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Dwarf Hamsters

C

Colleen360

New member
I have the worst Dwarf Hamster mom ever. She is very sweet and has no problem being handled at all, but she eats her babies! This is her second litter and she ate two already. One she had on her wheel while running, and kept running! There are two more(so far) so I put her in a smaller container, covered up. She was eating them anyway, so I figured trying a smaller container covered wouldnt hurt anything. She eats a diet of lab block and a little bit of a seed mixture. Any ideas? Or do any of you have a bad dwarf hamster mom also?
 
Colleen, I raised dwarf for a few years, in my opinion there is no one asnwer. Is male in with her some of my females would be OK with this and some wouldn't, some would be OK with other females, some were great with babies and attacked me when I tried to give them food, some didn't care, one even preferred the male in with her and would harm babies if he wasn't. When this happened I tried all different combos. So this would be my suggestion if all else failed I would have snake food. sorry for not much help, susan :shrugs:
 
I keep 1 male to two females. If she keeps eating her babies there isn't anything to do but try another female. I haven't had a problem with the females eating their young, in fact the females take turns taking care of the young. If there is a problem with them, they are introduced to one of my snakes. End of problem.
 
Well, she appears do be doing well in her little critter keeper. I'm going to have to move her to a larger one because this one has no space for a water bottle. But, I plan to just let her be for a bit to settle down. She might just be one that prefers to be alone I guess. Her first litter I just blamed it on her being young and not knowing what to do. These guys really aren't feeders but my pets. I keep a trio 1.2 in a 10g aquarium and they all do quite well. The other female is a bit older and won't let the male breed her and he doesn't even try anymore. They all get along quite well and sleep in the same place most of the time. I guess I'll let her raise this litter by herself then put her back in with the male for breeding again. Trial and error I suppose.
 
Colleen, be causious putting the female back in with the other female and male, while the male would be OK with her the other female may not. It is better to take all out wash (decent tank) and than put them back with male first and than females at same time.
 
Thats how it will go when I put them back together. I didn't mean to imply that I would just put her back in the cage without thought. I always clean the cages before reintroducing any of my mice or hamsters.
 
:-offtopic Well, Colleen, all this talk has made me miss the little guys, now I want to go and get some. :crazy02: When I had the last few they were so nasty but got down to one, four year old male who died about three months ago. He was also my first. Bad thread, bad thread now I really want more.
 
UPDATE: She now has 5 total and is doing quite well. All together she either had 7 or 8. I think she ate two before I got to her, so that would mean 8. Then she had one while she was running on the wheel. That didn't go over so well. I moved her into a larger critter keeper for now and she has made a nest and moved all of the babies to it. I have a mouse in a different critter keeper. Now my kitchen counter(least disturbed room) looks like a nursery. Hopefully all of these do well.
 
8 is a pretty big litter. She might've just ate a few because she didn't think she could raise them all. I used to breed dwarf hammies and the litter size is usually around 4-6.

Hamsters are a lot more tempermental. Most of my females, when they're pregnant, will bite me for no reason. I found that the best thing to do is to clean the cage once a few days before the babies are due, and then leave them COMPLETELY alone(except for food and water changes) until their babies are fuzzies or older.
 
8 is a huge litter!! Are you sure they are all hers?

I keep 4:1 in a 10 gallon tank and have had great luck with that. I say luck because I really think that good colonies are just that - luck. When my females deliver they lump all of the babies together. I could have hoppers, fuzzies and pinkies all in the same nest. I can also reach in and pull out the entire bunch...sex them, feed off those that I want and then put the pile back in. I try not to do this too much, but am pleased that they tolerate it. There are a few mommies that will bite when I'm rooting around, but hey - they're hammies!

New mommies can and will eat their young if they are stressed. Some may even stuff one in a pouch if they panic. I typically will take out a female who is eating a pinky and move her into a tub where I can watch her. I always seem to have a few extra males so I can put one in with her and see how she does 1 on 1. Sometimes it's the other female stressing them. <shrugs> With really aggressive females I've found that moving them into their own cage with their litter and then letting the litter grow up, they loose their aggressiveness towards other hammies and wa-la - a new breeding colony is created.

A few things - when I was starting colonies I only bought babies, I handled them a lot and I bought them from 4 or 5 different places. The handling prepared them, I think, to allow me to get into their cages and take babies easily. Yeah - they do bite..... but most will just hammy-slap me when I'm bugging them too much.

-Tonya
 
100% positive that they were all hers. I was surprised when I saw how big the litter was. After 3 died there were two left and I thought that was it, but nope, she decided to have more. She was HUGE though. I've never seen a dwarf hamster get so big. The other female is not and has not been pregnant, and I watched her have most of them, all except the first one. This female has never bitten me, even when I picked her up off of the babies. I think she was stressed with the other hamsters around because she is doing just fine by herself. All five are still going strong. I'm interested to see what colors come out because she is an opal, and she had two albino siblings, and two black eyed white siblings. The father of the babies is a black. I think my plan with her will be to place her back in with the others until she is ready to pop, then separate her. I have her sister at work that will be coming home with me next week. Shes a little aggressive to be sold as a pet so she will just be a breeder. She has had one litter and they were very sweet.
 
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