▷ Hamster breeding and rearing | All information and details

The (re)breeding of hamsters is demanding. Irrespective of whether the pregnancy of the mother animal was accidental, unnoticed or happened with proper sense and understanding, the owner needs a lot of specialist knowledge for a species-appropriate and successful rearing of the offspring.

This article provides information on how the hamster offspring develops and what the keeper has to consider when rearing.

The breeding of hamsters only belongs in the hands of knowledgeable breeders

Breeding hamsters is not easy and requires a high level of expertise. From improper matings Hereditary defects, deformities, miscarriages and misalignments result.
Also inbreeding is a big issue with hamsters, so you should only breed with animals that have a proof of pedigree.

Responsible, expert breeding of hamsters is incompatible with pointless and haphazard reproduction. One should refrain from these multiplications, because they cause great suffering for the animals. There are enough hamsters in animal shelters looking for a new home. It is not uncommon for the beloved offspring to end up unexpectedly and unintentionally in a snake’s stomach.

In order to avoid this, owners who want to breed hamsters should deal extensively with the topic and look for a loving home for the offspring in advance.
In addition, the owner should be aware that every birth poses a risk for the mother animal to die from it. The young animals can get stuck in the birth canal during birth or lie sideways, which also results in high veterinary costs.

Danger: The contribution is not intended to guide the reproduction of hamsters.
To prevent controlled reproduction, hamsters should be separated when they reach sexual maturity. The adult animals are kept individually.

Hamster friends who are enthusiastic about rearing should have one Contact the breeder or animal welfare associationto accompany them.

Development of the hamster pups

Hamsters are altricial and completely helpless after birth. However, this changes quickly: From the fifth day, the little hamsters try to leave the nest and try their first solid food.

From the second week, hamsters open their eyes and romp with their siblings. After three weeks they are completely independent and can fully coordinate all movements. They become sexually mature between the 32nd and 42nd day.

After birth

Young hamsters are usually born at night. About four to ten animals are born in one litter.

hamsters are nest stool. That means she naked and helpless to be born. Their birth weight is about three grams, the body is two to three centimeters long.
After birth, they are licked by the mother to stimulate the functioning of the blood and circulatory system.

Day two to three

On the second day, the first colors and pigmentations of the skin can already be seen.
From the third day, the young hamsters begin to make sounds. They call the mother with a squeak when she moves away from the puppies.

Day five to ten

From the fifth day the hamster pups become more active and try to clean up. Sometimes they fall out of the nest and are brought back into it by the mother hamster.
From around the tenth day, the young animals leave the nest for long periods without being picked up by the mother directly.

From the fifth day, the mother animal also ensures that her young solid food try in the nest. This is eaten independently by puppies from the eighth day.
On the fifth day, the first fine fur can be seen, which becomes even denser from the eighth day.
The eyes are still closed on the eighth day, but ears and eyes are already clearly visible.

Danger: Young hamsters can and should eat exactly the same food (seeds, grains, animal protein, fresh food) as the adult animals. Owners should trust the hamster mother, because she shows her children the food that can be eaten. The same goes for stocking up on food for the puppies.

week two

From the second week, the young hamsters begin their to open eyes. The exact time for this development is individual, some puppies only open their eyes on the eighteenth day.
While the first attempts at cleaning were made before, this is now possible independently. The regulation of urine and faeces is now also possible after two weeks independently without the support of the mother animal.

The little hamsters are now deserted and wild on the way: They play with their siblings (also fiercely), dash through the enclosure and make loud noises (screeching, squeaking).
They run to the food bowls on their own to take food and stuff it in their cheek pouches. When emptying the cheek pouches, the young hamsters sometimes need help from their mother.

week three

In the third week, the hamster children are fully developed, active independently and are no longer supplied with milk by their mother.
However, they continue to learn everything important about social behavior and eating from their mother.

sexual maturity

On day 32, it is important to separate the hamsters according to their sexes, since hamsters can become sexually mature from this day on (approximately between the 32nd and 42nd day).
To prevent unwanted offspring, the males should move together as a group to another enclosure or be given to a good home.

