How many baby European hamsters are in a litter?
A European hamster (Cricetus cricetus) usually gives birth to around 7 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 14 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 19 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 4 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 7.8 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Cricetus). An adult European hamster grows up to a size of 36.3 cm (1′ 3″).
To have a reference: Humans obviously usually have a litter size of one ;). Their babies are in the womb of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks) and reach an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). They weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual, and reach an average age of 75 years.
The European hamster (Cricetus cricetus), also known as the Eurasian hamster, black-bellied hamster or common hamster, is the only species of the genus Cricetus. It is native to a large range in Eurasia, extending from Belgium to the Altai mountains and Yenisey River in Russia. Where abundant the animal is widely considered a farmland pest, and it has also been trapped for its fur. Across its global range, it is considered of least concern, but in many individual Western European countries it is considered critically endangered. Cricetus is also a monotypic genus.
Other animals of the family Muridae
European hamster is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Oligoryzomys longicaudatus with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Bushy-tailed woodrat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Siberian zokor with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Bunker’s woodrat weighting only 375 grams
- Earless water rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Molina’s grass mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Kemp’s thicket rat weighting only 75 grams
- New Guinea waterside rat weighting only 526 grams
- Dent’s vlei rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Lataste’s gerbil with 4 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with European hamster
Those animals also give birth to 7 babies at once:
- Richardson’s ground squirrel
- Lesser bandicoot rat
- Lutrine opossum
- Red-cheeked ground squirrel
- Long-tailed ground squirrel
- Mediterranean water shrew
- Stripe-faced dunnart
- Steppe polecat
- Sakhalin vole
- Drylands vesper mouse
Animals that get as old as a European hamster
Other animals that usually reach the age of 4 years:
- Japanese shrew mole with 3.5 years
- Arctic lemming with 3.75 years
- Bush rat with 3.42 years
- Fat-tailed gerbil with 4.33 years
- Brown four-eyed opossum with 4 years
- Field vole with 3.25 years
- Yellow-faced pocket gopher with 4.67 years
- Berdmore’s ground squirrel with 4.25 years
- Gray four-eyed opossum with 3.5 years
- Sand-colored soft-furred rat with 4 years
Animals with the same weight as a European hamster
What other animals weight around 429 grams (0.95 lbs)?
- White-lipped tamarin weighting 509 grams
- Long-tailed chinchilla weighting 480 grams
- Little red flying fox weighting 379 grams
- Guadalcanal monkey-faced bat weighting 489 grams
- Mariana fruit bat weighting 458 grams
- Seychelles fruit bat weighting 491 grams
- Greater mole-rat weighting 470 grams
- Allen’s squirrel weighting 465 grams
- Columbian ground squirrel weighting 471 grams
- Brown-mantled tamarin weighting 393 grams