Do you know how to differentiate a Male and Female Hamsters...

Do you know that you can differentiate Male and Female hamster by checking their rear?

Mature adult male hamsters are very easy to differentiate by observing a large buttocks at the rear.

However, young hamsters are usually differentiate by inverting them around and check their private areas in between their hind legs.

Generally, baby/infant female pups have a shorter distance between the 2 holes spotted at their rear while baby/infant male pups have a longer distance between the 2 holes spotted at their rear.

This is usually done through experienced eyes as non-experienced people will have problem differentiate.

Passing away of Kaka

May he live happily with the rest of my disneyfamily in rainbow bridge.

For he who no longer knows pain after passing on to the bridge today 19/3/2012 1am.

My grief for him shall always be part of my strength to move forward stronger than ever.

Squeakers Box added!

Folks. new additional Squeakers box is added! Have fun!

Meet HamHam!

Hamster Pamper decide to adopt HamHam to accompany Hammie!  (^^,)//

Please find her above Hammie's cage!!!

Hamster Pedia

Hamster Pedia - information donated by the public for the public
Good new hamster information area spotted!

Saw this website accidently while browsing for some other information on Japanese stuff. All articles are written by the public for the public.

Super good website indeed!

I also add this into my More Squeaking links ^^,)

Hamsters & Birth

Cheese, I wish I didn't promised this article in my blog earlier as I truly do not encourage breeding of hamsters at all. Since it is my promise, I will share my information as a nurse/grandparent/mid-wife for my hamsters.

Recalling my first breeding experience
My first breeding experience incurred as a surprise to me one day in mid 2002 when my Polar give birth to 4 pups. I was feeding Ah Boy and Polar when I realised that there's some movement in the back of their hut. Taking out the hut, I saw 4 moving red "beans" in the cotton wool and screamed in delight. Being a teens back then, I have no idea how to take care of both the mother and the pups and went on touching the pups with my bare hands. Polar went nuts and refuse to feed the pups and I was scolded by my parents for touching the pups. Furious by the neglecting Polar and scared that that pups might die, I went online and search for tons of hamster pup care information....... such was rare back then as there's no such thing as well-known forum such Yahoo Answers nor detailed Wikipedia on hamsters.

Watching pup birth for the 1st time in my life during my early adult life
To give birth, the Mother hamster need a lot of strength and support to give birth the natural way without painkiller Seriously, seeing my one of mother hamsters in labour pain and the joy of live pups born in front of me, I truly understand what does it means being a grandparent of my hamster pups.....

Sorry for the side tracking of my past memories.

And here's a few tips of how to notice a pregnant hamster:

• Pregnant hamster tends to eat a lot and sleep a lot. 
• Pregnant hamster also tend to exercise slower than usual.
• Pregnant hamster (especially first-timer mother) tends to be in super grouchy mood if you want to carry it especially via tummy hold method. They tend to bite the holder most likely if you carry them this way. (Recommend : scoop/platform method)
• Pregnant hamster will have their tummy getting bigger especially towards their pregnancy is due soon.

As such, depending on the species of the hamsters that you have - I strongly recommend you to split your Father syrian/chinese hamster but Father drawf winter/robo/pudding hamsters are well-known to be remain within the cage and help Mother hamster with her pregnancy/pup raising.

Some hamsters are known to have delay their pregnancy but usual pregnancy period is around 21 days. Most pregnancy occurs during early hours of the morning or evening because that's the period where most hamsters are active.

Things to note during milking period of the pups:

• Try moving the cage to a darker/quieter location of the house so that both Mother/pups will not be stress out.
• Avoid touching both Mother hamster and pups for the touch 2 weeks. 
• Pups will open their eyes around their 10th day.
• Give nutritional food to Mother hamster to ensure she have enough milk to feed her pups especially if her litter is big. 
• Food to consider : Hard boil eggs, milk, cheese, butter, sunflower seeds. 
• Only clean the toilet section of the cage and leave the rest of the cage untouched whereas possible
• Most pups will only wean (milk-free) from 14-21 days. 
• I strongly recommend only separate from Mother hamster after the pups have fully gone to solid food in order to have healthy pups. I realised that most pups sold at pet stores/ online are not properly wean and hence hand feeding is still required when needed. Improper weaning will result in unhealthy hamster.
• Only touch pups who have wean properly. However should one require to take the pups out due to some emergencies, use a spoon or something similar to gently scoop out the pups.
• The moment if there's any fighting between Father hamster and almost weaned pups, separation of Father hamster is required so that the pups will be safe as Father hamster have the tendency to kill young male pups and rape young female pups to ensure that he is the King of the community.

For pups abandoning by Mother hamster: please refer to this article : Abandoned hamsters pups helpline

Remarks : I will try to touch on a sensitive topic on breeding before my trip to Japan by end of the Mar.

Mother Hamster Abandoning Hamsters Pups! Helpline!

Chances of mother hamsters abandoning pups are normal due to a few facts such as:

• Mother hamster is too weak by nature so she cannot raise her pups by herself.
• Mother hamster is in distress / uncomfortable with the surrounding as in too much noise/movement around the cage.
• Someone/some other animals have rub their scents onto the pups. Hence mother hamster cannot recognise the pups as her own.
• Pups are deemed too weak to raise. Hence it is better for the mother hamster to give up on the pups and nurse herself health back.

Hence I recommend the following steps hoping to salvage the situation.

• Feed the Mother hamster with tons of calcium and nutritional food like cheese, butter, milk and sunflower seeds (PLEASE NOTE in MODERATION.)
• Try moving the cage to a quieter location and partial cover the cage with a cloth to avoid sun rays/lightings.
• When feeding Mother hamster, avoid touching the pups for the 1st 2weeks as they are not wean (milk-free) from their Mother as such. If one really requires to touch the pups, use a plastic spoon and scoop the pups out gently.

If all situation fails, then one can consider the following options:

• Find a adoptive Mother hamsters for the abandon pups. Chances for this to work is low unless the adopting Mother is very gentle temper in nature and can take care of pups other than her own. (Not recommend for Syrian Hamsters as Syrian Hamsters are super territorial by nature)
• Be a nurse yourself. Usually for me, I can safely say that pups that are 2 weeks old have good chances to survive on their own as they are almost going to be wean free from their Mother hamster.
• As such, do the following things : check if their eyes are open.
• If yes, try feeding them solid food and see the response of the pups. If they can chew the solid food, they are safe. Lower the water bottle to their neck level so that they can drink the water bottle.
• If not, prepare a dropper (those used for eye drops and can be purchased from pharmacy easily). Take small dosage of milk ie few drops - (room temperature milk or lukewarm milk) and gently drop 1 drop by 1 drop by the pup's mouth. It won't be easy and requires tons of patience as the pups might be scared of foreign objects near them.

Hope that you may never read this article as reference as this means that your Mother hamster had just abandon her pups.