Do Hamsters Have Periods?

During your maiden year as a hamster owner, your top priority is keeping your guinea pig happy and healthy.

Once you’re aware of your girl’s behavioral patterns, you can predict when she will be ready for her next trick.

Generally, your girl will be up for anything new around Christmas or her birthday.So, do hamsters have periods?

Hamsters don’t menstruate, but they have other reproductive organs. Hamsters have uteruses, fallopian tubes, and ovaries.

Hamsters also have something called a pseudopenis. The pseudopenis is a jokey term that refers to what looks like male genitalia in female hamsters.

The hamster pseudopenis is actually a small patch of skin that fills in when the animal is pregnant. Hamsters use this patch to give birth.

Hamsters also have estrous cycles just like humans do. A hamster’s estrous cycle lasts for 22-24 hours, and during it, the hamster is attracted to males and will attempt to mate with them.

When a female hamster is ovulating, she’ll leave her nest and look for a male hamster to mate with. However, female hamsters don’t menstruate, so they don’t bleed when they give birth.

Do Hamsters Have Periods?

Hamsters don’t have periods like humans do.

However, they do have menstruation-like bleeding that usually happens once a month. This bleeding usually lasts for 3-4 days at a time.

This bleeding is usually caused by the uterus becoming swollen and inflamed from stress or irregular hormone levels. However, hamsters do not have periods like humans do.

Human periods last for 5-6 days at a time and are caused by ovulation and shedding of the uterine lining. Humans also have irregular menstrual cycles.

Hamsters, on the other hand, have regular cycles.

What Is the Estrus Cycle?

When female hamsters achieve sexual maturity, they will enter their puberty phase and become sexually mature at nine weeks of age.

Unlike the human menstrual cycle, which happens once per month, a hamster’s period only lasts for a few days each month.

You may anticipate your hammy’s first period by looking for signs such as swollen abdomens and increased nesting activity.

Examine your hamster’s secretions to see if you can spot blood stains in her cage bedding or urine spots on the sides of the cage.

They will exude discharge from their eyes and their paws during this time as well.

When it happens, the hammy will go out of her way to hide it from you by hiding in a burrow or in a plastic water bottle that’s full of bedding.

It will start throughout the afternoon and continue through the following evening.

When your hamster’s estrus cycle begins, her hormones will be out of whack, and her behavior will change.

When it’s happening, you’ll see your girl extremely excited and overexcited. She will start to spin around in a nice little hamster frenzy looking for her opposite number, and she’ll be overly affectionate.

Hamsters are deadly adorable when they’re in this mood, so be sure to treat her well and keep her in a nice warm spot so that she can recover from her mating session in peace.

How Can I Tell If My Hamster Is in Heat?

Smell

They could throughout their cycle, but during the estrus cycle, the scent will be much stronger. If your hamster smells especially pungent, it could be that she’s been in heat for 2-3 days.

Female hamsters in heat have a musky odor, so if she’s smelling different than usual, it may be because she’s trying to get you to notice her by becoming more alluring and attractive to you.

Behavior

It’s possible she’s entering heat because of stress or because of changes in her diet, but the most likely cause of her behavior changes is because of the hormone imbalance that’s taking place inside her body.

Female hamsters often get more irritated and snappy when going through this phase, so if you see that she seems unusually agitated or aggressive toward you or other pets in the household, chances are good that she is being driven by hormones rather than anything else.

Discharge

Your hammy will most likely create a thick, white discharge that isn’t urine. This discharge will be sticky and cloudy and is usually surrounded by a yellowish color.

The discharge will quickly dry up and leave an unpleasant stain in your hamster’s cage.

This discharge is a sign of your hamster’s estrus cycle, so if you see that she starts to create this discharge, be prepared for the fun times ahead.

Hamsters are nocturnal creatures, which means they generally are most active at night and sleep during the day.

You could also notice that her normal routine is changing at this time as she becomes more and more aroused and ready for action.

Do Female Hamsters Bleed During Estrus?

There’s no reason to worry if a female hamster bleeds during mating, but this is a possibility.

Although it is uncommon, a little bleeding during sex isn’t all that unusual of a side effect.

The focus here is on behavior and scent changes rather than on whether she bleeds during mating.

If she does bleed, you’ll notice a reddish-brown stain on her body or on the bedding.

It’s best to treat this like a momentary injury and not dwell on it: simply clean it up quickly and then offer your hammy some love.

Keep in mind that bleeding during mating is a very uncommon occurrence, so any bleeding that occurs is unlikely to be indicative of any serious health problems for your female pet.

If there are more signs of illness along with the bleeding, however, it might be a good idea to take her to the vet for a checkup just to be safe.

If you see any blood in her mouth, this is also a sign of an illness and you should consult your vet as soon as possible.

How Can You Tell If Your Hamster Is Pregnant?

If you obtained a female who has spent time in a pet store recently, it’s unlikely that she’s pregnant right now.

There is a technique to determine pregnancy in hamsters that involves using progesterone levels in the blood to determine whether or not she is carrying a baby in her womb.

You should search for this information online to learn what it is and how to perform this test on your hamster.

The copulatory plug is partially formed of male sperm and partially formed from the female’s body tissue.

If you additionally observe a white discharge from your hamster after sex, she is likely pregnant at this point.

The hamster’s belly will get larger as she grows bigger, as well, and this is another sign that she is expecting a baby in her womb.

From then, her gestation period might be anywhere from 23 to 32 days, which is a pretty short amount of time.

The length of gestation depends on the breed of the hamster in question as well as her genetics.

Also Read: Why Do Hamsters Lick You?

Conclusion

As we’ve seen, the hamster’s reproductive cycle is fascinating to behold and to watch as it unfolds before your eyes.

We’ve also discovered that female hamsters do not follow the strict pattern that is common for many other rodents when it comes to reproduction.

And it is possible that a female may bleed a bit when she mates with a male; this is unlikely but does happen on occasions.

And this outlandishness has absolutely nothing to do with hamsters’ genders; all female hamsters will mate with males regardless of their biological sex.