2001-03-25 - 11:59 p.m.

Wither Baby Hamsters?

Because I've been busy and involved with other things, I haven't been paying much attention to the hamsters. They're still here, and there still adorable. The new girl, Cinnie, actually let me pick her up the other day, will wonders never cease!

It has been, jeez, eight months since we've had a little of baby hamsters. I've been meaning to breed Linda, a dominant spot gray hamster, for a while now, but I wanted to wait until she was take so we wouldn’t have the problems we had with mean ol' Jenniham.

However, a little while ago I remembered that I bought Linda in late April of 2000. Yipes, she's over a year old and very near to be too old for breeding.

So I got busy, or rather the hamsters got busy. Early in the month I started putting her in Winky's cage every night. Why Winky? Because he's just about the only male in the hose who isn’t too old.

Winky isn’t very tame either, but he certainly became more pleasant and perky when he started getting nightly visits from Linda.

Hamsters are in heat one out of every four days. On the other three days, the female isn’t interested and will fight the male if he tries to mount her. Linda was in heat on the fourth night I put her in with Winky and the two of them had a grand old time. The next night, Winky was wandering around his cage with a hopeful look as if to say "More sex tonight, boss?" Sorry son, you're done.

The trouble is, I thought the babies were due tonight, and yet I don't hear the telltale squeaking. Linda seemed pregnant, so I'm wondering what’s up. I'm afraid to look because new hamster mothers tend to be very nervous.

I'm trying to remember, did I figure the days wrong? Hamsters have a 16 day gestation period (the shortest of any mammal!) and I think Winky and Linda did the deed on the 9th. Am I remembering wrong?

Well, if I don't hear anything in the next couple of days I'll actually stick my hand in and check. I'll let you guys know.