How do dwarf hamsters mate

Size is very important for any hamster cage, but especially for breeding. The base should be solid, like a plank of wood or solid plastic. You need to have easy access to all parts of the cage. Just be prepared to break them down and scrub them out now and then. You do at least need a running wheel. Get bedding that is made from cellulose fiber or aspen wood shavings.

Give the female extra bedding for nest building material. Supply hamsters with food and water. Attach a water bottle where the hamsters can easily reach. You can buy water bottles that hang on the side of a cage upside down. You can feed them with commercial hamster food available at the pet store. Continue offering this milk bread until the pups reach four weeks.

To minimize disturbing the mother after the pups are born, stock the feeder with food. You will be offering the milk-soaked bread, but if you stock the feeder well, you might not have to disturb the hamsters to refill it very much. Part 2. Wait until the female hamster is in heat. Sexually mature female hamsters are at least three or four months old. They go into heat called estrus every four days.

Place the hamsters together in one cage. When you see the female dwarf hamster in her estrus cycle, or in heat, you can place the male in the cage with her.

Actually, since dwarf hamsters can live quite happily in the same cage, you might keep mating pairs together until the female gives birth.

If you place the mating pair together without supervision, the female will become pregnant quickly. Watch signs of the female getting ready to deliver. She will build a nest late in her pregnancy by gathering bedding material into one location.

She will also start to eat more, groom more, and dig more. She may become more restless and startle more easily. Remove the male before the birth. She will be in heat immediately after giving birth, and the male will mate with her. Take the male out when you see signs of the mother getting ready to give birth, such as nest building. Part 3. Wait 18 to 30 days for the birth. Dwarf hamster gestation is between 18 and 30 days, but the average time from mating to birth is 21 days. The Roborovski hamster usually goes the full 30 days.

Once you place a male and female together in a cage, you can expect to have pups within about three weeks. The female goes back into heat within 24 hours after having the pups. Expect around 5 or 6 babies. The average size of a dwarf hamster litter is four to six pups.

There can be as few as three and as many as twelve, however. They will nurse for about three weeks, although they will start to drink water at the two-week mark. They will huddle and move around the cage together. Avoid touching the nest after the birth. The mother hamster will be quite skittish while she nurses. For the first three weeks after the pups are born, avoid touching the nest at all costs.

The mother might panic and kill her babies. If you need to clean an area of the cage, use something besides your bare hand to get it out. Be very careful to avoid the nest.

Try to keep your human smell out of the cage. You might also consider fully stocking a water bottle and the food bowl so that you spend as little time as possible disturbing the mother hamster. Separate the male babies after 4 weeks. You should remove male pups after they are weaned at age four weeks.

They are sexually mature at this age, and you want to prevent inbreeding. Dwarf hamsters are more mild than other breeds, so you can leave the female pups in the cage with their mother. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.

Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance.

Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Featured Video. Article Sources. The Spruce Pets uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Read More. You may notice a slight increase in girth or a larger abdomen in a pregnant female a few days before she gives birth.

As pregnant hamsters approach the time to deliver the litter, they may become restless and active and may have vaginal bleeding. When they are ready to give birth, provide them with nesting material. This helps them feel secure and lowers the chance that new mothers will abandon or eat their offspring.

Mothers and litters should not be disturbed for at least 7 days after the offspring are born, especially if the mother has never given birth before. Fostering abandoned offspring onto a different mother is rarely successful. Limit your activity around the cage to providing food and water as needed. Normal litters contain 6 to 8 pups, and offspring are weaned after about 21 to 28 days.

The pups are hairless and their eyes and ears are closed; however, pups have their front teeth incisors at birth. In most cases, it is safe to slowly begin handling the pups when they are about 7 days old. Solid food moistened with water can be offered to pups starting at about 10 days of age.