Hi everyone! I'm Callie from Singapore and I'm totally new here!

I bought my hammie just 3 weeks ago and they should be around 2 months old now. At the point of time when I purchase them (they are puddings), the female seems to be fatter than the male. I named them Sushi [F] & Mochi [M]

Recently, I realise that my Sushi is getting fatter and fatter. I have no idea whether she is pregnant or she's just plainly getting fat -_-! Only yesterday I brought the both of them to the pet shop and the shopkeeper says that Sushi seems to be pregnant as she squeak a little when she tries to hold her up and check her gender.

I did check around websites, books and friends and they mention about the nest she will build with her bedding once hamsters are expecting. But Sushi did not build any nest yet and she's still pretty active. So I'm not exactly sure. Any idea how else I could check? Thanks all forummers for the help!



Sushi



Mochi



Sushi on the left & Mochi on the right. (She seems to be really fat -_-)

Love
Callie =D

Close to delivery time her nipples should be pink and swollen. I think you should asume she is pregnant. Clean her cage and give her plenty of nesting material. She will build something when she needs it. It is not always possible to look at your hamster and know that she is pregnant. If she is getting fat that is your sign. Good luck with her.

My girls stay active right up to delivery. Sometimes they are more active right before delivery.

Hi Callie, welcome to the forum.
Your hamsters are gorgeous, our dwarfs are pudding hamsters too.

From the pic I think Sushi is pregnant, at the rear ends her sides are bulging like "she has swallowed a plum" which was a sign that Catherine told us and we have found that the most reliable method of knowing when the female is pregnant.

Congrats on the expected babies.

Have you bred hamsters before? If not then I would recommend separating the parents either now or very shortly after delivery if you don't want to be over run with hamsters.

As you also may know pudding hamsters are a hybrid between Campbell's and Winter White and there is some evidence that they may have more health problems than pure breeds, so it just needs thinking about, whether you should breed any more of them. I'm not preaching here (BTW) but obviously if there are health issues, everyone wants the healthiest happiest animals they can.

Thanks John & Catherine for the informative reply!  

Sushi just woke up (night time over here already) and I took a long good look at her and realise she indeed grow around 10% fatter compared to yesterday. So I SUPPOSE she is pregnant. . .

I think I should just heed John's advice and remove papa hammie few days before Sushi is gonna give birth. And I'm a new hamster owner, so no breeding experience before. Just see how things goes and decide by then =D

Once again, thanks for the help! Will ask questions again if I'm in doubt. Hope you guys don't find me too irritating  

Quoted from Callie

Once again, thanks for the help! Will ask questions again if I'm in doubt. Hope you guys don't find me too irritating  

Hey, no problem at all, just keep asking if needed and good luck with it, enjoy the experience - baby hamsters grow up fast and it is a wonderful experience. There is loads of stuff in the threads here on baby hamsters, it is probably the biggest subject posted on here.

Welcome to the forum Callie. I also have hybrid Campbell/Winter White hamsters but never knew they were known as pudding hamsters, love it!!!  

As John said, there are lots of people here who have experienced unexpected pregnancies with their newly acquired hamsters & so there is lots of information on what to do, but feel free to ask any questions, there are some wonderfully knowledgable people here who are always more than willing to help. Above all. enjoy the experience, it is truely magical.  

Gorgeous hamsters by the way.

Welcome to the forum!
Wow, Singapore, great .
Congratulations on the pregnant hamster.
Usually when they start to get significantly larger, the babies are due in 2-3 days. Its a shame the father has to be removed, they are so cute together! When the babies grow up, you  could keep a daughter with the mother .
Good luck :0.

Welcome to the forum.

good luck with the baby hamsters hope the birth gose well

GOOD LUCK WITH THE BABYS THEY ARE SO CUTEEE!!!

