How long does it take for the mother hamster to have her babies after she mates?

Question

my hamsters may have mated last night and i need to know how long it takes for her to have her babies after she mates

Answer 1

Our Syrians only take 16 days. In fact, my daughter's hamster just had 18 babies on Saturday Night!

Dwarfs I think can take as long as 21 days - it's not long. You'll really notice mom getting "lumpy" and you'll know it's not going to be much longer. Make sure to clean cage out when mom hamster is getting big, because you don't want to disturb her or new babies for 1-2 weeks. After then though, you should be able to gently move babies and mom out for cleaning the cage, make her a new nest in the same corner, put babies back in and then her.

Answer 2

http://www.ask-the-vet.com/breeding-hams...

I find that that website is very helpful. You can google pregnant hamsters and it should come up with a lot of answers for you. Good luck!

Answer 3

Aren't you the same one who posted another question on buying two female hamsters from the pet shop and found them exhibiting mating behaviour?

Have you shifted the male to another cage to prevent this further?

Considering that they might have mated, it is better to be prepared for the pregnancy eventuality. I guess the hamsters are dwarfs since the pet shop should not have sold two syrians together in the same cage.

The gestation period for dwarf hamsters is 18-21 days from the mating day and for syrians is 16-18 days.

It is very difficult to tell if a hamster is pregnant. The reason being her size won't increase until the last 4 days before delivery. I have even had one dwarf that never got significantly fat but went on to deliver a litter of 4!

Some clues include when she may be building a bigger nest, hoarding a lot of food in the nest, will eat and drink water more than usual and sleep a lot more if she is pregnant. In the last 4 days before delivery, she will look big in the belly and teats would be prominent.

In case of dwarf hamsters, the female hamster might have big fights with the male dwarf if he is in the same cage and and it is wise to separate them since they can mate again after the female has delivered and another litter in 18 days is not good for the female hamster’s health.



Whether she is pregnant or not, treat her as though she is pregnant for the next 25 days. Make sure you give her lots of clean food and water and supplement her protein intake by giving her bits of hard boiled egg whites, bits of unsalted cheese and little quantities of skimmed milk. Also supplement her regular food with pieces of fresh vegetables like carrots. Throw away any stale food after a day. Try to put the cage in an area where she has the least disturbance from noises and activities.

Read up on the internet on how to handle pregnant hamsters and hamster babies so that if she delivers a litter, you would be confident about how to handle the situation.

Answer 4

21 days. but can be a day or two either way any longer than 23 days and get her to the vets. other than that just give her more bedding and leave her to sort everything out. any more questions then email me.

Answer 5

http://www.hamsterific.com/BreedingSyria...

Since Syrians are solitary animals, breeding is more difficult than with dwarfs, who cohabitate. Hamsters can be sexually mature as early as 28 days old. However, the female should not be bred until she is between three and four months of age. (Males should be the same age before their first encounter with a female.) If she is too young the result is generally a small litter, poor quality pups and a difficult time for the female. An older female bred for the first time may experience extreme difficulties at birth, occasionally resulting in death for the mother. Females can only mate during oestrus (when in heat or in season), which occurs every four days. Putting a male and female together when the female is not in heat could result in a fight. Females have been known to seriously injure or even kill a male if there is no intervention. (If squabbling does begin, separate them immediately and try again the next evening.)

Because hamsters are nocturnal animals, mating should be done in the early evening. (In the wild, they normally mate after sundown.) Generally speaking, a female in heat will be more active and will "freeze" (body pressed to floor and tail up) when her back is stroked. Never put the male in the female's cage - there is likely to be a fight even if she is in heat. It is best to place the male in a separate container with a small amount of bedding in the bottom and then introduce the female. If she is in heat, she will freeze, he will mount, dismount and wash himself several times. They should be allowed at least 20 minutes - unless one of them shows signs of loosing interest. (Be aware that there are probably as many different methods of breeding Syrian hamsters as there are hamster breeders, but this has have been proven to be the safest and most successful method for most breeders.)

The Syrian has one of the shortest gestation periods (length of pregnancy) of all animals - between 15 and 17 days. Normally, she will begin to show signs of "bulging" on about the ninth or tenth day. By the time she is near delivery, she will look like she is carrying fully packed saddlebags! Her environment should be stress-free throughout her pregnancy and for at least the first ten days after the litter is born.

The newborn pups don't have any fur, their eyes are closed, and they're still cute.They can't see, or hear, but they can already smell and move themselves around by theirfront feet. If one does stray from the nest the mother will scoop him up and return him, don't worry, hamster mom's know what they're doing. Resist the temptation to pick them up. The mom won't like this and it could even cause her to abandon, or even worse, eat the babies. Just watch them and wait around two weeks before handling them.

At two weeks the puppies will have a soft fur coat and will be running around raising havoc in the cage. Around three weeks they'll begin leaving their mother for longer periods of time to explore and look for food on their own. They'll hardly ever fight, and will begin to burrow and hoard food. Yep they're hamsters all right!