Syrian Hamster babies?

Question

My sister's syrian hamster had babies. On the first day my mom peeked into the nest and counted fourteen babies. Since then she's been repeatedly poking into the nest and now today she could only count seven babies. She's been peeking into the nest a lot and I'm worried if the mother hasn't been eating them. To go from fourteen babies to seven in one day is not good and it makes me wonder why there was the sudden drop.

~~Me and my other sister have covered the cage with a blanket and plan on leaving it like that. We'll explain to my mom why we don't want people peeking into the nest.

~~Further note: We're pretty sure the mother has been nursing the pups. She's in a glass aquarium and sometimes leaves open spots on the sides which is how we've seen her nursing.

Answer 1

Though it is a sad and hard fact, when a hamster has a huge litter like 14 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.

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.

You had done a good job of covering the cage with the blanket but make sure that is does not make prevent air circulation into the cage. Also 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 would definitely nurse her healthy pups. As to how many pups survived, we would know in a week more when the babies start frolicking all across the cage. So have patience until then and let mother hamster do her duties.