After recently attempting to breed my male hamster with my friends beloved hamster of 8 months old, the mother did not survive the pregnancy. Six babies were scattered around the cage with the seventh one not fully out of the womb.
Five alive I then went on to hand rear all the little ones. After following instructions from a hamster manual none survived.
Is there any more advice on hand rearing hamsters or why she died during birth, there should be more information available. This has now put me off breeding animals, particularly hamsters as what if it just happens again....
COnsidering hamsters have such a short life expectancy anyway, 8 months is quite old to be breeding. We bred hansters twice- think both times the mothers were younger than that and we had 13 first time round and 12 the second time. It could always have just been bad luck and the mother didnt know what to do- It happens and when it does theres nothing you can do about it.
Personally I probably wouldnt even have tried hand rearing them since its far to easy to drown something that small when you try and feed them.
If you really want to breed animals- either try again with a younger female or try with something sturdier- such as guinea pigs. My mums bred small animals for as long as I can remember and yes- sometimes you do loose one or some of the babies but thats just how things go sometimes.
