Super Mom!

Goodness! As most of you know Sandy the Dwarf Hamster had 8 babies on Jan. 24. I feed one baby to a non feeder and she has done a spectacular job of raising the remaining 7. Last Friday I noticed the babies were really starting to run her ragged, she looked "plump" again, and the babies were eating and drinking on their own. I was going to wean at three weeks, but I yanked them out a little early. I left one little female in with mom and dad, she seemed to be mom's (and my) favorite. Today, less than 3 weeks after having the first 8, she gave birth to 9 more! I think I will take away at least 4 just so my little mama doesn't get burned out, but I am so excited!
If she can keep it up, and her offspring do as well, I might very well switch to raising a few hamsters instead of mice. Sure you can't house as many together, but you can house about as many in the same space. It seems they can reproduce as much as mice, but only need to be cleaned about a third as much. They smell soooo much less than mice do, and are all together cleaner animals. I am also experimenting to see if mama and daughter will form a team. So far Sandy has no problems with the older sister hanging around.

They look like mouse pinkies that had their little tails cut off! The big sister is soooooo cute.

So I'm guessing they breed again while they are still providing care for the dependent young?

Hopefully the hamster switch will work out for you. I thought I had read that hamsters tend to go on breeding strikes, but I guess your's aren't.

Ya, so far mom is a great breeder, friendly, a good mommy, and accepts living with the male and so far a daughter. Looks like I found a winner! I'm so happy! I guess it should have taken note when I got her. This was the ONLY petstore that the clerk didn't go running for the leather gloves when I asked to see the Dwarf Hamsters. He said "Sure!" and started sticking his arm in the cage, I asked, "Don't you need gloves?". When he replied, "No they are all really sweet", I should have known something was up.

Ohhh... how darling. I might have to buy a couple from you when you get more than you need. That big sis is so cute.

When I was at the farm & feed store one day, they had a pile of what looked like pinkies in a critter container. I went over to look at them and the guy said they were hamsters. Their Mom had died, so they were trying to find someone with a girl to care for them. Too bad I didn't have a Hamster Mom to bring them home to.

Congrats, they are so cute. Great news that the non-feeder loved them too. :grin01:

red_mamma said:

I might have to buy a couple from you when you get more than you need.

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Heh, at this rate, that will be real soon. LOL. Buy?? Ya, riiiight. If you want some they are yours! Obviously I'm not going through any pains to produce them. Just bring Sandy a treat.

Serious? That would be so cool. I'd love to have a pair. Tell Sandy to place her order. What does she want?

Aww I love the little girl there. Shes got this look like "Yea, I'm a Bigger Sister "

is there ever any problem between switching between mice rats and hamsters for corn snakes? i would be hesitant to breed hamsters if i knew i would have to breed them the whole time i had my snake that would only eat hamsters

Those pictures are adorable!

I was at a pet store the other day, picking up some things for my rabbit, and I noticed that they had quite a few dwarf hamsters. I kept thinking back to your threads and this week have been wrestling with the pros and cons of picking up a pair! You may have really started something!

**the next step in feeder breeding** hehee

Congrats!

Hey Carol, I am so glad this is working out for you! Sounds like you have some good hamsters there. Maybe all your non feeders will tend to go for those instead of the mice and I wonder why that would be??? Weird I suppose! Look forward to seeing you this weekend! :cheers:

Ya, it's weird. I have 3 non feeders that have never taken a meal in their life, it's really amazing they are still alive. I didn't want Sandy to get worn out raising 9 babies so I removed 4 and gave one to each of the non feeders. (I gave the last one to the same fussy feeder that got one last time). ALL 3 snakes ate them. So this has been very successful, and easy!
Kind of a funny story, I guess the two new cages I got for the weanlings aren't entirely secure and two little hamsters got loose. We now put the cages in large bins so if they get out, they are still trapped. I was wondering how we were going to find the other two.
Last night I went to bed and jokingly told the cat, "Go find the Hamsters!". As we were falling asleep we heard my cat meowing in his best, "Wake up and get over here" meow. We got up and checked and he had one hamster on it's back dripping wet. We thought for sure it was dead, except the little heart was pounding like you wouldn't believe. We grabbed it, and amazingly the little one is completely unharmed. I gave the cat some tri tip for a job well done and went to bed. This morning he was on the prowl and "caught" the second one right away. It seems that when they are really scared they just roll over and play dead. My 14 year old cat, who I swear has amazing comprehension of the English language, looked at me like, "Gee, this is easy, I can do this for tri tip all day." After I gave him a second helping, he started to patrol the house again, LOL. I had to tell him his mission was complete for now. I can't believe he didn't hurt them and actually meowed to us for backup.
Good Kitty!

