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Breeding hamsters is a big responsibility. Please think about it before diving in for the animals sake. Take into account that a growing hamstery can get very expensive. Remember that hamsters breed quickly and have large litters, to get desired colors and traits you may have to breed often, all these hamsters will need lots of love and attention. Breeding really is a joy, but it is not the easiest thing in the world as many seem to think. Get as much information on the subject as possible, go to many different sources. When To Breed: What To Breed: Introducing A Pair Caring For Your Pregnant Hamster & Her Litter: Genetics:
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Dwarf Campbell's hamsters reach sexual maturity at around 4-5 weeks, sometimes later than that. I like to wait until the hamsters are at least 3 months old to breed them. It is especially important not to breed the female too early because it will often result in the mother either giving birth to unheathy babies which will be destroyed, her abandoning the litter, or her destroying the litter out of frustration. This happens because the mother is just too young to cope mentally with the raising of the litter. Another reason for waiting a while before breeding your females is to let them reach there adult size, they will probably produce more average weight babies that way. The same goes for the male. As the female gets older she will often produce smaller litters. Or she will have an average size litter but feel she can't deal with them all in her old age and kill a few babies. This is why breeding a female after the age of about 1 1/2 years is generally not a good idea. Again use your better judgement, observe your older female before deciding to mate her again (does she look just as healthy as she's ever been? how did her last litter turn out? etc.) Of course the older the hamster is the more it's prone not to accept a new friend, so think about that too.
A responsible breeder should only breed good hamsters. By good I mean beautiful, healthy, tame dwarfs. Sometimes you may have to sacrifice beauty though. Maybe you only have one opal & his dorsal stripe isn't complete. He is still tame and healthy and oh so cute and your only opal and if you went the long way you'd end up with too many babies, so you just have to breed him! That's a situation I'm sure many breeders have been in. Well, it's is ok to breed him if neccesary. The babies will still be healthy and tame, making wonderful pets, they just aren't show quality. And that's ok. Not everyone is perfect. Plus an incomplete dorsal stripe is something you can work out through breeding(mate bad dorsal to good dorsal, those babies to good dorsal again, and so on until you have opals with good dorsal stripes). However, you must NEVER sacrifice temperment or health. It doesn't matter if you could get a whole new color mutation out of the breeding. Just say NO! It's not worth it to produce un healthy or mean hamsters.
Either place the hamsters involved in a nuetral cage(one that has been freshly cleaned, so that it doesn't give one or the other the "home turf" advantage) or place the female in the males cage. The female is usually more aggresive so making her the stranger is good. It helps if both the male and female are used to other hamsters - before the introduction they were living with other hamsters, not by themselves. It also helps if the female is in season. This way they will fight less and mate more. They get to know each other better this way. You can sprinkle treats all around the cage to help distract the hamsters. In any case there will be a little fighting. Usually it stops after a little while, but sometimes it doesn't. For these couples who need marriage counseling I was reccomended this: Find some kind of mesh divider. It must be chew proof and let the hamsters be able to sniff each other through it. Place in divider in the cage separating it in half. Make sure the necessary ammenities(water, food, etc.) are on both sides of the divider. Put the male on one side and the female on the other. Wait a while. I'm not sure how long, I've never had to try this before. Maybe about a week or so, long enough for each hamster to gets it's smell all over their side. Then switch, putting the female on the males side and the male on the females side, leave the divider in. This is to further them getting used to the other hamster's smell. Wait a while again, maybe a week or so. Then try removing the divider. Watch what happens. If they get along that's great. If they don't repeat the process. Again I've never had to use this method so I'm not sure how well it works.
From the minute you think your female is pregnant start feeding her high protien foods. Continue this all through the pregnancy and raising of the litter. The protien gives the hamster energy to help deal with her little bundles of joy. High protien foods for hamsters include scrambled eggs, sunflower seeds and peanuts. A pregnant hamster can get crabby at times, so make sure to monitor her behavior. If she starts attacking her cagemate(s) in any way seperate her into her very own cage. At any rate, a few days before the female is scheduled to deliver, separate her from any other females. The other females will most likely eat her babies. Don't take a chance, because I 've had it happen and it is heartbreaking! The male can be left in though. He will help keep the babies warm and retrieve them if they leave the nest. However, remember that the male can mate with the female right after she gives birth, resulting in litter after litter after litter... Once your female does give birth start feeding her a small piece of bread soaked in warm milk. This will help her milk supply especially if she has a large litter. You shouldn't touch the babies or clean the cage for two weeks after the birth. In about 3 days after being born the babies will have pigment, if they are still pink they are most likely colors like: dilute platinums or other lighter colored hamsters. You will be able to see the little eyes under the babies' skin. They will be black dots for black eyes and you won't be able to see the eyes at all if they are red. Pretty soon hair will start to grow. Then at around ten days the babies will be crawling around and eating solid foods. At this stage you might notice the father "stealing" babies. What I mean is that a few of the babies will be sleeping with the father in a separate nest away from their mother. When I first had this happen I got very worried that the babies would starve because they weren't with their mother getting food. Well, don't worry. I soon found that the babies will crawl back in with their mother from time to time when they are hungry. My guess is that the babies were trying to get away from the feeding frenzy for a few peaceful hours with their dad. A day or two later eyes will be opening and your little babies will start to look like real hamsters. At this time it is OK for you to gently stoke the babies while they are still in the cage. I don't really recomend holding the babies because they are really unsteady and extremly easy to drop if you aren't extremly careful (I've had some close ones!). At around 13 or 14 days holding them out of the cage gets a lot easier, but you still need to be careful as they are pretty wobbly. At about 3 weeks you should separate the babies from the mom, she is probably tired of them by now and they really aren't dependent on her anymore. Keep the babies together for warmth and company. At four weeks the males and females should be separated from each other, unless you want more and more babies. After that your babies aren't babies anymore, but little minitures of their parents, who grow up too quickly!
Genetics, at least to me, are very complicated. I'm just now starting to understand it all. That is why I'm really not going to go into the subject. I will however recommend this page : Heavenly Hamsters. Just go to the dwarf genetics page. It is really the easiest way to go about finding the answer to "If I breed this to that what will I get?" quickly.
Caring For Your Dwarf Hamster
The Hamster Hall Of Pictures
The Hamster Memorial Page
