Raising Dwarf Hamsters

Are you interested in raising your own dwarf hamsters? Read on! This is not something to be taken lightly, so make sure you know what you are getting into before you begin. You should have the basics down already (see the "Caring for Your New Hamster" page). Importantly, you need to have homes picked out for your babies. Hamsters can have up to 10 pups in a single litter! You can get overrun very quickly.

Giving birth	Size comparision with a dime. You can see where the umbilical cord was. Also, the white you see on the lower part of his body is milk--his belly is transparent!	You can already see what color his eyes will be	Day 1
Day 2	Day 3 - Skin color is certain	Day 4	Day 5
Day 6 - Fur is starting to grow	Day 7	Day 8 - Slightly active, starting to eat solids	Day 9 - Crawling around
Day 10	Day 11 - 1st baby's eyes open	Day 12 - both babies' eyes open	Day 13 - Seed pouches in use
Day 14- hair is well-developed	Day 15	Day 16	Day 17 - weaning (a little early because there were only two babies)

Your female should be between two and six months old, or she should have already had a litter and be under one year old. For this reason, it's important to not buy her from a pet store because they will not be able to tell you her age (and if they do, they are guessing or lying). Your male should have been pre-socialized. A male that has lived by himself his whole life can seriously hurt your female.

Females go into heat every four days, usually in the evenings. There are two ways to breed them, depending on how comfortable the pair is with each other. First and easiest, you can simply put the male in the female's cage for about a week or two. Second, you can put the male in with the female (or in a box) every evening under close supervision. If you choose the second option, give them 15-30 minutes together. If there has been no mating activity, put them back in their separate cages. If they do start to mate, leave them together until they become disinterested.

Gestation, or pregnancy, lasts approximately three weeks. A couple days before she is due, put the mother-to-be by herself in a clean cage with plenty of fluff. She should have some toilet paper to shred in addition to her shavings. You will not be able to clean the cage again for two weeks. You should not keep the male with the female when it comes close to birthing time unless you wish to immediately rebreed her, because the female goes into heat a few hours after giving birth. This should only be done if your pair is very comfortable with each other and your female is in exceptionally good health. If the pair squabbles occasionally, the male could kill the babies or distract their mother from caring for them.

For the first two weeks, you should not interfere with the mother and babies more than necessary to keep them supplied with food and water. If she becomes too stressed out, she may kill her babies or stop caring for them entirely. If any babies are stillborn, the mother will probably eat them. This is normal and gives the mother nutrients she can use for the remaining babies. You may notice that in our baby pictures page, some of the pictures are shown of very young babies being handled. This is because that particular mother was unusually easy-going and did not mind us.

When the babies start crawling around, you will need to make sure that the food and water is at a height they can reach. The mother will wean the babies herself at around three weeks, so if you notice her fighting with them or pushing them away, it is time to separate them. They should be kept separate from their mother for another week, at which time you should separate them by gender. The females may then be put back with the mother if she does not have another litter.