Hamster babies how long

Although most hamster pups start to open up their peepers at roughly 14 days, some of them do develop at faster paces than others. Some pups may open up their eyes at as young as between 8 and 12 days old, indicates the California Hamster Association.

Once hamster pups' eyes open and they gain their vision, you may observe a marked change in their activity levels. A lot of hamster pups start swiftly racing around their cage settings in curious and investigative attempts to learn about their brand new surroundings.

Typical hamster litters usually consist of between six and eight youngsters, notes The Merck Manual for Pet Health. Although the pups are unable to see at birth, they are born fully equipped with front teeth. This will be in the form of milk in the early stages of their development before progressing to solid foods around their third week of development.

Simply feed the baby mother slightly more than normal and she will give her pups food. Add some lettuce to their diet for a lovely treat! Check out our article for help with that. The best time to separate the baby hamster from their mother is just after weaning has finished.

This stage really does depend on the hamster though. The median time for this is around weeks. They need to fly from the nest after all!

This can easily lead to a dead hamster if you do make them share. Ensure that you separate them into cages depending on their gender! By still growing, we mean until around the 3rd week of development. Cleaning the cage can scare the mother by removing her natural scent from the cage, this can cause abandonment. Clean out the cage before the mother gives birth, you can use our gestation period section as a guide for when that happens! The average gestation period is around days, depending on the breed of hamster.

Hamsters are born hairless and defenseless but grow quickly into beautiful and self-sufficient animals that should be housed on their own! Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Table of Contents. You can spot clean really wet spots if absolutely necessary but avoid disturbing the nest, mother, and babies. As soon as you notice your hamster is pregnant, make sure you are offering a high-quality hamster diet with lots of protein. This diet should be continued throughout the pregnancy and until the babies are weaned. In addition to a good quality diet, you can offer small amounts of hard-boiled egg, bits of cooked chicken, cheese, and wheat germ to give the mom a nutritional boost.

Make sure it always has clean water as well. If your pregnant hamster lives with another hamster, you may want to separate them. This will keep the babies safer and avoid any fighting between adults. It will also avoid another pregnancy in the future if you discover you have a male and a female hamster living together.

It will be hard to resist, but try not to handle the babies at all for at least 7 days. You want to avoid getting your scent on the babies and unnecessarily moving them. If for some reason you must move a baby hamster, use a spoon so you do not get your scent on the baby.

It is rare that you will need to move a baby though, even if they are out of the nest. The mother hamster will usually retrieve any stray pups and return them to the nest. Make feeding and watering time as efficient and calm as possible. As the day of the birth approaches your hamster will make sure that they have a snug and secure nest ready. Sometimes they will even build a separate nest just for the birth.

All you need to do is just provide the right food and nesting materials. Eventually the moment will come when the baby hamsters are ready to make their entrance into the world. Although Syrian male hamsters are never kept with the female during the hamster gestation period and are only put with the female during the mating period, dwarf male hamsters do still sometimes remain with the female.