To have 6 baby hamsters in the litter die normal?

Question

the mom hamster had babies, 6 died out of 8. is that normal? please let me know!

Answer 1

No!!!

She probably killed them. If you touched them or if she was frightened by lots of noise she probably killed them. Place her somewhere where their is no noise and very few or no people to disturb her if you want the last 2 to live. Also dont touch or disturb anything or anyone in the cage for at least 2 weeks, just take care of keeping her fed and wattered. Another possibility is that she may have been too young to breed and thus had unhealthy babys or doesnt feed them. Deseases like wet tail are also fatal to young pups.

Good Luck

Answer 2

It is not abnormal for 6 out of 8 babies to die. When hamsters have more than 4 babies in a litter, the majority tend to be weak which could be the reason they die. This is a funny quirk of nature and science is yet to find out why it happens. The major argument is that the mother hamster is unable to take care of huge litters and concentrates on taking care of only her healthier ones thereby maximising the chance of survival of the healthier ones at the expense of the weaker ones. So don't worry about it, let the mother hamster take care of the two healthy ones and you make sure that you provide lots of food and water along with protein supplements for the mother like hard boiled egg and cheese so that she is healthy enough to take care of her remaining young ones.

Answer 3

No, it's not normal.  None of them should have died.  There was something not right in their environment.  I'd suggest reading up a LOT more about breeding hamsters before you do it again, because a 75% death rate is HIGHLY abnormal unless there is something wrong in the environment.

Answer 4

i think so!maybe the mom sat on them or they just had a disease