pregnant mommy?

[cute_hammies]

Hi, I have dwarf hamsters and I think one of them might be pregnant. She looks kind of big around the back side. She is fine with the guy but fights often with the other female. I read from many places that it's ok to keep the father in if they are dwarf hamsters because he will help to raise the babies. Is it ok to keep the other female in also? Because I read it will be hard to reintroduce them at a later time.

[Yinx]

Hello cute_hammies,

Is the fighting serious? If it is (ie. u can hear a lot of squeaking, & blood is drawn etc), then perhaps u should separate them.

Once u separate the female, it will be rather difficult to reintroduce her into the cage.

[cute_hammies]

Hello Yinx,

The fighting doesn't seem to be that serious. There is absolutely no blood spilled, but the pregnant mommy does squeak a lot in these confrontations. I watched them several times and the other female hamster doesn't seem to be doing anything other than walking in close proximity to the pregnant hamster. Then the pregnant hamster gets all defensive and ready for a fight. This only happens with the other female, not with the male. Any reason why this is?

[cute_hammies]

Hmm... now I'm not even sure if the female hamster was pregnant. I saw them mate a while back and 21 days is around now. For the last several days, she has been really big in the rear area, like her abdomen, and she was bulging out on the sides. I have read that it's hard to tell if a dwarf hamster is pregnant, and that they get really big only about 2 days before birth. When I looked today, the female hamster trimmed down a LOT, to the same size as the other hamsters. Yet I looked all around the cage and didn't see any sign of babies! (I didn't touch anything in the cage.)

Can anyone explain?

[Yinx]

Hi cute_hammies,

From what u've described, the fighting doesn't seem serious *yet*. I say this because I've had hamsters wrestle with each other (& come to no harm) initially, only to attack each other viciously weeks later. I'm not saying this will happen to ur hamsters, but let's not discount the possibility.

As for ur question abt ur pregnant hamster, I've gathered the info below from The Complete Hamster site (www.hamsters.co.uk) :

Occasionally a female may not give birth despite having passed the gestation period. This can occur for two reasons. The female may not actually be pregnant but be going through a "phantom" pregnancy or she may be unable to give birth for some reason. Often with phantom pregnancies the female will swell around the abdomen a little earlier than normal, at around 6-8 days after mating. If the female shows no sign of attempting to give birth and is suspected of having a phantom pregnancy there is nothing to do but let the swollen abdomen return to normal which it will do within a couple of weeks.

Very rarely a female may show signs of birthing (straining to give birth, and some spotting of blood) but be unable to give birth for some reason. It is possible for a vet to induce birth but the majority of vets would not be willing to attempt this. If the female is unable to give birth she will normally re-absorb the babies in the womb back into the bloodstream with no ill effects. Sometimes a female may begin to re-absorb babies before the gestation period has passed and a decline in her swollen abdomen may be noticed a couple of days before the day she is due to give birth.

If a female has a phantom pregnancy or re-absorbs a litter she may go on to successfully breed at a later date.

Hope this answers ur queries!