All of them were born purple, but quickly pinked up after being given the lick-wash by mummy or daddy. Only no. 3, whom we nicknamed Squirmy (because he is sooo tiny compared to his siblings and didnt have enough energy to do anything except lie there and occasionally squirm like a worm), was born almost black, not moving and we thought he (arbitrarily assigned sex) was dead. he lay there, a dark heap of deadness, and gerby even gave up on licking him and chucked him aside..
TEN minutes
Here are some photos of the first TWO pups which popped out =) The second was born within 10 minutes of the first.
In the first, Herby and Gerby share their parenting duties and clean the pups. The second picture shows the first 2 pups wiggling about in the soft paper bedding.
FORTY minutes
After about another 30 minutes, another 2 pups were born. Right now, we have a total count of FOUR pups. The 3rd one, as mentioned earlier, was still lying there, not moving, even as Gerby went into labour for the 5th one.
SIXTY minutes
Gerby is still in labour. The time between delivering is increasing greatly. Pup number 5 comes out a healthy purple. Yes, that means that the pup has yet to take its first breath. But at least purple is a better colour than black, which the 3rd pup was. Gerby licked the pup till it started to turn a healthy pink. Herby meanwhile relegated himself to a corner and fell asleep. Through the past 50 minutes, he had attempted to mate with Gerby several times, but clever Gerby turned him down.
Here we see Gerby feeding the pups milk, in the midst of labour.
TWO hours
Finally, all 6 pups are out! I bet that Gerby would have 8 because she still looked big. But I lost the bet to hammiemummy =P
Gerby gave birth to 6 pups with tails! More awesome than hamster babies! Haha. Below you can see the 6 healthy pups (photo is a little blur) wiggling about and below...Herby and Gerby taking care of the bouncy babies!
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