Name: 宝贝 (báo bèi)
Species: Dwarf Russian Hamster (Winter White)
Age: close to 6 Months.
Her First Pregnancy - giving birth to 5 babies; who are born blind, deaf and without fur on 5th September 2009. This video just basically showcase her transporting her babies to its feeding place, the tunnel.
P.S. This is my first video editing as well.
Traces of birth-giving
Day 2 - Missing Mother Hamster
Mother hamster "took a private holiday" by escaping through one of the tunnels, that was not securely intact; leaving only the babies in the tunnel. (partly due to my overlook). It was around 12pm when I found out about its escape.
At the end of the day around 8.49pm, Mother hamster reunites with her babies, with the help of some her favorite treats.
Day 3 - Loss
Unfortunately, we lost one of the babies at 4.10am.
When I took out the baby to examine, there wasn't any sign of being endeavored : Its legs, head and hands were still intact. =)
Still unsure if its death was related to yesterday's incident. Anyway I returned the baby back to the cage; hoping that it will provide Mother hamster with the additional nutrients needed, for her as a nursing hamster.
Aftermath
When I returned home at 6.50pm, part of the dead baby was already eaten by the Mother Hamster.
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww252/TaoKaeNoi/Hamster/CIMG2639.jpg
Sayonara, little baby~
Day 4 - 4 remaining babies
Colors and shades of the babies began to show distinctively and ears start to develop.
Day 5 - Babies begin their 1st step
Babies attempted to walk on their own, but still feeling wobbly and not able to stand on the ground firmly.
Day 6 - Babies legs are more firmed.
Babies have grown in size and legs are well developed.
Day 7 - 3 Winter White, 1 Sapphire
I have finalized the colors of the 4 babies - 3 Winter White (like its mum) and 1 Sapphire (grayish with black dorsal strip - like its dad)
As earlier mentioned, the babies are born blind, deaf and without fur; therefore they are solely dependent on their mother for nutrients and warmth. It is such an amazing act of love: Snuggling the babies under her belly provide the babies with both warmth and milk.
My only regrets were: Not able to witness the birth of the babies with my own eyes. It was my wish to be able to witness the birth of the babies; however both pregnancy and the babies came too sudden, and I was simply not prepared for it.
Why? It was an unexpected pregnancy that was not pre-planned beforehand. Besides, the signs of pregnancy were not obvious until the day before she deliver.
No doubt, knowing about the babies’ arrival brings joy to one’s life; yet on the other hand facing the death of a baby brings about unfound sorrow.
6 comments:
Hi,I am your new reader! So sad that the hamster died.
oh my! that poor little hamster. i know it is in the nature of the mother hamster and all but, gosh, it still is kind of cruel.
I wonder what happened to the father hamster? Was it being separated from the babies? From what I know he might devour them if they're not separated from him because like you've mentioned, they're blind are deaf and has no fur yet, so the dad might think that it is not his offspring.
To RedIce Cioc: Hey RedIce thanks for supporting my blog. As for the baby hamster, its death was totally unexpected. Besides it died naturally so I had to let it go..
To AM: Yes I do admit it is cruel. That is the reason why I added the link instead of displaying the picture. It has been 2 weeks and the 4 remaining babies and their mother are doing really well =)
To en: Good point En. Once the mother hamster gave birth, I immediately removed the father hamster for 2 main reasons:
1) To prevent the mother hamster from getting pregnant again. She has used up most of its energy and nutrients for this pregrancy and I would not want her to be undernourished.
and
2) To prevent the father hamster from giving additional stress to mother hamster.
As for devouring the babies, (This would mainly apply in normal hamsters) However for dwarf hamsters, I read in Hamsterific.com that the father hamster would actually help to rear the babies.
this has been an eye opener to me! i have never seen the birth of hamsters, or baby hamsters for the matter! its really interesting!
PS. Perhaps you could include more aspects of the issue being related to COM101 to be more relevant to our assignment criteria. (:
hey Jessica thanks for telling me that! i was too focus on personal experiences and left out the Communication concepts. Tuned in to my latest post for more details.
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