After eight weeks at the latest, each hamster should have its own enclosure.

The support of rearing by the keeper

The owner must support the rearing of the offspring through good preparation, securing the enclosure, choosing a suitable environment for the enclosure, getting the hamster children used to people and giving them a new home.

Danger: Keepers are allowed during rearing do not check the nest, do not touch the hamster children, do not change, add, clean or touch anything in the enclosureas this can otherwise be deadly for the offspring.

Preparation for rearing

Birth and rearing will demand a lot of energy from the mother animal. She needs the following options to stay healthy and agile during rearing:

A big nest to throw
Plenty and suitable material for nesting (straw, handkerchiefs, leaves, plain and unscented toilet paper)
Lots of fodder with a high energy density and lots of minerals (low-fat quark, mealworms, dry fodder, green fodder). Mother animals have a higher need for minerals and protein during rearing and therefore need more feed.

The presence of clean water is a matter of course.

Tip: Keepers can tell from the mother’s behavior when she is about to give birth. Instinctively, the mother will strengthen her nest and drive the owner away from it. The owner must accept this!

Securing the enclosure

The infant hamsters should be protected from the hazards present in the enclosure as follows:

Close and secure gaps and bars with cardboard so that the puppies cannot squeeze through them or fall out of the enclosure.
Remove water bowls and replace with a water bottle and flat lids (e.g. from a jam jar) to prevent the young animals from drowning.
Raise the food bowl so the young don’t fall into it.
Never use hamster cotton or commercial cotton.
Remove the running wheel from the cage (if the mother absolutely must use the running wheel, this must be raised and made sure that the young animals cannot reach it).
Do not feed food that can rot.

The selection of the environment

The environment of the enclosure should be like this calm and free from stress be as possible. People and other pets should not be able to disturb the rearing. The hamster enclosure must not be in a draught, not next to the heater, not next to electronic devices and not in direct sunlight. The ideal temperature in the room should be between 20 and 26 degrees.

The enclosure must also be large, at least one square meter. The mother animal must be alone in the enclosure during rearing, ie the male must be removed from it.

Already during pregnancy, which lasts 16 days, as well as for rearing, a lot of food and nesting material must be available. It is important that even the weakest offspring finds enough food.

No nest control!

In contrast to the rearing of other small animals, hamsters never carried out a nest check become.

A nest control has fatal effects, because many Hamster mothers eat their offspringwhen the nest has been inspected.

The reason for this: A nest control causes in hamster mothers stress. The animals feel disturbed by humans and react to this disturbance with aggression, including towards their own offspring. The animals also react in the same way when they are unsure.

For the owner, this means that he has to have the enclosure complete for at least the first two weeks leave in silence must. It may no change in enclosure take place and nothing in this can be touched by man. Under no circumstances should the hamster children be touched in the first few days, as they could be rejected by their mother due to the human smell and also killed. The hamster children may be touched at the earliest from the 18th day.

The enclosure is also allowed during rearing not cleaned become. From the 17th day at the earliest, the hamster toilets and pee corners can be cleaned a little, preferably when the young animals leave the nest on their own. As long as the offspring is in the enclosure, it must not be completely cleaned.

The only actions that keepers are allowed to do during rearing are

Feed
Top up with fresh water
Offer more nesting material
Carefully remove fresh food

Danger: Even dead hamster children must not be removed from the nest by the keeper, as the mother will eat them. From the mother hamster’s point of view, this has two advantages: 1. The nest is not contaminated, 2. The mother animal receives additional protein.

Hamster mothers will also eat their offspring if they have given birth to too many children or if they are sick, too weak, too young or too inexperienced. Even in the event of deficiency symptoms, the mother animal eats the offspring, so that high-energy and nutrient-rich feeding is elementary for rearing.

Carefully get the hamster kids used to humans

Owners must leave the hamster children completely alone and up for the first two weeks of life don’t touch it at allsince otherwise you will lose your…