Is my dwarf pregnant?

Question

I bought 2 winter white dwarf hamsters. I was told they were both females. They've been getting along. Well today I saw one of them mounting the other one and it was trying to mate with the other one. Well as soon as I saw this, I immediately took her out and I found out that it was a male. Could my female dwarf hamster be pregnant? The two were in with each for a week. Now the male is removed into a different cage.

Answer 1

same thing happened to me (well, my hamsters.) Yes, she probably is pregnant. My hamster mother ate her babies. I didn't expect that.

Answer 2

There is a hig probability that she could be pregnant since they were living together for a few days and females go into heat once every 4 days.

However, It is very difficult to confirm definitely 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 winter white dwarf that never got significantly fat but went on to deliver a litter of 4!

Some clues of pregnany 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.

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

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.