Meet my Hamsters!

I've never considered having a hamster for a pet. It just so happens, when Inay visited her sister, she saw a beautiful hamster cage with two hamsters inside. My aunt asked Inay if I would be interested to pet a hamster since her neighbor sells hamsters. A mom hamster just gave birth to 13 pups!

Inay told me all about the cute little hamsters and their cage with a wheel and a cute little house. I said, what the heck, let's have a pet hamster. We reserved 2 pairs of hamsters (I would give one pair to my godchild).



I bought 2 small hamster cages in the pet shop since my aunt advised me to carry the hamsters in a cage and not in old shoe boxes since they would chew on the box.

We went to my aunt's home and she accompanied us to the hamster breeder's house. In her garage were several cages for birds and rabbits, just like a mini zoo! The hamster cages were located in her terrace. Her children retrieved two female and two male hamsters from different cages and put each pair in our cage. She informed us that the short-haired hamsters are female and the long-haired ones are male. They barely fit in the cages I bought! Turns out, they're Syrian hamsters, a large specie of hamsters measuring 5-7 inches long.

On their first night at home, I put them in an old aquarium but one of the females seemed to fight with the other female so I separated her and put her in the small cage. The next day, I delivered one pair of hamsters to my godchild.

I named my hamsters Samson and Delilah. Since the male has long hair, I thought of naming him after a Biblical character known for his hair. :)

Samson and Delilah

The hamsters looked cute and we enjoyed watching them play inside the aquarium at night. I bought a wheel where they took turns using. However, I noticed that there were times when they were fighting, or maybe they were just playing? I was not sure.

After several days, I noticed that Delilah was getting fatter, she almost looked like a pear. I was worried that she might be getting obese. I researched and found out that Syrian hamsters should never be housed together. They're solitary and territorial; they will fight even till death to protect their homes. Eeek!

As I was learning more about them, I also read about hamster pregnancy. A pregnant hamster when nearing her delivery date will be building a nest, storing food, and become restless. I hoped Samson and Delilah would mate soon. I was thinking, how cute it would be to see little baby hamsters! Gestation period of Syrian hamsters is 16-18 days, the shortest in any known placental mammal. On my pet's 15th day at home, I saw them finally mate! I counted 18 days in the calendar to mark Delilah's expected delivery date. I was excited!

On Day 18, surprise, surprise. Delilah gave birth! I was shocked, to say the least. I wasn't expecting her pups until a few weeks more and I haven't prepared another cage for Samson. I was confused why she gave birth when it was only 3 days after I saw them mating. Then, it occurred to me. On their first night at home, Delilah was with Samson and the other male hamster in the aquarium. She got pregnant that night but I'm not sure to which male hamster.

I frantically removed Samson from the aquarium while he was sleeping, afraid that he might eat the pups. I researched more information about taking care of a hamster mom and her pups. Since I wasn't prepared for them, I tried my best to make Delilah comfortable by giving her tissue paper (for the nest), more food and water.

Delilah gave birth to 7 pups but only 2 survived. Hamsters are known to eat their offsprings for a lot of different reasons -- inadequate supply of nourishment, disturbance in the nest, fear of her pups getting harmed, weak pups, etc. On the pups' 21st day, I removed them from the tank and put them in the small cages.

So, now, I have four Syrian hamsters: one female and three males, each in its own cage. I named the offsprings Coco (he has a brown coat) and Rogue (he has red eyes).

Rogue (left) and Coco (right)