Why does my mother hamster leave two out of seven babies at different places?

Question

She just ignores them and only appear to take care of the other baby hamsters...

Answer 1

maybe she just takes care of them in groups, so the two may have special needs. then th e mother will have to deal with them seperately. don't worry, they know what they are doing.

Answer 2

There might be something wrong with those two, because hammy moms will abandon or eat sick/diseased babies. If not, it still happens sometimes that she just doesn't recognize them because they're out of the nest. Take a spoon and rub it in the nest and bedding, and then scoop the two up and put them back in the nest. If she won't accept them back, you might have to try raising them yourself. If they're under 2 weeks, they most likely won't make it, but if they are 2 weeks old, they have a better chance. You'd have to buy cat or dog formula (NO cow's milk, the babies are lactose intolerant!) and a bottle with a very small nipple. But wait and see if she goes out to collect them first, because they might just have wandered off and she hasn't noticed yet.

Answer 3

mybe it's because they are more weak than other ones. if she seems to be not taking care of'em at all, remove those babies and u have to hand care for them. also, don't forget to remove all the baby hamsters when all of their furs grew or became and adult. they can fight and even kill or get killed by mom or sister and brothers.

Answer 4

There are two options -

1. The two pups require some extra care and attention from her and hence she is segregating them for extra care

2. They are the runt of the litter or weaker pups which have a very lean chance of survival, so she is not giving them attention anymore.

Whichever, the case maybe, there is nothing much you can do about it. Hand rearing infants is a tough job and baby hamsters normally die if separated from the mother, so that is not a option. Hard though it sounds, if the mother hamster has decided that they have a lean chance of survival and hence has abandoned them, I think it is better not to interfere since the mother hamster's gut instincts are always right. Just keep a watch though, if they die, she might eat them for hygienic purposes, so if you do not want that happening, be ready with a plastic spoon to remove the dead pups from the cage.

But I do hope that it does not happen that way, and hope that she has separated them for reason 1 only.

Answer 5

probably because it has less chances of living past its first year. the mother could sence which of her babies have the most percentage of living. if some of her pups seems like they wont live for long the mother doesnt carae for them and basicly she thinks its not worth it. she has too much to care for so she picks the ones that seems like they will live longer