3 replies to this topic

[kuroii]

So I wanted to share my lunch with my hamster today (some cut mangoes) and I usually put her out in my carrier so it doesn’t drip mango juice all over her tank. I gave the part near the seed where I don’t eat cos it’s too fibrous lol. I tried my usual method of ringing my glass cup to call her but she didn’t respond, so I digged a little into her burrow to check if she’s alright. Once she was woken, I heard chirping!!!!! I don’t know if she gave birth? She didn’t even looked pregnant. I have a roborovski. She lives by herself. I did pass on to a caretaker when I went overseas in Australia a month ago.

Now I’m worried. Did she give birth? Should I check the burrows more? This is the first time it happened to me. Will she eat her babies if she had given birth because I disturbed her? Help :( I haven’t removed her wheel or sandpit but her bedding was changed 2 weeks ago. Do I do it now? How do I even confirm if I did hear babies? I can’t see anything in her thick burrow.

Edit to provide more details now that I’m less panicky:

My tank is separated into 3 parts. She has a play area on the left. This area has aspen bedding and comes with wheel, sandpit, water bottle, stone plate for cooling down, some toilet rolls to hide in, and some millet spray. Then I used a wooden bridge as a divider, and the middle area is just full of paper bedding and one half coconut hideout. So early on, when I checked in on her, I digged to the part where the coconut is (submerged with all her bedding due to burrowing), lifted the coconut, which is when I heard the chirping. Now, as I’m typing this, there are birds outside chirping, so I suddenly wonder if I’m that scatterbrained to mix the sounds up. Anyhow, she popped her head out from below but never fully came out. In my mode of panic, I put back the coconut, and went here for help. Lmao. The right side of the tank, separated from middle by wooden bridge again, is her food area where I put her food bowl, treats, cardboard holders to run around and hide in.

Aside from the wheel and sandpit, should I remove the wooden bridges too? They have quite large holes in them due to their size, and the crash course topic said to remove things the babies might get stuck in.

Now I just hope that I heard wrongly, or if I didn’t hear wrongly, I didn’t disturb her too much that will cause her to eat her babies. T.T there was no longer any chirping after my hamster went back in her burrow and covered up the small hole she made when she popped her head out.

Edited by kuroii, 26 May 2022 - 01:48 PM.

[Lillias]

Do have any reason to believe that she has been in contact with a male in the past three weeks? Does the caretaker have other hamsters?

 

Maybe she chirped, or you heard the birds chirping.

[kuroii]

The caretaker has other hamsters, and told me she took my hamster out to the playpen once and she got into a fight with another hamster so she didn’t do it anymore. I had a nagging suspicion since then :/ I collected back my hamster on 25/4 so it’s like exactly a month ago. However, my hamster didn’t gain weight a lot (she was 28-32g since I got her back and last I weighed on 21/5) or looked bigger in size so I didn’t think much of it, until today.

[Lillias]

Was the other hamster a robo? If they were fighting, then it's less likely that they were mating.

 

The gestation period for a robo is about three weeks, but I'm seeing some sources say "up to 30 days." I still haven't found a more scholarly resource to confirm the later timeline. However, it is possible she gave birth a few days ago. Pregnancy signs are less obvious in robos than larger hamsters. Don't disturb the burrows, just in case. For the next few days, try quietly observing to listen for any more chirps.