First, get the timing right. Female hamsters are “in season” roughly once every 4 days. Although females are able to reproduce earlier, it is advisable to wait till the female is around 4 months of age, as this almost always ensures she produces a healthy litter. Males are ready for breeding at about 2 months old.

Next, dim the lights and put on some Barry White. It’s best to place the male and female into a special breeding cage. Plan for the encounter to last upwards of an hour. When ready, the female will stand still and raise her tail. During the encounter, the male and female will mate about 3 times. When they’re finished, place each of them back in their usual cages.

Finally, decorate the nursery. The gestational period for hamsters is 16 days, so the female will be visibly pregnant about a week after mating. During pregnancy and while the female is nursing her young, it is important to provide her with a protein-rich diet. After she gives birth, leave mom and her babies alone for 3-4 weeks. Disturbing her and her litter, may cause her to “turn” on her young. After this nursing phase, separate the males and females into 2 cages. They will be ready to find a new home by 6 weeks of age.

A wire hamster cage or a ten-gallon aquarium with a wire-mesh top are both suitable hamster habitats. The larger, more expensive cages with tubes, tunnels and hiding chambers are nice but more difficult to clean. A good rule of thumb is to get the biggest cage you can afford and fit into your home. The cage should be located out of direct air drafts and lined with absorbent bedding such as hay, aspen bark, shredded paper or pelleted bedding. Do not use pine or cedar chips for hamster bedding, as their odors can be harmful to hamsters.

Hamsters love to exercise and play, and a running wheel for each hamster in your cage is a must. Hamsters also prefer to sleep and hide inside tight spaces like small boxes and cups. You can make crawl tubes for your hamster to crawl through out of empty cardboard tubes from paper towel rolls or purchase commercial crawl tubes from a pet store. Your hamster will not care how much his exercise equipment cost.

Hamster’s nutritional needs are easily met with commercially packed hamster mixes that contain a blend of various seeds, grains, cracked corn and nutrient pellets.

You can supplement your hamster’s food mix with fresh foods like grains, sunflower seeds, nuts, alfalfa pellets, fresh fruits and vegetables like bits of lettuce, carrots and apples. Clean your hamster’s food dish regularly and don’t leave old food sitting in it for so long that it begins to spoil. Several types of foods can be harmful to your hamster. Never give your favorite rodent kidney beans, onions, raw potato, rhubarb, chocolate or sweet candy. Your hamster’s thirst is best quenched with an inverted-style hanging water bottle with a drinking tube. Clean the container regularly to keep the water supply clean and your hamster will thank you.

Your pet hamster will need something to gnaw on in his cage too, as hamsters have very sharp teeth that grow continually and need to have something to help keep them clean and strong. Many people give their hamsters pieces of hard cat or dog biscuits as chew treats, but a clean piece of wood or twig will also do the job.

Overall, raising hamsters is an inexpensive proposition. The cage is under $50, food for one hamster for a year will cost about $50 too. Supplemental toys and treats will be about $20 a year and the most expensive stuff you will have to obtain will be the litter and bedding materials at around $200 a year. Your total maintenance costs will probably be well under $350 for a full year of hamster fun. And that’s a bargain.

Hamster Basics

* Wire or plastic cage – the larger the better.
* Hamster bedding materials.
* Litter materials.
* Small boxes for nesting and sleeping enclosures.
* One exercise wheel for each hamster.
* Quality hamster food mix.
* Inverted water bottle.
* Hamster chew toys or biscuits.
* Crawl tubes – homemade or commercial.

Hamster vitamins are most often found in small bottles containing 1 or 2 ounces of liquid multi-vitamins. Recommended dosage is a few drops daily, per ounce of food or water. The cost is usually under $5 at most pet shops. Hamster treats containing supplemental vitamins can also be a good addition to your hamster’s diet. Hamster vitamin sprays are another optional delivery method. The different types of hamster vitamins are usually quite affordable, drops, as treats and sprays can all be found for well under $10 at most pet shops depending on the quantity purchased.

