my hampster is eating its babies

[fearloathing]

ok i need some help please. my hampster is about 3 months old and she had babies 2 weeks after i got her home from the pet store. 8 babies at first count. its been 1 week and there is 3 left. shes eating them. its pretty gross. i havent touched them, im trying to keep her calm and not bother her and i havent even touched the cage except to put food in. now heres my question, if i take the 3 babies left away from her, how do i feed them and keep them alive. i will do watever i have to do but it just really bothers me that they probably wont make it. i saw her eating one tonight and its pretty gross so um yea the clock is ticking please help.. tell me how to save the wee ones.. :(

dan

some questions id like answered would be 1 - can the babies survive at 1 week old away from the mother 2 - what do i feed the babies and how do i keep them warm (ill hold my hand gently on them for 2 weeks if i have to, to keep them warm) 3 - any other advice would be great

thank you

[birdy_birdy9]

i don't know much about hamsters but i did have hamsters that had babies. the babies may have died at birth and you didn't notice it and now she is eating them. thats what my hamsters did

[fearloathing]

i wish thats what happend but i definately saw at least 7 active babies the first night and now im down to three. im pretty sure shes eating ones that are alive. if anyone could help it would be appreciated. thanks.

[Rawrr ♠]

i think ive seen a few kits out there to feed the babies.

[Squawksx3]

:( thats so sad. I dont have any experience with hamsters, but I think I would call a vet and ask if you could take the ones still alive away and care for them yourself. I've heard that mother animals will kill their babies if they fear her and the babies lives are in danger. :(

[Jerica]

You can feed them kitty milk replacer from an eye dropper or a 1cc syringe (without a needle) At a week old you can very possibly save them. You'll have to feed them at least 3 times a day. You may even want to do one feeding at night. It may be sort of difficult with such little ones, I was able to handfeed 3 dwarf hamster babies for a whole day while their mother was running around after escaping the cage. You mix it up like the container says, but I usually do it scaled down, its like one tablespoon powder to two water or something, but for them you can make it less but in the same ratio. warm it up so its not too hot or cold, test it on your wrist. Keep it in the fridge if their are leftovers and don't keep the mixed formula for more than 24 hours. Make sure you make them go potty with a cotton ball or cloth with warm water on it after every feeding. If I think of anything else I'll tell you and if you have any questions ask. If you have a heat pad put them in a container with the heat pad under half of it and keep them in bedding from their cage.

[kyukidojen]

You can maybe handraise them - unfortunately, 3 times a day won't do it - try 3 times an hour (every 15-20 minutes) - at night, you can probably do once every 60 minutes... it's tough, but it CAN be done - i raised a litter of field mice one summer when i was little - kitten milk replacement works the best, although i've heard of people using puppy milk replacement too. A syringe will work, as you're not likely to come across a bottle that is small enough for it. I actually made one - i got a kitten bottle, and cut the tip off the longest, thinnest nipple, and would put tiny plugs of twisted cloth in the end of that - they could get the tips and suck what they wanted out, and it was slow enough for them not to inhale it... best wishes to you, whatever you decide!

On a side note - i recently had a similar experience, only my hamster waited two and a half weeks to start eating them... after separating them out, i found that she was eating them because they were all ill. HOpefully, this isn't the case with yours, though.

[Jerica]

When the babies are a week old they probably don't need fed every 15-20 minutes, the ones I was raising were fine 3 times a day and if you want to be on the safe side 3 times a night. (I'm not trying to say you are lying or anything kyukidojen, I'm just saying what my experience was.) How are they doing fearloathing?

[fearloathing]

Hey everyone thanks for the responses. I'm happy to announce that 3 of the babies from the original 7 are alive and healthy! I guess she got rid of 4 that were sick or possibly she knew she could only take care of 3.. I'm not sure but either way the 3 that are left have been on their own for about a week now. Boba Fett (the mom, beige coloured) was upset at first but she got used to it and I actually think she was a little relieved to be on her own again. Of the 3 babies, I ended up with 2 girls (a white one that I am keeping, hopefully to be named Ernest P. Worrell, but my girlfriend is already against that... "You named the first one Boba Fat or whatever, I'M NAMING THIS ONE!"...) the other beige female has been aptly named Beigey.. and a beige male named... ahem.. Balls.. Um so yup they are all doing well and the other 2 have homes already, one to a friend of mine and the other to my girlfriends uncle. Anyways thanks again everyone for the comments. If anyone cares I can post some pics of the babies and the mom from my digi cam. :)

Dan

[PWOOBY]

I have bred hamsters for awhile and I have found that mother hamsters eating their babies seems to be genetic, and it often occurs in young mothers, which she is. I have tried so many times to handfeed baby hamster and it is only successful after the babies are about to open their eyes, no earlier than almost 2 weeks basically. Most likely if she ever gets pregnant again she will do the same thing because she has the taste of the babies in her now, its sad but true.

[Jerica]

I'm glad they are doing so well! That's awesome! I'm also glad that they will have homes. I'd love to see pics :)