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When the female is giving birth, she may walk around the cage before she gives birth to another, so don't be alarmed (I believe she does this to stretch her body and to get the motion of her legs to help push the babies through her body). Once all born, mum will collect them all and put them in the nest one at a time to keep them warm. There may be a little blood in parts of the cage, but this is normal. She'll clean herself of any body tissues/waste shortly after the birth, along with the pups too.
The baby Roborovski's will be born with no fur, just reddish pink coloured skin, and their eyes and ears still fused shut.
Helping to rear the pups:
Rearing them is fairly time consuming for you and the new mum (this is where the dad is handy). Mum will need lots of protein foods like hard boiled egg, porridge etc. As well as foods that she enjoys like sunflower seeds and cucumber.
How ever tempted you are, do not touch the mum or the pups until they are at least 2-3 weeks of age. This can stress the mum and also cause her to reject the baby with your scent on. Hamsters recognize each other by smell, and smell only! So if she smells her pup with your scent, she won’t know it's hers. Another reason why not to disturb her is because this can cause her to...well, cannibalize her pups or just kill them.
Growing up:
At 4 days old, their body will start processing the pigmentation and after 6-8 days you should notice small hairs with faint colouring. By about 10 days the pup’s bodies will be covered in little hairs. Their eyes and ears will also start beginning to develop too.
The Roborovski pups will probably be wondering around the cage at this point, mum may pick them up and take them back to the nest, or she may also decide they are old enough to venture out; both of which are normal. At 18-16 days old, you should be okay to handle them.
At 3-4 weeks of age, you should start to think about taking them to the vet to get them sexed, or you can do it your self using my Sexing Page, though it may prove unsuccessful your first time doing it. So it’s best to leave it to the professionals.
Once they are separated into male and female, they can live with their parents, though you may need to use the "introducing" method for the lads as dad may not recognize them and there for may not want to live with them. Alternatively, you can go around to local shops to see if they want to buy your pups.
