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Post by bluemoose on Oct 10, 2010 23:35:41 GMT -5
So I was on CL in the pets section because I like to look around even if I'm not in the market for anything and I saw someone selling baby hamsters. I'm not going to buy their pets and feed them to my ferrets of course (I feel that would be somewhat dishonest) but it did get me thinking about the idea of breeding feeder hamsters. Right now I have five mice (four females and a male) who recently gave birth to about 40 babies. I was just wondering if anyone has ever bred hamsters or knows anything about it. I've only seen talk of breeding mice, rats, and rabbits for feeders so I wasn't sure if breeding feeder hamsters is wrong for some reason From what I've read it seems fairly similar to breeding mice.
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Post by katt on Oct 11, 2010 1:07:08 GMT -5
It is pretty similar. The hamster that I have now was actually one of the babies that my roommate bred to feed her baby corn snake. He got fuzzy and was too cute to feed off. And too big. Now he is my little lazy boy. The problem with breeding hamsters is that they are not super proficient. They typically only have around 2-4 litters and litters can (like mice) range from 2-14...ish. So at $16 a hamster from the pet store, and then rehoming the female after she has finished producing (or feeding her off) it isn't really worth it IMO. UNLESS you can get them from CL for cheap. We had one male, one female. My roommate was doing it technically. I know that supposedly, if you keep two males, OR two females together they will fight, so I think that i why my roommate only had 1:1 - so 2 females would not fight. She doesn't really research things very well before she does them though...she works at a pet store and thinks she knows everything about animals. So I'd check into the details. haha Anyways, it can be done with a pair pretty easily, but after the 3rd batch you will probably need a new female.
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Post by bluemoose on Oct 11, 2010 1:48:28 GMT -5
Well I read that Syrian hamsters are not social and must be kept alone. But from what I've seen Dwarf hamsters are pretty social and can be kept in groups. Not sure if the male needs to be removed after breeding or not.
I can see how they might not be worth the money but I might give them a shot. I can't get feeder hamsters anywhere and I thought another protein source might be nice. Plus since they're small I was thinking I might be able to feed them live. Not sure if I can give them the same Mazuri rodent pellets I give the mice or not. I assume so since hamsters are rodents.
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Post by horse656 on Oct 11, 2010 6:42:13 GMT -5
yup, hamsters are rodents. i have hamsters for the last couple of years, never bred them though. two males WILL fight, that's a fact, have had it happen too. not sure about two females. dwarf hamsters are more social then other hamsters so probably 1:1 would work, but I'm not sure. if going to do 1:2 i would probably have the two females from the same litter and that have grown up together, but even then they might fight. I've never bred hamsters since they all seem to die on me in an obscene amount of time. the latest one i got didn't even last a month and he was cute.
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Post by bluemoose on Oct 11, 2010 13:04:08 GMT -5
Well I figure multiple males is a waste of space and resources anyway Everything I've read says the dwarfs can be kept in groups so I'm assuming that means multiple females is ok. I'll have to look into it some more to make sure. I'd ask at the pet store but most of those people know surprisingly little about the animals they sell
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Post by bluecoyote on Oct 12, 2010 13:38:33 GMT -5
NOOooooooo! ok wait.... lol i dont know about others experience but in mine females will fight.. and often. my half sisters got me into the whole hamster thing when we were kids. my first one was named Johnny.... they each bought fluffy girls and each had their own cage in their bedrooms. when i visited on weekends i would bring Johnny with me and he would bunk with one of the girls instead of sleep in the carrier the entire weekend. yeah we knew what the result would be lol and my stepmom didnt care anyway. babies resulted and sisters did the work ... unless i visited on weekends. they found homes for all but two females. a little creamie and a little brown that looked like Johnny. eventually Johnny died, as hamsters will do(we moved to an OLD and very COLD house and i think the drastic changes didnt help him out anyway :/ we moved from that place a year later, Thank God! ... so one of my sisters gave me his lookalike. SWEET! and later on my other sis gave me one of the mothers.... not so sweet... i would wake up at night to hamster fights and have no idea where to put the extra one so i could get some rest.... i opted for an old fish tank then gave that hammy to my cousin who seemed more than happy with her. i think if you've got a mother hammie and daughter you'll be ok. at least for a short time.... i do remember seeing the creamie as an adult and her mother both sleeping in the same nest. but the extra i had been given was not tolerating company. i have to say i dont really like hamsters as pets lol seems like if you dont get them young they can be nasty tempered.... i worked in a daycare and was present when the owner announced to the class that they were going on a field trip to get a class pet.... pleaded with the owner to NOT get the kids a hamster! they would be better with a rat. well you know the face she made... "RAT" .... its such a dirty word lol As expected the kids came back from the trip with the most vicious devil hamster in the world. NO ONE could touch it and i wondered how they even managed to catch the little b*st*rd in order to put him the cardboard box. When i was in charge of the class twice a week the kids would beg me to let them play with "Mr. Pickles"...... i never could catch him, and when i did corner him i was loath to touch him.. not without leather gloves anyway! if he'd been in a calm environment he probably could have been tamed. But they ended up trading him out when the owner was nipped pretty badly... and she still didnt take my advice.. they got a gerbil instead. slightly better but not nearly as affectionate as a rat :/ at least a rat will let you HOLD it and shows interest in your existence. so long story short........ my personal experience... females will fight and are flighty(even if you're going to feed them off you still have to handle them.. unless BBQ tongs are an option males seem a little easier to handle, less active, less prone to tear your fingers off.... the only time i bought an adult hamster was when i saw one at a pet shop who was severely chewed on. his tail was bleeding and had scabs on his rear end, torn ears etc... all from being picked on by cage-mates. the store owner said he was a retired breeder and selling him for a dollar.... i couldnt leave him there! and he was the SWEETEST little old man! long haired, brown and white.... i named him Merlin but ... girls... nah i havent met a female hamster i really liked yet lol not saying they arent out there! just none that have crossed my path! Johnny's daughter seemed to tolerate me lol the other female didnt even know i was alive unless i had food. but also keep in mind i havent handled hamsters since i was 16 years old (Merlin was my last hammie)
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Post by bluemoose on Oct 12, 2010 15:08:58 GMT -5
Were they dwarf hamsters? Apprently some of those get along with another female. Also, anyone know if I would have to keep the male seperate? If this turns out to seem like too much trouble I may just skip it.
