Our elusive baby hamsters

Our hamster babies are now almost one week old. Since the night that we first found the little heap of pink bodies quite visibly on display, you would hardly know that we still had them. We have only been lucky enough to catch an occasional glimpse, as captured on the video, and if it wasn't for the barely audible sqeaking sounds that we hear from time to time, we would not be certain that they are still there at all. The other clue is that we are seeing much less of the parents than before. They seem to want to bury the baby hamsters in the nesting box and guard them all day (and even night!) long, and who can blame them? I must say I am very impressed with such dedicated hamster parenting in these very young animals, who themselves are only about 11 weeks old.

The parents are also, as expected, displaying some uncharacteristic signs of aggression, which they have never done previously. When Diane was changing the water today, one of them (still unnamed, awaiting a vote result due in about a week) sunk their teeth into her finger, which luckily was gloved and hung on for a good few seconds before letting go.

Well, it is only about a week now until we can hopefully have a proper look and its hard to believe that by this time the little pink creatures should have a coat of hair and eyes wide open. They do seem very vulnerable and defenceless compared with many other animals young. We are still not sure how many baby hamsters we have but think it should be about 6 to 8 from what we saw the first night that they were born. This is about the average for a hamster litter and we hope that deep in the nest they have all survived.

John
www.animalloversweb.com

First look at our hamster babies

On the third day now after realising that our hamsters had babies, and having a scare thinking that the parent hamsters had eaten them, we now have concrete proof that they are still alive! Just have a look at the video, as mum or dad hamster demonstrates a little hamster baby manoeuvering skills for camera. The video is a bit blurred, as we can’t get too close at the moment and they like the room quite dark, but it is better than nothing, I’m sure you’ll agree. Aren’t they cute? Not the prettiest things in the world, they look a little like an alien or an unborn embryo still, but I’m sure they’ll improve with age ;-)

We just need now to contain our excitement to get a better look at, and play with, the hamster babies and try to restrain ourselves from interfering with them for about two week. Then we should have between six to eight cute new baby hamsters to show you in pictures and video on the web site and blog. So we may be having a few more hamster naming votes! It can seem a rather daunting prospect at first about what to do if your hamsters have babies? But we can't wait until they open their eyes and we can gently start to handle them.

We do realise that we will have to do a bit of sorting out, separating and finding new homes for most of the hamsters , if we don’t want to be overrun by hamsters by the new year. Much as we like Russian dwarf hamsters we can only handle so many!

John
www.AnimalLoversWeb.com