Baby Dwarf Hamsters

Breeding is something almost every dwarf hamster owner begins to think about after owning their pet for a while. If you want to succeed, you should learn all you can about the process, and about the gestational habits of your dwarf hamster.

After a pregnancy that will last between eighteen and twenty days, female dwarf hamsters will birth a litter of one to ten, with the average litter being five or six. For the first ten days or so, the pups should be left alone with their mother. Don’t touch them, or even clean the enclosure during this time.

Creative Commons from Flickr user: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cryztalvisions/

The pups will begin to color in 4 days, and fur will come at about 7 days.  They should open their eyes in roughly 10 days and start to move around. Now you may start to handle them tenderly for a short time, but watch the mother carefully as she may not like her babies being handled too soon or too often. Take extra care to insure the babies aren’t injured, and that they don’t fall from any height. Do handle them, however, as this helps them to become tame and trains them to enjoy being handled.

In 2 weeks or so the pups will begin to take solid nourishment. Wheat germ, small seeds, oats, and oatmeal in regular amounts are all acceptable. At about 3 weeks you can introduce lab blocks, but do not expect the babies to thrive on these until they are adults. Baby dwarf hamsters will do best and grow fastest if they are regularly provided small grains, and these can be augmented with tiny slices of fruit or cucumber.

At around 10 days, they will also start to reach their water source- preferably a bottle. At this time, the mother will begin to wean them. Sometime around the 4 week mark, they will be completely weaned and ready to make the move to their very own enclosure. If you have kept your male hamster together with the mother, she most likely will already be pregnant again… they are really just baby producing machines! If that is the case, her babies should be removed at around eighteen to twenty days when another litter is present. Move the males to one enclosure and the females to another, thus preventing any unwanted pregnancies.

You can basically take care of baby dwarf hamsters the same way you would any other hamster. Of course, you will need a few basic dwarf hamster supplies. Once a week cleaning of their enclosure, but watch the cage and if it becomes dirty sooner, clean it more frequently, especially if there is more than one hamster in it. Make sure to provide fresh food and water daily, even if your hamsters hoard their food. Check your dwarf baby hamsters frequently to make sure they are healthy, growing, and thriving. When they reach about 4 weeks, you can give them away or sell them.

The above pictures have been submtted by members and gathered from various sources around the internet, many of which were submitted by their original photographers. If any of the aforementioned photographs are copyrighted and you are the owner of these pictures, do not hesitate to contact me! They will be swiftly removed if you so desire. All images are hosted server-side by dwarf-hamster.com.