My dwarf hamster had a litter of babies about three weeks ago. The father was left in the cage the whole time, as the pet store owner said it was fine. Today I just found a brand new baby in the cage with the rest of the hamster family. The baby was in a secluded area of the cage with one of the three week old babies and they remained together. It appears to nurse from the three week old hamster too. Is there anyway that a three week old hamster had a baby? It doesn't seem possible to me, but the mother of the three week old hamsters doesn't do anything with the newborn, which makes it seem all the more like the three week old is the mother. The three week old mother also built a nest that she and the newborn stay in together. Can anyone help me understand all this? Thanks.
Answers:
Your three week old hamster could not have had the baby, because the gestation is 18 days. She would have barely had her eyes open at that point. They do not usually mate until at least 5 weeks.
Females can get pregnant again immediately after giving birth.
I think your original female had this baby - but being social animals, all members of the group tend to take care of and look after babies. Daughters from previous litters often help their mothers.
You should remove your male from the cage. Your original female is now pregnant again, and that's three litters in a row.
That's too many litters in a row without getting a break - having litters is extremely stressful and hard on their bodies and if she keeps getting pregnant over and over without pause it will be very detrimental to her health and the health of the resulting pups. Please remove him before she has the third litter and gets pregnant a fourth time.
When the babies are 4 weeks old, you can put all the boys in with their dad and keep the females with their mom to avoid severe inbreeding where all the females get pregnant by their brothers (and avoid ending up with 40 hamsters).
The website below says that dwarf hamsters can breed at 30 days of age. If that new baby is the 3 week olds baby, u may have set a new record!anyway call a vet they can tell you for sure.
Yes, father in cage is fine, most often.
Three week old is not old enough to have baby, they gestate for about 2 weeks and one week old is TOO SMALL to be pregnant.
Sometimes it is hard to tell which baby belongs to which mom. Female dwarf hamsters, I have seen MANY TIMES, will help take care of each other's young.
Is it possible that the 3 week old is older? Did you see them born? how big were they when you found that litter? Often they won't be seen for at least a week unless you look, it could be older, if so, it could be the mother.
It is not a good idea to keep the father in with the mother and babies. Not because he would hurt them but because he will mate again as soon as possible. It is very likely that she is pregnant again.
Mothers need rest between pregnancies, at least a few weeks. Constant breeding will cause problems with the mother and weaker and weaker babies.
You also need to se the baba%26#92;ies at about 4 weeks to prevent them from breeding with eachother. Inbreeding causes health problems and weak litters. Put males in on cage, females in the other. If not you will quickly end up with dozens of babies.
wow that dosn't sound right. might want to check out the vet, belive it or not they are good with rodents.
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