If you plan to remove the male you must do it before delivery as the female gets pregnant right away. There is no point in removing him after the fact. I breed Campbell's dwarfies and my males stay with their mates for life. Since yours just came from a pet store the male might not even be the father. Clean her cage, give her plenty of nesting material and if you plan to remove him do it now.
Try not to worry too much. Dwarfies are born very undeveloped and they don't always survive even under perfect conditions. Do the best you can and try to have fun with them. Keep us posted on the delivery. It should be soon.

Callie,
She might be pregnant. Do you have the male and the female hammy in the same cage? If  she is pregnant, you should clean the cage before delivery. Once they have their babies, don't disturb them or make any loud noises. Don't touch any of your hamsters until about 1-2 weeks. If you do touch the hamsters, the mother will sometimes fret. After a while, if you carry the baby hamster, use gloves so your sent wont be on the hamsters. If they are, the mother might want to abandon the baby. To give them food or water, quietly and slowly give them food and water. I have experienced this 3 times, thats how i have 17 hamsters. If u follow my advice, you will do just fine.

Good Luck!

Thanks everybody for the information and guides! Appreciate it alot alot alot alot =D

I rushed all the way back here upon reading a new piece of information,

This is what I've read

" Before mating, both hamsters will sniff each other and the female will stand quite still with her hind legs braced and her tail and ears erect when the male places his front paws on her back. Then mating will take place. For Syrian hamsters, the male should be separated from the female after mating. This is to prevent one or both of the parents from destroying the babies. For dwarf hamsters, the male can be retained in the cage as he can help to raise the litter. If you want to continue to breed the pair, do not remove the male when the litter is born, because you probably will not be able to introduce the pair again afterwards."

IS THAT TRUE?

I've never knew about this before. And only 2 days ago I seperated them, yesterday I tried to put them back together. At first they seems to be normal, but suddenly a big fight of chasing here and there broke up.

I've seperated them once again. But does it mean that after Mama hammie give birth, I couldn't put papa with mama anymore? I'm just curious.

Once again, thanks for the help all forummers gave me.



Sushi, a week ago



Sushi, 3 days ago before I decided to seperate her. She sits on my hand so quietly looking at the same direction for very long. I thought that she was afraid so I brought her back to her cage. She make her way to the wheel and continue to stare and sit down quietly. Thats when Mochi came and keep pushing her off the wheel and I'm so furious that I seperated them.

Love & Regards
Callie

Hi again Callie, what you read is certainly true with dwarfs, if you split them for more than a day or so it will almost certainly be impossible to re-introduce them.

Quoted from John

Hi again Callie, what you read is certainly true with dwarfs, if you split them for more than a day or so it will almost certainly be impossible to re-introduce them.

Hi again John,

oh my god, I didn't know it will be like that >< Although I don't intend to breed them again, it sadden me to know that they couldn't live together again  

We felt very sad when our two dwarfs were separated but it really is for the best...you wouldn't be able to stop them breeding if they were together.  Don't feel bad about it, you are doing the right thing and Sushi and Mochi will be just fine on their own.  If Sushi is pregnant and has some baby girls, she can live with them anyway

My b-f and I have had over about 40 dwarf hamster over the past 4 years and have only once had two hammies live together till one died..(Chip and Dale). Now we have 7 dwarf in sperate cages, 1 syran, 2 rats, 2 guinea pigs and 1 gold fish...Our first set of 2 dwarf hammie that we had we got from a pet were 2 female..Why that want they told us  hahaha...Well 1 month later we had 15 babies..We keeped them all..You should seen all the cages..

Any news? I am very excited for you!

Hi everyone again. I when to a pet store & the owner is a Hamster lover herself and she take a look at Sushi and says that she isn't pregnant. Saying that she might be still too young for that.

No wonder I feel her pregnancy is abit too long for dwarf  

So I think she's just too fat (Almost double of Mochi)

Oh well Callie, put it down to experience.  Very sad if you had your heart set on babies though

Yea true. Quite sad because would like to experience a litter myself even it's not really recommended.
Would really hope to have a few baby girls to live with Sushi  

Well if you dont want babies..I would seperate them or you have babies..Our fisrt litter as I said before was 15 babies...