My hamster ate 2 of her babies?

Question

My hamster ate 2 of the 10 she gave birth to 5 days ago...last night and she didnt eat anything but their heads...should i dispose of the dead ones or do you think she'd just freak out and eat the others?

i don't know what to do!!!

Answer 1

get rid of the dead ones and she ate them either because they died or where sick

Answer 2

I'd leave them strictly alone for now.  Maybe even cover the cage or something so she feels more secluded.  But keep checking now and then to see if the others are still alive.  Hamsters do this either because the baby died or because they are stressed out; that is why I say let her alone and hope the rest survive.  If not, well, try again later.

Answer 3

=0  I don't know what to tell you. When my hamster had babies she never ate any of their heads off. Thank goodness!

Here are some reasons why she might have done so though.

1. She was stressed out by loud noises.

2. The babies were touched by a human and therefore, had another scent on them.

3. The babies were deformed or had genetic disorders.

4. The mother was a first-time, inexperienced mother.

Answer 4

They say it does.  It wont hurt the others.  You must have kept some food ready at the time of it's delivery.  I do not know much about this.  Some said that it does so because it is the instant medicine to it.  I do not know how far it is true?

Answer 5

I'd flush them... as bad as it sounds... its what we had to do.   They mate so often its hard to keep up...

Answer 6

Well for right now try to get it out and then get the other baby hammys out so they dont die.

Answer 7

well sometimes a mother hamster will eat the ill or weak pups if there is too many in a litter. Here are some tips, do not touch any alive pups. The mother will get threatened and eat them.  I hoped this helped

Answer 8

It is normal.  If she wasn't disturbed or anything and she has plenty of food and water then she probably ate them because there was something wrong with them anyway.  I would leave them for a bit so as not to disturb her.  If you do have to remove them for hygeine reasons don't touch any of the other babies and try to do it quickly and quietly so as not to stress her.

Answer 9

1.DO NOT touch live ones they may get infected by you and the momma will eat em.

2.Seperate the parents.

3.Let her do what shes gotta do. She wants to have perfect babies.

Answer 10

the most important thing is to leave the mother alone. do not touch the babies, leave the mother in peace.  the reasons for the mother eating her babies are:  the babies being weak or sick / or the mother was very stressed from noises or someone touched her nes or babies.  that is why you should leave her alone with the babies in peace so that at least the remaining babies will survive.  it is very important not to touch the nest or babies and avoid cleaning the cage for the first 3 weeks or else the female hamster could panic and kill the hamster babies. If it is really necessary to 'clean' a cage area while the mother hamster is nursing her babies, you should only use a small piece of tissue to 'clean' the cage but avoid touching the nest area. Provide additional bread soaked in milk in a small food bowl for the mother hamster and babies as this will provided extra protein for these hamsters. The babies can be separated from the mother hamster when they are 4 weeks old as they become sexully mature.

You can always drop me a line anytime on [e-mail]

Kind Regards

Nadia Vella

http://www.hamster-club.com

Answer 11

First of all did you touch the babies before 2 weeks? Because if babies have human scent on them the mother is confused and willing to eat them. And do not dispose the bodies untill 1day to see if the mommy has eaten the rest and give the mom a little freedom out of the cage for a while and don't touch other babies because you do not want the other babies to get eaten too! If you feel like you have to take them out then take 2 clean plastic spoons and pick them up with that very carefully, and make sure you keep your distance away from the others! Also after you throw out the poor dead ones. give the mommy a treat to get her mind off the other ones! Some reasons she done this could be  Because she felt threatened. She might have needed more protein. Other reasons the mother may eat the babies is if the litter is too large for the mother to care for all the young or if the babies have already died on their own so she ate the heads. Also you might want to put the babies in another cage and if they can't have milk (if the mother has been separated from them) then give them soft foods like pieces of tofu and some porridge.  

I am sorry about your 2 losses! Hope I helped.

Answer 12

Take mom out of cage in the least stressfull manner possible and give her a snack or let her run around in her ball. If she's being cage agressive because of the babies, you can let her climb up a tube (paper towel roll works) and remove her from the cage that way.

Using a spoon, remove the dead pups while trying not to disturb anything else in the cage.

Replace mom and give a favorite treat to keep her from immeadietly noticing something is missing.

Leave mom be and cross your fingers.

*If dead babies are not disposed of by mom, you don't want to leave them in the cage where they can rot, cause illness or draw bugs. Since you said the deaths occured last night, its probably a good idea to remove them now. HOWEVER - this does depend where in the world you are at - I'm answering from the US and its almost 5 pm in my time zone. If "last night" was only an hour or two where you live, you should probably wait until lunch time to see if mom handles the issue on her own as that would cause her the least amount of upset.

Answer 13

I WOULD DIEFFENTLY TAKE THE DEAD OUT CLEAN THE AREA OF SHAVINGS REAL WELL . HAMSTERS DO THAT TIME TO TIME THERE MIGHT HAVE BEEN TWO MANY TWO TAKE CARE OF . OR THEY WERE SICK SHE MAY KILL THE OTHERS JUST TO GIVE U A HEADS UP.

Answer 14

Take them out (with rubber gloves on so you don't leave your scent) or they will start to rot and smell disgusting. Mothers may do this for multiple reasons (which are natural insticts): the baby/babies are sick, they are to small and will "never survive in nature", there are too many of them, they are deformed, they have human scent on them, the mother is stressed, etc. However mistakes CAN be made. When my mom was little her hamster had two babies, a normal one, and one that was born with no eyes, well my mom's dummy hamster accidentally (I hope/think) ate the normal one instead of the one with no eyeballs....smart huh?

Answer 15

ya carefully get the dead ones out you see if it is your hamsters first litter it may not know what to do so she may sofficate them or eat them / or may just kill some because it felt that there was to many