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Anyone breed Hamsters? Meet Sandy and Squidward.

carol

carol

Down with the sickness
Hey everyone! If anyone has some tips on breeding these two, it would be greatly appreciated! Will she really eat him if I don't separate them?

Sandy is the sweet one, in the candy bowl. She will tolerate anything. Squidward thinks he is the baddest thing in the house, we are trying to tame him but it is slow going.
 

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They are cute, it always amazed me that something so cute could be such nasty little things. Everyone I ever had bit me, lol. Are you trying for an alternative feeder?
 
Ya, I was going to give hamster pinks a try for the "non-feeders". The female is actually very nice, I got her from a difference source than the male. When I picked her out the guy just stuck his hand in and went for her. I was suprised and asked him, "Aren't you going to wear gloves?". He said "No, they are all really sweet.". This female has proved he was telling to truth, so now I am considering going back and getting some more from that source. I rarely run into a person who refers to hamsters as "sweet", but in this case he was right. As far as I know they are both Dwarf Campbells, but you experts can correct me if I am wrong. I'm flying blind here.
 
um from my past experience of breeding hamsters. Males will eat their babies and, if females find a smell thats not theirs on them...they will eat their babies to. So yes you have to seperate the males out.
 
Sandy wouln't eat Squiddy persay but you'll want to seperate him out after they mate. Anything stressfull could cause her to eat the babies, Daddy trying to mate, loud noises, poor nutrition. Recommended you offer her some eggs and tofu, the extra protein usually means a happier mommy. I'm new to being on the snake end for this...but usually breeders don't move the babies for at least four days (to clean the nest) because Mommy will get stressed out and eat them.
 
Carol the female hamster goes into heat once every 4 days. Introduce the male into the females cage every day, towards evening. She will either accept him or try to rip his head off. If they fight, take the male out and try again the next evening. When she's "in the mood" she'll freeze with her head down and tail up. At that point you can safely leave the male in her cage until the following morning. You'll have your baby hamsters in exactly 16 days (lowest gestation period of any mammal). Once she has her litter leave her alone as much as possible or she will eat the babies. Also, try not to handle the babies. She will possibly eat them if you get your scent on them. Cannibalism in hamsters is very common, especailly for new mothers. After a couple litters she should settle down and get into the routine.

Let us know what happens.

Lee
 
LOL I just read my post and it sounds like I'm talking about a hamster named Carol. Sorry there should have been a coma after your name in the first sentence.
 
LOL!
HMM, these two have been living together for about 2 weeks now. I figured if I saw mating behavior I would take him out afterward. I did not know they go into heat every four days! For now they get along OK, they will run on the wheel together but have worked out separate sleeping arrangements. She gets the nest, and he gets a corner under the wheel. ;) Maybe my male just doesn't know quite what to do. :shrugs: I guess I'll have to separate him and watch what happens more carefully when they are together. Thanks so much for all the help!
 
Hi Carol,

I have bred hamsters off and on my whole life, sometimes on purpose and sometimes as a surprise! I have never had the male eat the babies or the female kill the male. I have had a new mother eat an entire litter at times, but no more often than first time mommy mice do. I have always kept my male with my female and have never separated them out. 95% of my experiences have been good and most hamsters will settle with slow and gentle handling. I have 2 pairs right now and I think both females are finally pregnant as I have not seen mating behavior this week. My males were a bit young when I got them and seemed confused about the female's behavior at first...poor confused boys :p

You could try it either way but let us know how it goes.

Merry Christmas!
Erin

PS. Matt named our grey male "Bunny Ears" and has made him a stocking...kids are so cute!
 
Russian Dwarf Hamsters?

My Russian dwarf hamsters are kept together. They are never separated. Sometimes you can have two females to one male. But it is possible the two females won't get along!

Good luck! They are too cute to use for food. Well....... almost.
 
Where's Patrick?? Patrick is my favourite. :D

I've had the dwarf ones off and on myself, they're adorable "looking", but ALL of mine would bite like the dickens. Even the little crawler babies. I did have luck with stubborn feeders liking them, however. But they just never produced in any quantity to suit my needs.

And like Erin, I never had a problem with the males eating the babies or the female fighting to the death with the male. I kept mine in 1:4's generally and didn't have any sort of aggression that I witnessed.