The specific vitamins in hamster formulas are much like the basic multi-vitamin needs for all mammals. Hamsters need vitamin E in their diet for skin and hair health. Vitamin C promotes healing, vitamin K helps the reproductive organs, and vitamin D is vital for bone strength. The B vitamins are essential for the nervous system and zinc and copper are needed too. Vitamin A is included in hamster vitamins only in very small amounts as too much vitamin A can cause liver or reproductive problems.

Another nutrient option is to provide your hamsters with a mineral stone. A stone mounted on the inside of a cage will allow hamsters to lick and gnaw on it, getting extra minerals in the process. They will also get extra calcium in their diet and keep their teeth in great shape too. Whatever your hamster eats, it is up to you to make sure it also gets the right amounts of vitamins and minerals, because a hamster with a balanced and complete nutrient intake will live longer and be much happier in the long run.

Some breeds of hamsters fight more than others. The common Syrian hamster, also known as golden or teddy bear hamsters, are notably antisocial and do not take well to multiple roommates. Syrian hamsters are very territorial and will often fight to the death if left unattended. Female Syrians can be especially aggressive towards their male counterparts and the two should not be kept together except when breeding. Baby Syrians can start fighting over territory as early as six weeks of age. It is possible to keep multiple Syrian hamsters together, but most likely one hamster will be come dominant and the others will suffer.

Dwarf hamsters are easier to raise than their Syrian cousins and they do not fight nearly as much when living in groups. However, dwarfs, like all hamster breeds, should be kept only in groups of their own kind, as mixed species will usually fight to the death. The four most popular types of dwarf hamsters kept as pets are Russian Campbell Dwarfs, Winter White Dwarfs, Roborovskii Dwarfs and Chinese Dwarfs. Dwarf hamsters are more playful and active when in a group, but even Dwarf hamsters will sometimes fight as one hamster tries to establish dominance. There will be lots of squeaking and shrieking until a dominant hamster emerges and things in the cage settle down a bit.

If you plan on keeping just one pair of hamsters together in a cage it is probably best to keep them of the same sex. Hamsters can become pregnant soon after giving birth and a same sex duo will prevent that from occurring.

Multiple Hamster Crowd Control Tips

• Make sure your cage is big enough for multiple dwellers.
• Make sure the food dish is big enough to allow several hamsters to sit in it when eating.
• Get a separate hamster wheel for each hamster in the cage.
• Create a separate bed for each hamster in the cage.
• Get separate water bottles for each hamster in the cage.
• Leave a pinch of soiled bedding with scent on it in the cage when cleaning. Totally clean bedding without scent can upset an established pecking order and renew old arguments over territory.
• Start with young hamsters of the same sex and move them into their new home together.
• Keep an extra cage on hand to separate hamsters that draw blood when fighting.

Keep a close eye on your multiple-dwelling hamsters for the first few months as it will take a while for their order of dominance to show up. If excessive fighting occurs, send them to separate cages for a while. You can keep multiple hamsters together in one cage, but it might take a bit of vigilance and patience to get it to work out.

They are the most mellow-tempered and the best species to keep as a pet, hence their popularity. The species has some varying qualities such as distinctions between long-haired and short-haired and several other like-dissimilarities; however, in temperament and required care, they are very much the same.

Hamsters are also often shown in competitions, much like those of dogs or cats. These competitions are based on grooming, physique, and breeding.

As for the actual care of hamsters, they need surprisingly little attention if one does not have the time. Unless, of course, an owner wishes to create a stronger bond with the pet, hamsters need only food, water, and a venue for exercise. It is also desirable, if an owner shows minimal attention to the hamster, to have a companion for the hamster to associate with.

However, to avoid unwanted breeding, a form of neutering is possible for a male, should the pair be a coed (male-female) pair. A form of spaying is also possible, though is more difficult and dangerous to perform.

