3 week old dwarf hamsters and and a new litter showed up today. Help!?

Question

Our 2 "male" hamsters (pet store woops) had a litter of 9 babies 19 days ago. We separated momma and pappa immediately, however apparently the deed was done and a new litter showed up today (looks like 7 or so new babies). Two questions: (1) The 19 day old hamsters appeared to stop nursing around day 14 and seem to be nibbling on food and drinking water since then. Can we separate them from mommy now? (2) Reason we wanted to separate them (we did already, but has only been a few hours) is that they appeared to be nibbling on the newer babies. Can the older babies harm the newer ones? Thanks!

Answer 1

Breeding hamsters can be a very difficult job. They don't breed well in captivity. Most hamsters are able to start reproducing at about 45 days old. The problem with that is that they don't get along too well with other hamsters. Make sure if your hamster does have babies that you've got proper bedding in the case for them. They need to burrow and they will take their babies and hide them underneath all of their bedding. If you've got the wrong bedding in there, the babies can come up with an upper respiratory infection very easily causing them all to die. They don't pick and choose who their babies are. hen you open up the cage, you won't even see them in there. Usually they will find that too often in the wild. Once these babies are old enough to sell, the average price range is from $9 to $15 in your pet's stores. Most babies have to be at least 4 weeks before they are old enough to go out on the floor.

Answer 2

i've had around thirty baby hamsters and although they are cute and it's fun to watch them grow up it can also be a bit overwhelming!  i would say about six weeks is the time you need to separate the babies by s*x.  i had a litter at one point with babies already in it and my other mature female had babies of her own.  i'm not saying it happens a lot but in this case both mothers took care of both litters and the older babies did help to take care of the new babies.  i don't know if this was typical though!

Answer 3

i don't know if the older babies can harm the younger ones but i know that hamsters, even young ones are territorial (they protect their territory) so I would check to make sure there is no fighting between the babies then safely escort the older ones away