing what the other six suit over the next few days
It is safer to start interacting with mouse pups at a younger age than hamster pups, and we did first see and sex the pups when they were nine days old. Then we backed off again and waited until the pups had their eyes open and were leaving the nest... Yesterday we finally saw them leave the nest so I'm really pleased to share the photos I took last night. I have photos from the first time we saw them but I won't be posting them out of respect for the forum rules on "no pups without their eyes open" because I think I remember seeing Souffle say she'd prefer we stuck to that for mice as well as hamsters.
Anyway... Pups at 17 days old! All eyes are now open and they are all confidently leaving the nest. (Mum and Nanny were still out of the cage for these photos though)
This is the pup we've named, we think he's a he and his name is Rautanenii
Three of the pups together with Rautanenii at the back of the photo