It all started when Salt passed away. Salt was an albino dwarf hamster who died of cancer. She was part of a set we named Salt and Pepper. Hammie owner Lauretta was so sad at the lose of Salt, she wanted another hamster right away.

We went to the local pet store and purchased two sibling dwarf hamsters. We named one Baby and the other Zebra. Zebra had its own cage. We tried to let Baby and Pepper cohabitate, but vicious fighting ensued.

Feeding Time

So we had three cages, each housing one dwarf hamster. The new hamsters were about half the size of Pepper, but Baby started to gain weight quickly, especially in her rear area.

A couple of days after the noticeable weight gain, Baby produced eight jellybean-sized pink hammies. She did the birthing all alone under her wheel. She appeared quite pleased and very active after the ordeal.

On day one, Baby was very protective of her newborns. She would spend much of her time laying on top of them in a cat stretch nursing them. In the picture at left, the pupss are hidden under their momma.

On day two, she started to carry them around the cage one at a time. She would leave one or two away from the litter, then bring them back. She would run frenetically around the cage, then return to the litter.

The babies would lie on their backs legs in constant motion, squealing until Baby returned. She would appear to count the babies. And at one point even lined them all up side by side in a neat row.

As we became more confident in her ability, and she became more comfortable with our snooping, we could see the babies more clearly. We could see hearts beating through their pink skin. We could see white pelvic bones through the skin. We could see black spots where eyes would soon open.

On day three, the stronger babies were trying to roll over. Some appeared to be doing crunches. If Baby pushed one over, it could crawl. Baby moved the entire crowd out from under the wheel. She moved some into a plastic hut which she packed full of bedding. She worked frantically moving bedding, even with a young one attached/nursing. Some babies were left lieing in corners of the cage. As she dug crazily through the bedding, I wondered if she was looking for a lost pup.

	On Day Two these two were separated from the pack and placed in the center of the cage.
	Baby would carry her pups to the center of the cage. It was as though she wanted to see if they could come back.
	After a short time, she would go back to where she left them and carry them back. By the third day, we could see that the pups would hold on to her and continue nursing as Baby worked around the cage.

On day two, Lauretta called Grace and said Grace's hammie Zebra also had babies. We did not believe it. Thought Lauretta was joking with us. Read more.