Oops! He is a SHE!!

[Sweetwater]

We went out of town on the 4th and came back today. My son had just gotten a hamster 2 weeks ago from the pet store. We left plenty of food and filled the water bottle knowing he would be find for the weekend. Today we see that SHE had babies while we were gone! I didn't get to look at them long enough to see how many, but looks like at least 5 little pink bodies. My 10 year old son is a little shocked that he is a she, but he changed the name and is proud of his little mother.

 

[Dawn Marie]

Aww. We just raised a litter of 10 baby hamsters... they're so cute.

 

[PegasusOnFire]

That means that she was pregnant for at least a week before you got her. Congrats. But don't be surprised if they disappear.

 

[Sweetwater]

Got a head count finally. Six little pink babies. She is taking good care of them so far. She gets up to drink or grab food, then snuggles back into the nest with the babies. We may contact the pet store about taking some of the babies since they did sell us the hamster without telling us what sex or anything about it possibly being pregnant. We wouldn't know where to put them all! We'll see after the weening is done I guess.

 

[Dawn Marie]

They should take them! If they don't your whole house will smell like hamsters... lol... like mine does.

 

[Rosebud]

LoL I did that with a cat once. When you find the boy has babies it's like

 

[Chakotay2]

Reminds me of Data's cat on the Enterprise. For six seasons it was a 'he'. Come season 7, 'he' turned into a 'she' and had kittens.

 

[draper]

Pet sotres do not offer guarantees on the gender of small animals and cannot guarantee they aren't pregnant...it's a typical policy..

Anyways as soon as the hamsters are ready to go get rid of them, they reproduce ridicilously fast, I think they can at 4 weeks but do not quote me on that. Hamster incest will occur and you'll have a major problem...

Oh yeah, how old was it when you bought it?

Cuz if you got it relatively young its babies will have babies at just a young age as it did...

 

[CeCe]

Mine had 9 on Saturday. I don't know how familiar you are with hamsters, so I don't know if you know this stuff already; but make sure that her nest is not disturbed at all. And definately do not touch the babies. She will cannibalize them. They should be getting mighty cute about now, so it's hard to resist.

They should be close to weaning in August. Like another poster said the shops don't generally offer guarantees on this. But the pet shop will probably be willing to take them.

 

[Dawn Marie]

Yeah, when our hamsters have babies we wait until their eyes are open and they can move around without tripping over the wood shavings, before we hold them. We have never had a mother hamster eat her young... maybe that's just because they were always tamed before we bred them... who knows.

 

[PegasusOnFire]

gestation in a hampster and other small rodents is 19-21 days. I breed mice.

 

[Sweetwater]

We have read up on care of the babies. She is doing a very good job as a mom. The 6 little babies are starting to show some pigmentation in the skin and tiny itty bitty hairs.

We are looking to see if any friends or family want any of the hamsters first. Might as well find homes for them if we can rather than have them sit at the pet store.


We are waiting for the 2 week mark before we take them out and clean the cage out, at least that is what is recommended by most pages on hamsters we read.

 

[Susan]

Pet sotres do not offer guarantees on the gender of small animals and cannot guarantee they aren't pregnant...it's a typical policy..

Anyways as soon as the hamsters are ready to go get rid of them, they reproduce ridicilously fast, I think they can at 4 weeks but do not quote me on that. Hamster incest will occur and you'll have a major problem...

Oh yeah, how old was it when you bought it?

Cuz if you got it relatively young its babies will have babies at just a young age as it did...

Can you say 50,000 hamsters in a year?

Squeak.

 

[Dawn Marie]

Here are 2 babies from one of our most recent litters of hamsters.

Awww. I miss them.

 

[CeCe]

Awww. How sweet. They're adorable. Ours still are somewhat "pinkish", but their markings are coming through. Our little runt died though.

 

[Sweetwater]

Update on our little guys: 5 have dark grey fur like their mom, 1 is looking blonde. This weekend we will finally get to clean the cage I believe. As soon as they can open their eyes it is ok to move them out briefly for cleaning is what I have read. Still not sure what we are going to put the boy hamsters in when it comes time to separate the sexes. The mom had a little break the other day in her ball. She insisted we take her out for a bit (she bites on the lid of the "lookout" when she wants to come out...this was the first time she had done that since the babies were born). Maybe I can get a picture of them when we take them out for the cage cleaning.

 

[Beckijhn]

Our pet store buys back the babies for a dollar a piece. We've been through dwarf hamsters and rats. About three litters each. It's a huge relief to finally get the males/females separate since with hamsters it's just a guessing game. Every rodent we've ever gotten (three from stores, one from friends) have ALWAYS been pregnant and then end up pregnant again before distribution of babies.

Explain that to your kids - Like ICK!!