How to Breed Different Types of Dwarf Hamsters

Dwarf hamsters are tiny animals with big personalities.

Dwarf hamsters are a commonly bred small pet. Being so tiny in size, with large personalities and high levels of intelligence, it's easy to see why dwarf hamster owners would want to try their hand at breeding them. Luckily for the newbie animal breeder, dwarf hamsters are one of the easiest small animals to successfully breed, breeding back-to-back and having anywhere from one to 20 babies at a time.

Things You'll Need

• Cage
• Protective gloves

Instructions

1. Find two healthy, unrelated dwarf hamsters of the same subspecies. Candidates for breeding should be friendly, have no health problems, should be between 3 and 6 months old, and have no history of breeding mishaps.

2. Introduce the dwarf hamsters in neutral territory. Wear your protective gloves in case you need to split up fighting hamsters.

3. Make sure your hamsters are getting along, and leave them alone to get to know each other. Remember that dwarf hamsters can be kept together for socialization, and the father hamster will help raise the pups.

4. Leave the pups alone once they are born (18 to 30 days after mating). You can look at them, but don't handle the pups or the parents. Do nothing more than provide fresh food and water (that means no cleaning the cage) for the first 14 days.

5. Separate the pups from the parents when they are about 21 days old. Remember that females and males should be in different cages to avoid inbreeding.

Tips & Warnings

• Dwarf hamsters can successfully mate within 24 hours of the female giving birth. Be prepared for another litter if you do not separate the parents from each other right away.

References

• Hamsterific: Dwarf Hamster Breeding
• Hamsterific: Raising Hamster Pups