Hamsters prefer a diet of vegetables, though; it is desirable for a health hamster to eat grains and small, soft, and unshelled nuts as well. Anything that is easily chewable in those categories are ideal for hamster’s diets. Hamsters are herbivores, much like most rodents, so it is necessary to keep any meats away, especially chicken because hamsters cannot digest the tissue of chicken easily and could result in serious internal damage to the hamster.

It is also preferable to keep hamster’s away from snakes, large lizards, and cats as these are the main predatory enemies of small rodents including the hamster.

Hamsters are wonderful pets that carry very few diseases and are easily vaccinated. They are lovable and loyal and the perfect pet for all who enjoy that genus of animal.

For the first 2-3 weeks, you don’t have to do anything. Nature will run it’s course. The mother of the hamster babies (pups), will feed them her milk for about 2 or 3 weeks. You should not touch the babies because you will leave a human scent on them. Like many animals, a mother and father hamster would rather eat their babies than leave them for a predator to attack and kill. If they smell another species scent on their babies, like your human scent, the babies are very likely to be eaten by their parents in order to protect them from you. So do not touch your hamster babies for at least the first 3 weeks. Just let nature do it’s job. The mother will take care of her babies.

You can watch the mother do some pretty neat things with her babies during the next few weeks, while you keep from touching your hamsters. The mother usually carries off the babies one by one in her mouth. She will carry them to another location in the cage and bury them in the soft bedding or hamster shavings. Then, almost like she changed her mind about where she wants them, she will dig the hamster babies out, and carry them in her mouth, one by one to another spot in the cage, and bury them there! She can do this several times each day, and is sometimes quite fun to watch.

Do not clean your hamsters’ cage or touch anything inside the cage, except for when you feed the older hamsters. The mother’s water bottle should also have plenty of fresh water, and you should feed her lots of hamster food and fresh vegetables. If you don’t want anymore hamster babies, you should remove the father from the cage, being careful not to touch the babies or the mother. Hamsters can get pregnant again almost immediately after delivering the babies.

If you need to find your hamster babies new homes, they will be ready to go in about 6 weeks. Just be sure that whoever you send them to live with has all the proper equipment to care for a hamster, and is able to take very good care of them.

Choosing a cage

Despite their small size, hamsters like to have a lot of space. Try to buy the biggest cage you have room for, 2 square feet is the minimum for a comfy hamster habitat. Wire cages are best because they are nice and ventilated. Make sure the spaces between bars are no more than a half inch unless you enjoy late night hamster hunts. You can also use an aquarium as long as you make sure to use a screen cover to insure proper ventilation.

Bedding

First, what not to do. Do not use pine or cedar chips as these give off fumes that can be toxic to hamsters. Cotton is also not recommended because hamsters can get their little feet tangled up in it. The best choice is an unscented paper material like paper towels. Just rip some up and toss it in and your pet will do the rest. Make sure to use enough to give your hamster lots of options for sleeping, burrowing and hiding.

Feeding

Pellets that are found at any pet supply store are a good place to start. These will ensure that your pet is getting the adequate nutrients they need to survive. Hamsters do enjoy a little variety though and it is fine to give them some fruits and veggies as a treat. Some hamster favorites include apples (remove the seeds!), peaches, carrots, dandelion leaves and even some unsalted, unbuttered popcorn on movie night. Try feeding your pet from your hand now and then; it’s a great way to bond with your furry buddy.

Play

Hamsters love lots of human interaction and love to play! Playing with your hamster regularly keeps them content and feeling loved. While you should have some toys in the cage to prevent boredom, your body makes for the best hamster jungle gym. Let him climb around on you, Cuddle him gently. This is the best kind of play because it builds trust and will give him lots of exercise.

Having a pet hamster can be a very rewarding experience. With proper care your pet will provide you with years of entertainment and companionship.

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