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.

New pages Created!

I had to recreate my hamster biodata here from scratch - all thanks to Friendster and its friendly staff that deleted all my blog entries and photos that contain precious memories of my hamsters and their bio data. It might take a while but I will try to upload whatever I can still remember from my memories and whatever I can dig out from my old digital photo album.

Surviving Hamsters Community (for NEW and Old Hamsters alike)

This is a very tough topic to cover itself but I will try to cover as much details as possible. Although I do encourage hamsters to be kept to pairs (other than Syrian), I do not encourage breeding of hamsters unless one understand the responsibilities of breeding and able to take care of all the hamsters.

Important : If your existing hamster/s is/are very territorial by nature, it will best that your new hamster should kept separate to prevent injuries/fights among themselves. Other than territorial hamsters, I also do not recommend different species of hamster to be placed in the same cage at all times.

On the general rules of thumb, Syrian should be kept alone. Communities hamster like Russians hamsters and Roborovski hamsters can be kept within their own communities (however, subjected to the temperament of each individual hamster). It will be best to introduce hamsters to each other when they are young as young pups can are earlier to adapt having additional companionship.

Another important point to take note is emotion well being of both existing and new hamsters. New hamster should be left ideally alone if there's sufficient cages available as this will allows them to adjust slowly to the environment. As for the existing hamster/s, it is best to reinsurance that they are still part of the family by showing them care and love (and letting them know that they are still being cared for although there are new additional to the family).

Step 1 (Before hamster-hamster interaction)
Before letting any of your hamsters interaction, it will be useful to bath (either by sand bath/powder bath/water bath of the same scent) all the hamsters to remove all hamster smells among themselves. Other than bathing all the hamsters, the cage (advisable to be a open style cage) that is going to be used for interaction should be washed and replace with new bedding as well.

Step 2 (Initial Interaction)
Place the hamster (preferring to be the younger or the timider of the hamsters) in the interaction cage for a while before introducing another hamster. Observe how both the hamsters interact. If fighting or bleeding occurs, separate them instantly with a fishnet or a rice bowl(Alternative : Wear Gloves). You may consider re-introduce your hamsters at a later time.

Possible reason of fights : Hamsters smell strangers/dangers within their territories.

Step 3 (Permanent Interaction)
When both hamsters are comfortable with each other for more than 15mins, then it is time to settle the pairs in!

Next try letting the pair living with each other for the next few days and continue to observe their behavior. If loud squeaking occurs without fighting/bleeding, don't worry. This is their way of communicating with each other when they are having fun with each other.

However, if loud squeaking occurs along with fighting and bleeding, PLEASE separately them without further delays.
(i) Same Gender  Interaction
Seriously, until date, i had not successfully introducing same gender interaction for hamsters older than 6 months. Therefore, my best advise is to get the same batch of siblings hamsters together at the same time or alternatively introduce the hamsters to each other early in their lives.

(ii) Different Gender  Interaction
Generally male-female interaction should be less problematic than same gender hamster.
However, this section brings about breeding of hamsters along with the moral issues involved. Please understand that while keeping a pair of hamster is fun, breeding isn't. There are various issues of breeding such as understanding the pregnant hamster and temperament, taking care of the mother hamster and the newborns and who will be taking care of the pups when they grow up.

Hamsters (animals) as gifts and presents????

On last Saturday, a friend whom I had not met for 3 years give me a pair of winter white hamsters as a birthday present when we met up for dinner.

Seriously, I was furious as well as annoyed by the stupidity of my friend in one way or another although I appreciate his thoughts on knowing that I love hamsters.

Hamsters are living animals that I seriously believe that we should not gave them as random gifts or presents. Have my friend consider what would had happened if I had rejected the pairs of hamsters? How will the hamsters fare? What will their fate be if I did not accept the hamsters?

My parents does not hate animals but do not approve house pets although I been keeping them in my room. As the result, I had to reduce the numbers of hamster that I had been keeping to 2 until that thoughtless friend of mine give me a pair of Winters for my birthday. He was mentioning that I used to keep 13 so 4 should not be a problem...

Have my friend really think of the consequences of that should I had rejected the 2 hamsters? What will my friend do? Return to the pet store and apologise? Keep the 2 hamsters and remind him how his recklessness had resulted in keeping 2 hamsters that he have neither experience or facilities for them for at least 2 years or more?

I seriously believe that animals are serious commitment until death brings us apart. If one really wish to give someone special an animal as a gift or present, I seriously advise the one to bring someone special down to a pet shelter (save a life, adopt one) or pet store and choose together.

Let the new /existing owner knows that he/she will be having new additional to the family and the additional commitment involved. Do not rush into a pet store and buy animals as gift or presents for the reason that they are simply adorable looking.

Every Single Animal is 

A Lifetime Commitment