Mama hamster eating all of her babies?

Question

My sisters hamster had over 10 babies but now there are only 5!!!! she ate them!!! how do i get her to stop? and can i take them out and raise them myself?

Answer 1

well, i would not touch them. if she eats them all then make her have more babies but dont bother her this time. by the time they are running around they should be fine on there own if u put them in a different cage

Answer 2

Though it is a sad and hard fact, when a hamster has a huge litter like 10 pups in your hamster's case, there is a large possibility for her killing some of the pups. Normally when a large litter is born, some pups tend to be weak and nature has designed the mother hamster in such a way that she kills the weaker pups so that she can concentrate her energy on the making the stronger ones survive successfully.

Also this normally happens if it is the hamster's first litter since she is inexperienced and gets stressed out easily. Studies have shown that the 2nd and 3rd litters normally have a better survival rate.

Another sad thing is that we are not in a position to control this so just make sure that you do not disturb the cage for the next two weeks and let the mother hamster do her work. If you disturb her or stress her in any way, she might kill her pups again due to the stress.

Move the cage slowly (without disturbing mommy hamster) to a more peaceful area so that she would not be disturbed by any sudden or harsh sounds or disturbances.

Ensure that the mother hamster gets lots of food and drinking water. Increase the protein in her diet by giving her bits of hard boiled eggs and unsalted cheese. You can also add vitamin drops to her water in the hamster bottle. These vitamin drops are available at all pet shops. The idea is to make sure that her food gives her the necesscary nutrition and energy so that she can feed the pups and make them healthy too.

The mother hamster will exercise her right on which pups to keep and which pups to kill. You cannot remove the pups until they are 3-4 weeks old since until then they need mother's milk and will die if separated from mother since raising them at this stage is a very difficult task, They would need round the clock feeding of a special formula, help with pooping, keeping them warm etc and even then the weakers ones have died.

And don't be angry with mummy hamster, it is not her fault if nature has designed her that way.

Answer 3

Gloria is right, your supposed to move the babies away from the mother.

Answer 4

DO NOT REMOVE THEM

Have a read here but it sounds like shes either felt threatened and eaten them or has picked out the weakest......http://exoticpets.about.com/od/hamsters/...

Dont remove the babies, hopefully she'll leave the remaining 5 alone but they need mum at the moment and youre going to have to take the risk. Sheild the cage off a bit to make her feel secure and try putting enough food for a few days to minimise disturbing her.

A VETS ADVICE http://www.ask-the-vet.com/breeding-hams...

Answer 5

ohmygod, you're supposed to move the hamsters away from it's mom. everyone knows rabbits & hamsters eat their babies right after they're born! why aren't u allowed to touch them? just be gentle.

Answer 6

Hamsters are such nervous, nervous mothers, it doens't take much to stress them out and eat the babies.  It may not happen so frequently in the wild, but in captivity, it's instinctive to get rid of the babies as they might draw predators to the nest and endanger the mother.  The thing is that hamsters have the ability to produce huge numbers of offspring, meaning that they can get rid of babies that might possibly draw predators, then turn right around and have more.  It's sad, I know.  Sometimes, too, captivity really messes with an animal's basic instincts and behavior.  And, too, if mother is not getting sufficient well-rounded nutrition, this might create cannibalistic tendencies.  Look up hamster diet, and be sure that she is getting a well-balanced diet for a pregnant or nursing mother.  Also, if this litter is a complete loss, don't let her reproduce for a month or so; this way she can return to full health before another pregnancy.  

When she does have babies again, keep her in a quiet place, with very little other disturbances.  A glass aquarium is a great "cage" for all small rodents, as the shavings stay in the container, not all over the floor, and the solid walls keep them safer from outside pets.  Once you see she's pregnant, do one last cage cleaning and just accept that the cage won't get cleaned again until the babies are 2 weeks old or so.  At 3 weeks, they're generally weaned and eating solid food, and can be taken away from their mother, 4 weeks at the latest.  

Lastly, I've raised newborn baby hamsters (they were actually about 2 days old) by bottle.  It's tedious and difficult, but these two hamsters were the sweetest, friendliest hamsters we ever had.  The mother--belonging to a neighbor's child--ate the rest of the litter, and the girl didn't know what to do.  I worked for a vet at the time, who said it would be difficult but not impossible.  We fed them with Esbilac (for puppies) or KMR (for kittens); right now I can't remember which one we used.  And basically they licked milk droplets off an eye-dropper and later a tiny pet nurser.  It took alot of trial and error with making the hole in the nipple just the right size for droplets to come out but not fast enough to drown the poor little things.  They took to it more easily than I had expected but we had to to lots of tiny feedings (one drop was basically a meal, really).  They were wrapped gently in tissues at first when they were so tiny, then later we wrapped them in soft baby washcloths for feeding; it gave us a gentle grip, kept the baby from wriggling out and falling, and kept them warm.  Their tiny bottoms also have to be wiped gently with a cotton ball regularly to stimulate release of body waste (pee and p**p).  The mother usually licks them to do this, until their intestines function on their own.  Hand raising means you will have to do it for them for the first week or two.  When they were still tiny and hairless, we kept a heating pad under the aquarium, set to low, to keep them warm, since it was summer and we weren't running the heat in the house.\

Good luck to you!.  It can be fun, but also sad and frustrating, too.  Call the vet for advice, too.

Answer 7

Do not take the babies away from their mother. You should leave your sister's hamster and her babies in a quiet place away from loud noises. Give the mother hamster plenty to eat but do not touch her or her babies.

Answer 8

she ate them!?!? wow what a sick b*******! put that hamster in a box and toss it into the middle of a highway...that will show her!

Answer 9

did u touch any of them?, cause if u did that's probably why, just don't bother her and they should be just fine.

my hamster had 8 babies and all of them survived cause i read online that u are not suppose to touch them because the mom can become nervous and that's when shell eat them.

Answer 10

No! dont touch them just watch her. Some rodents eat thier young. I had a guinea pig who had three babies and killed them all. It could be that she is scared. Is she a first time mother?

Answer 11

OKay u need to sell some of the babys. My big sis did have the same probally. Expect mam gerbil kept poping them out. She had to giv away the babys and maybe keep one or 2 of them.

Answer 12

NO! leave them! don't take them out if they are under 2 and a half weeks, they can't  survive on thier own anyway. do you have hamster milk in the fridge? probably not, because there is non. if its her first littler ya gotta expect things like this to happen -sorry for sounding harsh, anyway (asuming it is her first littler) if you breed her agian i garentee more will live. she might not have known what to do or they where probably sick sorry, :( all you can really do is hope she doesn't eat more. and db is mean

Answer 13

You dont need to touch them to couse the mother to eat them. if the mother eats them, shes usually doing it to protect them. you have to leave them alone. don't even look at them. the mother needs to be left alone. if she thinks her babies are in any risk what so ever, she will protect them with any means possible (even eat them). So LEAVE THEM ALONE AND LET HER GET ON WITH WEENING THEM.

Answer 14

If the mother hamster senes fear the mother will eat her own young.

Answer 15

did u take the father out?