What a good boy. Can't ask for a better rodent finder than that! I guess tri tip tastes better than hamster. LOL

Funny!

Carol that is absolutely hilarious. I think our 3 cats would be bouncing it around like a toy! We have those bright color squeeky cat toys that they play with and they just kick them around like a soccer ball it's so cute to watch.

curiousL said:

Carol that is absolutely hilarious. I think our 3 cats would be bouncing it around like a toy! We have those bright color squeeky cat toys that they play with and they just kick them around like a soccer ball it's so cute to watch.

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Ya, he had this mournful cry that was like, "Come get it before the inner beast takes over!" :rofl:

Congrats on the Super mom Carol...i think she needs a cape hehe

Update...March 2nd....
Sandy had 11 new babies today! I'm now convinced to give my dwarf hamsters a clean slate and believe nothing of all the terrible things I have heard about them. Not to say they aren't true at all, but they don't seem to be true in my very small pool of animals.
What I have found out about my dwarf hammies...
1. My breeder female has produced 28 babies in 6 weeks, averaging 18 days between litters and so far the litters are increasing each time even though she was nursing prior litters at the time. (8, 9, 11).
2. My breeder female has no problems living with the male and is not aggressive towards him although she does hold the dominant status.
3. The male hamster helps watch over the babies and does not try to harm them.
4. So far the breeder female has no problems sharing her home with older siblings of her latest litter, in fact the older siblings also try and help her out.
5. I can clean my hamsters cage even when she has newborns and she does not eat them. (With her last litter, I felt bad that she had been producing much so I decided to take the risk of cleaning the cage even though she had newborns. I figured if she ate them she could use the rest and nourishment... she did not eat any of them).
6. My hamster cages can go 3 times longer than my mice cages between cleanings before they smell. They also do not pee in their own food bowl like the mice do, making it possible to have a bowl of food last a couple of days.
7. The babies that have been hand raised are not mean, in fact when you open their cage, they can't wait to come out and crawl into your hand for an adventure.

My next experiment is to see if Sandy will tolerate another breeding/producing female in her enclosure. I will also gather stats on how long it takes before hammies are sexually mature. I'm sure I'll have answers to both of those with in a months time. If this keeps up, I'd love to convert to dwarf hamsters instead of mice. So far the only drawbacks I have seen is ....
1. They don't have "handles" aka tails.
2. I would be afraid to put animals that will eventually be for sale on just hamsters since they could acquire a taste for only hamsters making it difficult for the future owners. Perhaps I need to do some experimenting on alternating my snakes meals with mice and hamsters.

Lesson learned, it is great to heed advice, but it is also great to experiment and find out what works for you! :cheers:

Maybe miker need to go and get some hamster, try his luck out with those!

I've never bred hamsters or mice, so this is a curiosity for me. How long will they keep producing at that rate without exhausting themselves? Do you just keep letting them go at it, or do you separate them for periods to let them regroup and recover before another round of breeding?

JTGoff69 said:

I've never bred hamsters or mice, so this is a curiosity for me. How long will they keep producing at that rate without exhausting themselves? Do you just keep letting them go at it, or do you separate them for periods to let them regroup and recover before another round of breeding?

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I'm just starting with the hammies myself so I don't know how long they can keep this up. I know with my mice I routinely take away every other litter as pinks to give the moms a break from nursing. So today, I decided to take away all of Sandy's 11 pinks. Last time I took away 4 and left her with 5 to nurse. I was contemplating today perhaps pulling the male out a few days before her next due date and giving her a little break. After all, she's my superstar. Its too late now however, they were breeding as I was removing the latest litter. I'd also have to keep him separated awhile, I've heard the females are in season every few days! :crazy02: