Deciding to breed hamsters? You've you come to the right place. Breeding is not recommended for regular hamster carers, breeding hamsters is a very hard and difficult process and you really need to know what your doing. Keeping watch over both hamsters in this process is the key, you must be committed!

I'm going to describe briefly about breeding hamsters responsibly and correctly.

Before you decide to breed a hamster, you should be prepared with a plan to deal with the litter when the hamster gives birth. Hamsters are known to give birth up to 18 babies per litter, although the average is 4-8 babies.

You can give away the babies to friend's family but it always essential to check the health of the baby as some may not survive in the long run.

Another option is to sell them to a respectable and responsible pet shop. however If you decide to keep the babies you should be prepared to buy cages and supplies before the babies are born.

Hamster Babies can be kept in the same cage for about 3 - 4 weeks this is called weaning.

Syrian hamsters can be bred at 2-3 months old, while dwarf hamsters can be introduced at 4-6 weeks old. A younger female can often be introduced to an older male, but not the other way round.

As hamsters are solitary animals, the female will not readily accept the male. Both must be introduced gradually and close supervision given.

If the female is not ready to mate, she can be seen trying to turn the male onto his back by putting her nose under his belly. Then both hamsters must be separated immediately, remember you must be committed to watching a close eye over the two hamsters. 

Before mating, both hamsters will sniff each other and the female will stand quite still with her hind legs braced and her tail and ears erect when the male places his front paws on her back. Then mating will take place.

Applies to Syrian Hamster Species:

The male should be separated from the female after mating. This is to prevent one or both of the parents from destroying the babies.

One Syrian Hamster on its own is a happy creature. Two or more means frequent fighting, so keep this species alone. Russian and Chinese Hamsters prefer company so should be kept in same sex pairs or small groups. Do not mix species. 

Applies to Dwarf Hamster Species:

The male can be retained in the cage as he can help to raise the litter. If you want to continue to breed the pair, do not remove the male when the litter is born, because you probably will not be able to introduce the pair again afterwards.

 

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