labor and maternity ward...again

After the great hamster disaster in July, Bev and Christian got Ash and Chris.  We hoped they would get along, but not too well, if you know what I mean.

Well, a few weeks ago, we noticed them "getting along" several times.  At first I wanted to separate them, then we decided to just let nature take it's course.  These last few weeks Ash has been visibly great with hamster children.

This is after their water had run out.  When we filled it up, they drank together.  I have to say that it is pretty cute to see them snuggled up together, sleeping.

Well, we did a little reading and found out that we needed to separate Chris from the whole labor and delivery, as he might eat the babies.  We also discovered that Ash might eat her babies.  Yikes.  So, Mike and I got another cage and set up the man cave for Chris.

Monday, as we were getting ready for school, Mike noticed that she was having the babies.  We were careful not to disturb them.  We saw Ash with two and it looked like she was cleaning them up/biting them.  They were either stillborn, or bitten to death.  I about opened up the cage and rescued them.  Then I read on my phone that in order for a human to care for hamster pups, they have to be fed by dropper every hour, round the clock.  We just decided to watch and wait.  After a few minutes, Ash moved and we saw eight living babies.

Google told me that sometimes when she has too many babies, the mama hamster will get rid of a few, knowing that she can't take care of them all.  She left the nest to get water and I snapped this picture.  Every few hours, we take her water bottle up to the nest to give her a drink.  We gave her more bedding, and we have given her lots of food.

I don't know how it will end, but it has been an adventure so far.  I told Mike last night that Google also says that after a few weeks we have to separate the pups.  He announced that he was drawing the line at two hamster cages in the house.