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Ah, the miracle of life. Nothing is more rewarding (and educational) then seeing it for yourself. Animals all have their different ways of giving birth and care for their newborns. If you're an owner of a pregnant pet you'll want to know the proper way to care for her and her young. You need to know when to step in and when to just let mother nature do her thing. And whether you purposely bred your hamster or you, like most others, find out your two males are actually a male and a female, or you innocently and unexpectedly bring a hamster in the family way home from the pet store, you'll want to know how to take care of her.

I found out the hard way what to do with a hamster who has given birth. As a teenager I was that kid that brought home random animals all the time, much to my mother's chagrin. One fateful weekend when she had to go out of town I took it upon myself to go to the pet store and purchase a hamster with my own money. I figured if I was paying for it by myself my mom wouldn't object. And it's possible she may not have.... if said hamster didn't give birth to 14 squirming pink, naked jelly beans the day after I bought her!

There was no internet back then to look up information so my response was that of a stunned kid - I panicked, stared and did nothing. As it turns out this was the best thing to do. Well - maybe not the panicking part. The truth is hamsters don't need you to be their midwife or wet nurse. They don't want you to hover anxiously around the cage. The certainly don't want their surrounding disturbed by constant cleaning. The best thing you can do is keep the mother properly fed and watered and then just leave her alone.

If you're aware that you have a pregnant female there are a few things you can do to make her more comfortable and prevent any tragedies from occurring after the birth - but you need to act fast! Depending on the breed your hamster will be pregnant for 14-21 days and by the time you notice that she is indeed pregnant the impending birth may be close at hand. When you first discover your female is pregnant remove any other hamsters that may share her cage. Let her retain custody of the initial cage so she doesn't panic by being moved to a new location. You can give her extra hamster vitamins or some raw veggies to munch on. The mother will want to keep her babies hidden for the first few weeks so make sure there is enough fluff in there. Better yet you can get a hamster igloo that she can give birth in and keep her babies

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