Introducing hamsters?

[GillyXBean]

I was starting to take over Ratbaby's thread, then realized that it wasn't just 1 simple question, so I should start my own post.

I have 14 hamsters currently (see signiture). This past weekend on Saturday, I seperated Riff & Raff, because Riff's a girl, and Raff's a boy. Well, now they're each in thier own cages, but they are both a lot less playful, more sluggish, sleeping more, playing less, and just generally depressed. These are winter white dwarves.

What I would like to know is whether they should be introduced into cages with other ham's. I have 2 other dwarf cages- 1 has 1 male in it, who has been alone in it for about 3 weeks, and 1 has the mom plus 9 almost 2 week old babies in it.

I don't like keeping them alone now, because they've changed so much! Last night, I held them both in seperate hands, and they were nuzzling each other. But, I have more than enough babies, and certainly don't need more.

So, I guess my thoughts are- would mom take Riff back? Would Riff cause problems with the 2 week old babies?

Would the two males get along? The male -might- be the father, be we're fairly certian she was pregnant when we got her, so it might have been a different ham. Would that make a difference?

[Caitandcritters]

What I would do in this case would be to wait until the one litter is weaned, and place a female baby in with Riff, and a male in with Raff. That's about the simplest way, and also a pretty straight shot for a decent and easy pairing.

With older hamsters (esp. wws) it may be harder/take longer to intro. Its much easier to introduce 4 week olds than anything older than 8 weeks.

I'm not quite sure on the second question... Are you asking if males can get along? The answer to that is yes, but in general they are harder to pair, although its been proven that they can be intro'd, Campbells at the very least.

I assume all hamsters involved are winter whites, yes?

[GillyXBean]

I know that Riff, Raff, and Spaz (mom) are all Winter White's, but I think they are all a mix of that and something else. Those three all look like WW's, but Domino is black with white paws and underbelly, so I'm not sure he is. He is from the same litter as Spaz, though, which makes me not as certain. Spaz, Riff, & Raff all have the side stripes seperating thier tan color from their white underbelly's, though.

I hadn't thought about introducing the baby ham's to the older babies, but will definatly try that. We're planning to keep at least 4 of them. We ended up with 4 that look like Domino in the black coloring, and 5 that look like mom. I'm so partial to the black ones, so cute!

[dwankrista]

i'm not sure if i've read correctly, but are you asking if mom will accept dad again?

yes, she will, but only to culminate in yet another litter which would be very stressful on her. i agree that it is best to intro the boys to dad and keep the girls with mom. :)

[Caitandcritters]

Whoa there. Then they're either not winter whites or hybrids, in which case they should not be bred from. I assume these are accidental... WW do not come in black coloration, although Campbell's do.

Do you have pictures of them? I can have a friend look at them; she can tell the difference for us.

Winter whites and Campbell's look a lot alike. The normal color of a ww will be much darker than on a Campbell's, and lacking that orange tinge, so they may very well be Campbell's. Or, as you said, hybrids of ww and Campbell's. If that's the case, you'll have to be sure the babies you rehome are not going to breeders and that the new owners understand that they are not to be breed from. Ever, accident or not.

[LMDH]

Domino is black with white paws and underbelly, so I'm not sure he is. He is from the same litter as Spaz, though, which makes me not as certain. Spaz, Riff, & Raff all have the side stripes seperating thier tan color from their white underbelly's, though.

All sound like Campbells to me. WWs do not come in 'tan' and do not have white underbellies either (well it is a light grey with a blue tinge).

If campbells then great much easier!! Largely, males get along just fine and Dad should accept Raff. I wouldnt introduce Riffs back to mam until the babies are approaching 4 weeks. Or you can do waht Cait said at 4 weeks pop a girl with Riff and a boy with Raff (and a boy with Dad and a girl with mum!!)#

If they are WWs, then this is harder. At the age Dad is he probably wont accept another male. I would wait for the litter to hit 4weeks and add one to Riff and Raff.

If you have pics I can help with identification of your hamsters.

[Caitandcritters]

Yay Sarah! *claps* Thanks for coming in with the WW knowledge. :D

[GillyXBean]

I keep prodding my hubby to bring home a digi cam from work, but he keeps forgetting.

From the pics that I've looked at, which are much harder to tell than actually -seeing- the difference, they appeared to be WW's, because both sites said that the major difference is the addition of 2 darker stripes along each side, but again, I'm definatly no expert, and pictures online... not so easy to discern proper color, because of camera quality, lighting, etc.

I will prod him in the morning when he gets to work, and -prays- hope to have pics tomorrow. I really want pics while the babies are young, too.

[Caitandcritters]

You know, I was thinking about this yesterday. I've never seen a WW here, or in Iowa or Kansas. I talked to a friend, and she lives in MI too. She's never seen them. I think the only place you can get them (in the US) would be Cali, they seem to have everything. It doesn't seem to likely that they'd be WW, really.

If you'd like, you can email me ( no_1_jlofan_14@hotmail.com ) and I can show you these sites with pics of both (good pics). I don't want to spam even though I don't own the sites. ;)