| Hamster babies
Thanks to the Ed for putting my pic of the babies in the urn on the front page...
This prompted a question from Lizzie who asked whether I meant to breed 37 babies..
The answer to that is, I didnt breed them... They were part of a rescue on the 22nd Jan after a telephone call from a lady who was overwhelmed with baby hamsters. She had originally bought 2 'males' from a pet shop that turned out to be a pair. Within a very short time she discovered new babies in the cage. The hamsters are dwarf which means they give birth and mate again straight away so while the owner was still reeling from the shock of finding babies, the female was already pregnant again.
When the 2nd litter arrived, she didnt know what to do & sought advice from the pet shop and the vet, neither of which were very helpful, and several more litters arrived before she was given my number by her local rescue centre (who dont accommodate small furries).
I collected them on the 22nd Jan - 37 in all, including the original female with a 10 day old litter & undoubtedly pregnant again, 2 mixed groups of older babies & 3 single males (one of which was in fact female!).
When I got home, they were sexed and put into separate cages. It was likely that at least 4 of the females were pregnant as they had been kept in a mixed sex group for too long.
To accommodate them all took 12 cages.
Luckily, other hamster club members have very kindly offered homes to some of the older babies so, to date, I am left with 24 including a new (and last) litter born on the 28th Jan.
They are absolutely adorable and so cute (see pics) with lovely temperaments.
Unfortunately, this happens all too often when pet shop staff arent trained to sex animals properly.
Some display a notice saying they cannot guarantee the sex of the animals but, in my view, if you cant sex them, DONT sell them. Comments 06 Feb 2008 22:33 Hey, how can you sex animals if you have long hair...!!! LOL
The larger stores now have a training programme in place in association with the pet care trust but the independent pet stores dont seem to bother. They will HAVE to though once the Animal Welfare Act secondary legislation on pet selling comes into force. It cant come soon enough as far as I'm concerned!! 06 Feb 2008 03:26 Good on you for taking in those rescues, my goodness! What a lot of Hamsters you now have, I thought I was bordering on madness with 16!
I totally agree with your 'if you can't sex them don't sell' them point, pet store employees need much more education. I applied for a job in my local pet store a few years ago, they were extremely impressed with my knowledge but rejected me because my hair was too long..... how bizarre is that! 05 Feb 2008 20:13 Hey, no prob Lizzie :)) 05 Feb 2008 10:33 SORRY! my fault! |
