Hamster Breeding

Hamsters will fight savagely if they are kept together. This means that if you are thinking of breeding from your hamster you most either have a lot of cages or a lot of hamster-loving friends with a single cage each.

Young hamsters are very difficult to sex, but adult hamsters inbreeding condition are no problem as the testes of the male are prominent and the female has two rows of teats along her abdomen. It is best not to mate hamsters before the female is 14weeks old and the male about six weeks older, and hamsters are not long lived so that by the time the animals are a year old their useful breeding life is about over. A female comes into season every four or five days but unless a mating is timed just right, you will have a fight on your hands.

Some people suggest putting each hamster in the opposite cage for a while so that they can get used to each other's scent, and then replace them in their own cages which should be stood alongside each other in order that the two animals can get used to each other. Whether you swoop them over or just put the cages together you are wasting your time when the female is not in season, but if she is and there is no apparent animosity between the two hamsters, lay a pair of stout gloves beside the cages and put the female with the male - do not even think of doing it the other way around - and hope. If the female attacks the male put a glove on and take her out again, and try again on the next evening since most mating take place at this time. If she stands perfectly still with her tail in the air, the male can mount her. Separate them after 15 minutes. Hamsters do not bite very often but they might do so at this time, when they are nervous and excitable, which is why I suggested the gloves. But if you use them, do be aware that you cannot handle an animal so sensitively when you are wearing gloves.

Four days after the first mating put the cages alongside each other once more. If the female is aggressive to the male you can be pretty sure that she is pregnant, whereas if she indicates that she might want to mate again, the whole performance was unsuccessful and you will have to repeat the mating. If she is pregnant the female will give birth 16 days later.

Halfway through the pregnancy clean the mother's cage and give her plenty of extra bedding including hay, and ample supplies of food. After that leave the cage alone apart from removing any wet floor covering each day. A litter consists of between six and twelve babies who are born blind and bald. Leave them alone for the first week and then just have a brief look to check that all is well. Throughout the period during which the mother is nursing her offspring she should be given plenty of milk to drink. This should be supplied in a water bottle clipped to the front of the cage; a dish soon becomes filled up with all sorts of rubbish and it might be tipped up by the hamster standing on the edge or trying to burrow underneath it. The babies will leave the nest at about two weeks and they can be weaned by removing them from the mother a week later. A week after that the males must be separated from the females or you might end up with another generation. It is not a bad idea to isolate each animal anyway at this stage because before long they will realize that their role in life is to hate each other.