Three blind mice (or baby hamsters, should I say)
Our female pet hamster, code named Abester, has just recently produced 3 healthy litters. Initially, it was four but one got eaten by Mommy herself. Hamsters have cannibalistic nature and they usually eat their own babies when threatened. Breeding hamsters seem to be a lot complicated than I thought it would be.
There was no warning or indication. No swelling tummy or unusual odor. We knew she was pregnant but we did not know when she would give birth. Our female hamster was in a small clear plastic housing together with 3 other male companions. I was watching National Geographic. Then I heard some commotion. To my surprise, Abester has produced 4 tiny miniature hamsters scattered all over the cage. She obviously felt threatened so she was already starting to munch on one of the litters. I quickly got all the other male hamsters out of the cage.
We had to use old newspaper to cover the whole cage. We also had to refrain from cleaning the cage to avoid triggering the hamster’s cannibalistic behavior. This gave the female hamster security for her and the babies. After a few days, the remaining 3 litters have survived. They all look like just their Mommy.
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 4:44 am and is filed under Hamster Care, My Hamsters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
5:02 am on August 25th, 2007
I’ve got a question, my mother has a hamster that we think is blind, can that be? I’ve tryed asking any and everyone that I could think of. My dad won’t take it to the vet so I’m kina stuck and need some advice…
Amanda
9:06 pm on August 28th, 2007
@Amanda: Is there any behavioral changes that made you think your hamster might be blind? It is kind of hard to determine unless you take it to a vet. If your hamster behaves oddly (indicating that it’s blind), you might need to have it checked already.
9:56 am on May 25th, 2008
how do you know when the mother hamster is not threatened anymore?
11:17 am on August 16th, 2008
Awww… lucky you got there in time, or eles it might have gone horribly wrong… cute, huh?!
12:37 am on April 11th, 2010
thanks for that wonderful information cause my female hamster just gave birth and i don’t know what to do .. anyway, thanks for that advice.