How to Avoid and Cure “Wet Tail”
Leave Babies with Their Mothers.
Keep your pups with their mother at least four weeks – six weeks
is better. Pups separated from
their mothers too early are very susceptible to wet tail.
Wet Tail Kills Fast.
Hamsters with wet tail usually die before you discover the problem.
Wet Tail is a type of diarrhea caused by an intestinal infection.
They literally dehydrate and die in a day or two.
If one cage gets it, the disease spreads rapidly to others through
handling their water bottles and food bowls.
Always wash your hands thoroughly.
Crowded hamsters, young hamsters, and fighting hamsters are
especially susceptible.
How to Cure Wet Tail.
Use neomycin (Brand name: Dry Tail) as directed on the medication container.
Squirt the antibiotic into the hamster’s mouth with an
eyedropper. He needs the extra
water. He’s usually too weak
to even drink. Extra
eyedroppers of water on a frequent basis really help a lot.
If you caught the Wet Tail in time, you’ll cure it.
Dispose of all used litter and clean your equipment with chlorine
bleach before adding more hamsters, or they’ll get it all over again.
LA.
What You Need to Know about Breeding
Male hamster -- prodigious testicles as big as his head
Hamsters Mature Early.
Female hamsters reach sexual maturity at 30 days of age.
Males can breed at 60 days. Males
are easily sexed at this time. You
can tell them by their large testicles.
Females at this stage usually have visible nipples.
Female hamster -- no testicles
Separate Your Breeders?
Because some females get “owly” when pregnant and when nursing,
you may want to put your male in another cage (for his own safety).
Few males can stand up to an upset female. But on the
average, you can leave your male and female together with no problem.
Breed at 90 Days.
Early litters are small. And
young females don’t make the best parents.
Try to keep yours from breeding until they reach the ripe old age
of 90 days. You’ll get
bigger and healthier litters.
How to Breed. Female
hamsters come into heat every four days.
Males in good health are usually ready to cooperate anytime.
They breed best in the evenings when they first wake up.
Play a little romantic music to set the mood.
Be prepared to take the male out.
Non-cooperative females can rip a male to shreds.
Prepare the Nuptial Scene.
Don’t just drop a male in with a female.
Start by cleaning a cage -- mostly changing the litter.
Put in the male for a day or so.
Then add the potential bride. There’s
absolutely nothing you can do to help except rescue any males that get
attacked. Use a cup to
separate fighting hamsters -- not your bare hands. If
the female accepts the male, you can usually leave them together while she
raises the pups.
Prepare the Nest.
Pregnant hamsters make a small depression in their litter.
If you keep yours in a cage with a grid bottom, pop out the
grid during the birth and rearing times.
Look for little hamster pups 18 to 21 days after you put the male
and female together. She
enjoys shredding any special nest materials you provide.
They love tearing apart the packages of fluffy bedding.
Look for Pink Babies.
No matter what color the
parents, they always give birth to very tiny eyeless and hairless pink
babies. They need their mom
for food (milk) and warmth. For
the first week she just lies on top of them.
When she goes for food or water, some hold on and get dragged all
over the cage. When they drop
off, she picks them up in her teeth and carries them back to the nest.
They wiggle and squirm. Some
even squeal. But she carries
them all over the cage.
Young hamster pup 12 to 14 days old. No eyes yet but a real wiggler
already.
Some Eat the Babies.
Occasionally a mother hamster eats her babies.
It just happens. Avoid
cleaning her cage during the nursing stage.
If she eats them twice in a row, she probably will never make a
good mother.
Mothers Share Pups.
If your mother hamster ever dies or escapes, you can adopt out the
babies to another nursing mother hamster.
The other type of hamster.
Hamsters Mature Fast.
Hamster pups start wandering their second week.
They can’t see yet, but they still wander around “looking for
adventure.” Avoid low water bowls. Hamster
pups are very susceptible to drowning at this stage.
You are the official life guard at your hamster spa. By the third week, they grow hair and look like real hamsters.
They eat solid food now and the mother tries to avoid their sharp
teeth as much as possible. They will wean out at four weeks.
Pups left with their mom until six weeks old live longer and grow
stronger. LA.
More
Info? Go to Hamsters III
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