Successful hamster breeding requires that you have lots of spare time and have large amounts of patience. You need to follow some basis steps for successfully breeding hamsters. Below you’ll find our guide to enjoy this wonderful part of hamster keeping.

Preparation required for breeding hamsters:

You will first need to buy the mother and father hamster. Breeding hamsters from different families is fine, but you must ensure that it is from the same breed type. Breeding sibling hamsters is not suggestible. This can cause birth defects for some hamster breeds.

Female hamster are known to be territorial. So, for the mating ritual, never put the male hamster into the cage of the female as there is a possibility she might kill him. Initially it is better to put the cages of the male and female hamster side by side. This will allow them to get familiar with each other without the fear of any battle cropping up. Another good option is to put both the male and female hamster in a new cage. Follow this step by step procedure to ensure safe mating. First, they should be kept together for only 5 minutes. After few days the duration of time can be increased to 10 minutes.

As soon as the mating process is over the male and female hamster should be separated. There are cases recorded where the male hamsters have been known to eat the babies once the mother gives birth. To avoid this, keep the male hamster separated from the female hamster at all times, unless mating the pair.

After the gestation period of 15 to 18 days the babies will be born. In fact you will notice some swelling on the stomach of the female hamster on the 10th day. Make sure you clean the cage on the 14th day because you will not be able to do so after the birth of the babies. The mother hamster will keep moving round the cage while giving birth to the babies. Sometimes during the birthing process she’ll move the babies to her next, other times she’ll wait to pick up the babies until she is finished giving birth. Either way is fine.

After the birth of the babies, do not go near them or even try to touch them, however tempting it might be. If by chance your scent gets passes on to the babies, the mother hamster might stop caring for them, or in the worst case scenario will eat them. You can occasionally change the water supply the regular food supply to maintain cleanliness. At the end of three weeks, you can detach the babies from the mother and put them in a new cage.

Physical bird barriers are used to keep pest birds from landing and roosting on flat surfaces such as ledges, window sills, parapet walls, channel letters and other surfaces you do not want birds. This type of bird barrier keeps pest birds away by creating a physical deterrent; they can not land on or enter the area protected. Physical bird barriers include bird spikes, electric shock systems, bird netting and bird spring wires.

Bird spikes are the most common bird barriers in use today. When a ledge is covered with bird spikes, it makes it impossible for pest birds such as pigeons and seagulls to land, so they will move on to a more hospitable area. Bird spikes are easy to install, economical and require little to no maintenance.

Electric shock systems are extremely low profile bird barriers that will work with all pest birds. These systems give the birds a slight shock or ?jolt? that quickly changes their habits and desire to land in the area protected.

Bird netting is used to completely exclude birds from areas such as under loading docks and eaves, airplane hangars, warehouses and other enclosed areas. Once installed bird netting is a practically invisible bird barrier. It has a long life with little to not maintenance required.

Visual Bird Barriers are those that cause some sort of visual distraction to the birds. The birds will become confused or agitated and move on to a more suitable area. Ideal places to use visual bird barriers are in trees, on boats, in vineyards, and other outdoor areas you want to keep pest birds from. Visual barriers include, flash tape, scary balloons, bird diverters and even such items as hanging cds. Visual deterrents are effective if they are moved around so that the birds do not get used to them.

Sonic or Sound Bird Barriers are devices that create a sound that scares the birds away. These units will usually play some sort of predator call and target bird distress calls. Sound deterrents are best used out of doors in wide-open places. Being heard for over an acre of land; they are very loud. They make the ideal deterrent for use on orchards, vineyards, landfills and electrical substations; open areas where it is impossible to use physical bird barriers.

The time and money spent to install some type of bird barrier is well worth the investment. In the long run it will save you all of the time and money spent each year on clean-up and repairs to the damage left behind by pest birds. Some bird barriers are easy to install while others may require a professional.