IMHO, the more you interfere and fuss with them, the worse they do. So I'm sure that's where some folks' bad experiences with various rodents comes from. I leave mine alone and let them do their thing. If they're still fighting after a couple of hours, I'll remove one for a day and re-try. If I tried half the things some people say, I'd never have snake food. =P
 
Thanks everyone for all the advice, it is greatly appreciated! I am thanking my lucky stars that I am getting so much help, and also very grateful I found a female that doesn't bite fingers! I'll keep you all updated, fingers crossed. In the meantime I might just go get another pair from the store with the "friendly" bloodlines. Then I could name one Patrick. :cheers:
 
I've bought a pair of Russian hamsters with 4 'pups' some weeks ago, because I wanted the cage they were in and the price was ridicolously low (12 bucks for hamsters and medium sized cage). Both adults were sweet and the 'pups' also. She had 2 female hamsters before and they were great too!

My sis took the female and the 'pups' , but didn't want the male 'cause she didn't want another litter. So I decided to feed the male to my best eating snake, my yellow rat. She already had a mice like 10 mins before but she eats like a wolf and ate 2 mice many times so I offered it to her. She did kill him, but after attempting a few times to eat him, she left it! First time she refused a meal. It looked like she didn't like the thick fur.... looked funny!
 
My sister had those things, the are mean as can be. The best thing to do is keep them together for a few days or until you see them breed, if the male tries to attack her or visa versa seperate them and try again. Try not to add anything to the cage while the mom has babies other wise she will usually ignore the babies. Keeping them together may be ok but since you said the male has an attitude he may be a problem. The hamster pinks work well for picky eaters but they are ADDICTING. Be sure not to feed them live since even the youngins can bite hard. I would give the female about 6 days after giving birth to re interduce her to the male. Be sure to put the female in the males cage, if this doesn't work put the male in the females cage but she may attack him so watch out carefully. If you intend on taking them as pinks I would suggest doing it 2-3 days after giving birth since she will usually not be as aggressive or stressed out.
 
Sandy and Squidward are parents!
I thought Sandy had been getting fat lately, I kept telling myself it was my imagination. It's a bit harder to tell since they are so darn fluffy. Anyway, we heard squeaking from inside the tub this evening, and then realized no one was playing on the wheel.
Sandy has 8 little pinks and seems to be taking good care of them. We watched them awhile, Sandy will leave them for a bit, Squidward checked them out but showed no aggressive tendencies. Sandy was also rather tolerant of Squidward and passively allowed him to breed to her. After, she settled right back down with her babies.
I'm so excited! I hope nothing goes wrong. I do still have a handful of nonfeeders, but I'm apprehensive about taking any of her babies away the first time. I also would like to keep another pair as breeders so I guess I will thin them out later.
Anyone know when it is safe to start handling the young ones? I'd really like to get this batch used to human hands as soon as possible, but I know you have to tread kind of lightly with these guys. If anyone has any advice on taming baby hamsters, please share! Maybe now we will have a Patrick and Pearl. LOL
 
8 pinks for a dwarf hamster is alot for her to take care of. Check the young ones to see if they all are getting milk.
I start to handle my baby hamsters when their eyes open.
 
Good luck!

Congrats on the babies Carol. I hope it works out for you. I had hamsters years ago a male and a female (2 pairs @ 2 different times), but the moms always ate the babies. The last time with my last mom the babies actually got about a week old and the male had died previously to the babies being born, but anyways, the first week went great and then I came home from work one day and found a fuzzy head and that was it. If I remember correctly there were 5-6 babies, so she had eaten them all, I was confused about the whole thing, I didn't continue with having hamsters as a pet after that. It was too emotional for me. Now go figure, the love of my life is a snake breeder who breeds mice to feed the snakes. Crazy!!! Good luck with the babies! Let me know how it turns out!
 
Well that's good to know, I'll try not to get my hopes up too much. I did take one when she wasn't looking and the non feeder that got it, gobbled it up. So the project hasn't been a complete loss. If she ends up eating them, I'll just take them away sooner next time as snake food. In the meantime, Chris is right, the male will "baby sit" them... literally... when the female goes to eat.
 
Congrats on the little hamster pinks. I'd love to see a picture later when you can get one. That's great the little non-feeder gobbled down his dinner. Sounds like the hamster breeding was successful on all accounts. Keep us updated on the hamsters and the other non-feeders.
 
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