Bonding

Campbells hamsters are a little more picky when it comes to mating than Syrian hamsters. Campbells’ have a propensity to mate for life. This is mostly due to the fact that as they get older it becomes more difficult for them to bond with outside hamsters.

Though there are exceptions, pairing up hamsters over a month old is hit and miss. The draw back being that a miss may injure a hamster.

So for starting a new colony or introducing a new pair, I always start young, if I can help it, a month old. You’ll have a much better success ratio if you adopt this approach.

If for some reason you should have to introduce older animals together, you’ll need to get a clean cage and clean toys with clean bedding.. Let the male mark the territory a bit, 10 or 15 minutes tops; then introduce the female. This way the two are more or less on neutral ground. This simulates the male finding a female in his outer territory. He’ll be interested and she won’t have any nest to defend yet. Watch carefully for the next day or two. There will be a power struggle but they shouldn’t hurt each other. The minute you see any serious biting, separate them. Sometimes you’ll miss the fighting completely and one or other will get a grievous wound. This unfortunately is the chance you take putting older hamsters together. If the hamsters never settle down and sleep together, this is a sign that the haven’t bonded and may not ever bond.

Be warned, even if an old pairing works out and the animals get along, they may not have any ltters together.   That choice is still totally up to them.

Mating

There are few mating rituals in Campbells hamster courtships.. One of those is that the male runs around the female closely in circles.  He may sniff at her and groom her quickly as he goes.   After determining that the scent is right and that she isn’t hostile, he grabs her from behind with both arms and massages her neck with his nose..  I’m not sure what this does except maybe it persuades her to hold still for a few seconds more to allow him to finish. 

The whole procedure repeats several times until the female runs away or chases the male away.. but it may go on like this for 30 minutes.

Females tend to be in heat every four days.  Some of my hamsters are regular like clockwork, others go five days or more sometimes.

Grooming

Grooming each other is an ongoing part of a dwarf hamsters relationships.   From the time they are very little, dwarf hamsters learn the order of dominance by who grooms who.  A hamster who grooms another hamster shows that he or she is dominant in that relationship.   Many times a wrestling match will finish off with the victor of the match doing nothing more than grooming the loser.. At times losers object to this and struggle to get away from the attentions of the dominant hamster..  Now grooming does more than just prove dominance to the loser; the act of grooming itself actually applies one of those 6 chemical scents I mentioned in the “about campbells” section that a hamster uses to mark his territory.  

A pup in a colony gets groomed by every adult in the colony.. By this means they all recognize the pup as theirs.  This can be trying to a runt of a litter who continues to be groomed and actually looses hair from over grooming.  As the pup grows he’ll be better able to avoid those attentions.. so the hair will grow back.

This subject I want to hit from two angles, what to do if you have to nurse an abandoned or orphaned litter and what to expect from your nursing females. I’ll start with the normal situation:

Females give birth in two very different ways depending on the female. The best and the easiest, at least to watch, is the type that builds a nice nest and bares the litter in the nest. The other way is to have the pups where ever she is at the time.. and maybe in more than one place spread out.   Experience has taught me that both types work if you let them alone.  What will happen with the second type is she will collect the babies one at a time and take them to her nest.   Do not get excited and intervene here!  Trying to help out is only going to make her uncomfortable and may lead to loss of the litter.  Restrain yourself and resign yourself to only touch the food bowl and the water bottles in the cage if at all possible.

Remember that Campbell’s are in heat immediately following delivery.   Some people get upset by this because it causes mating behavior in her mate.  It is the reason most often given by breeders for removing the male from the cage.  I find that unless you are wanting to stop the pair from ever having more offspring, it’s best to allow him to stay in the cage.

Hamsters in the wild would mate immediately following birth the same way these hamsters do in captivity.  I have watched a female kick the male out of the nest and then minutes later go seek him out for some heavy mating.  It’s normal and shouldn’t hurt the pups.

I’ve heard people get all excited and claim that the male hamster was trying to eat the babies.  I find the truth to be quite the opposite.  If the litter should be destroyed, it’s usually the mother who does it.   The father will lick and clean the babies and hold each pup as he does this;  And of course, if the pup needs to be moved he’ll move it with his mouth.   This is normal; it’s the same thing the mother does. I’ve also heard others credit leaving the father in the cage after pups are born for reduced litter size.  With Campbell’s at least I have found the opposite to be true. In fact, I just had a colony support a litter of 14; all survive to this day. Your job is clean water and fresh food   Leave the babies to them.

There is however a time where you may have to intercede.. this is in the event that the mother dies or abandons her young.  Nursing a litter of pups is down right hard to do for a human.   It requires attention around the clock and most of the time just isn’t possible.  If the pups are anywhere from a few days old to 8 days old they may not make it unless you have a surrogate hamster mother readily available.   Knowing exactly how warm to keep the babies at all times, how to touch them, and feed them, at that age you’d need you be a hamster mother with hamster mother instincts.  If the hamsters are 8 days or older you may be able to pull it off.   At this age there little bodies can better regulate their own body temperature; also, they’ve become more adept at eating small seeds and grains.

This is what I feed my orphaned hamsters when I’m faced with this prospect:

Evaporated milk 50/50 mixed with warm water. I warm the water to 90 degree Fahrenheit first.

Farina wheat cereal (Creamy Wheat) which I sprinkle near the pups.

Broccoli.  Do not over feed

Cauliflower  Do not over feed

The pups have the ability to eat solid food at this point but this can not be their whole diet.  It takes awhile for them to build up the caecal bacteria in their stomachs that help them break down the hard food.  Milk is still their primary nourishment.   You may alternatively use goats milk or lactol or any other cat or dog milk substitute formula.

Pups should be feed 3 drops every half hour until their eyes open; from that point .5 ml to 1 ml every hour should do until they are about 3 weeks old.  

Vital statistics for an adult dwarf hamster are as follows:

body temp  95 degree, pulse rate 340-450 beats per minute, respiration 250 breaths per minute, life span 2 years, size 53-102 mm in length,