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Post by 1 on Oct 12, 2010 17:22:45 GMT -5
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Post by bluecoyote on Oct 13, 2010 20:38:42 GMT -5
one of my sisters bought a preggers dwarf. but we started out with the big ones - the scrappers lol i dont really know what she did with the dwarfs though. i assume she eventually gave them all away..
i dunno how beavers work... i know they live in family groups but not sure how they about their personal affairs lol
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Post by bluemoose on Oct 13, 2010 21:18:30 GMT -5
I looked at the ones at Petsmart today and they were tiny. Like barely a mouthful Not sure if those were young ones or what but if they stay that small I definitely won't bother with them.
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Post by bluecoyote on Oct 13, 2010 21:48:03 GMT -5
yeah dwarfs are itty.. mouse sized i guess. big hammies seem like they'd be more porky compared to a mouse and yet not as big and dangerous as a rat. i'd say maybe as a rare treat? but yeah... breeding them to keep a supply? i dunno lol
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Post by bluemoose on Oct 13, 2010 21:50:52 GMT -5
Well I've never actually owned one or had any interest in doing so. For some reason I thought they were a lot bigger. The ones at the store were like half the size of my breeder mice.
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Post by bluecoyote on Oct 13, 2010 21:55:01 GMT -5
might have been babies though. the ones i had would fit in your palm... ok honestly they were as big as a zhuzhu pet lol but i was also a kid at the time! i expect my hands have grown a bit since then lol
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Post by bluecoyote on Oct 13, 2010 21:55:51 GMT -5
but yah i dont think they would be any more filling than a mouse. one bonus is if your ferrets are like.... you dont have to have the nasty surprise of finding their tails hidden in the hammocks lol
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Post by allenya on Jan 18, 2011 16:44:10 GMT -5
I know this thread hasn't been posted in in a while but I figured I'd give my input just in case it comes in handy.
I have had Corn Snakes for about 4 years now. And for that time I have been breeding all my own food for them.
Seth and Osiris are fed both live and Frozen Thawed Dwarf Hamster.
Dwarfs are easy to breed and require little care. I have had up to 37 at a time and most of those where in a single cage.
Currently my troops are in a 20gal tank with a modified tank topper on it. They have levels I make myself and a wheel as well as a water bottle.
I feed them pellets. Type of pellets isn't really a big deal. They get what ever is cheapest really. Can be rabbit, hamster, guinea pig, rat or mouse pellets. I normally get a 20 lb bag from Wal-Mart for $10 and load that bag into several old clean milk jugs for storage and freshness.
They also get peanuts, in the shell. And veggies, fresh. They got dog treats, milk bones actually. Thy love these and the milk bones help keep the teath from growing to long.
I started out with one male and one female. I soon bought two more females and eventually had a large group on my hands.
Now some of the large differences between Syrian Hamsters and Dwarfs are things you really need to think about.
1. Dwarfs can live together all the time. Syrian's can NOT, they must be apart unless your female is in heat. The problem is learning her cycle. Syrian's have been known to kill each other if the breeder gets the date wrong.
2. Dwarfs are smaller so they would make an easier prey for the ferrets, something that won't fight back and hurt them as easily. I could see a Syrian hurting a ferret much more then a Dwarfie.
3. One of my favorite things about Dwarfs is the father can be left in the cage with the young. I've never been given a reason to take the father out of the cage.
The fourth thing is something that has already been mentioned. Syrian's can be mean to people as well as each other. I've not had many encounters with them but I have noticed they pet store Syrian's tend to have had little or not human contacted. No attempt to tame them and that seems to result in the parents teaching the young to attack people as well.
Now from what I read before I bought into the Dwarf breeding what that Dwarfs had to be handled regularly in order to keep them tame. I figured I could manage that but I didn't. However mine stayed tame due to the try of breeding I do. Basically I selectively breed for temper. If I have a mother that produces babies that tend to be harder to tame I remove her from the breeding program(AKA I give her to the snakes.) In three generations we had Dwarfs that where basically born tame.
At one point when my first male, Chrono, died I kept the last two male babies he had made as they looked like him and I was sad to loose him. One died for unknown reasons not long after. The other lived alone in his cage un-handled for almost a year. He''s cage was cleaned regular and he had all he needed but I didn't want to get attached in case he died. I took him out to clean the cage one day and decided to give him some taming. He didn't need it at all. He was just as gentle and awesome as his father, plus he seemed to understand voice commands.
One problem with Dwarfs is that all the cages sold with dwarfs in mind are super small, but due to there small size they need a cage with bars closer together the a Syrian. I buy cages meant for Syrian's and modify them to keep Dwarfs in. It's the easiest and cheapest solution.
Another problem is that no one in a pet store can sex a Dwarf. I have had this problem no matter where I go. It's not hard to do if you know what to look for but no one does. But the stores don't bother to train, they just tell you they can't guarantee gender. -.-;
All in all I would personally recommend Dwarf Hamsters. I love mine. They small way less then mice as well. Plus for me again.
If you'd like I can take some pictures of my set up as well.
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