Why does my baby hamster have a huge hole in its skin?

Question

Baby hamster   My hamster babies are 6 days old. I have not touched or gone near them since they were born. The mother is about 3 months old and I believe she might be stressed. When the babies were born, I was not expecting them, so there were a lot of tubes. I removed all of these because she made a nest in one of the tubes. I guess this caused a lot of stress and afterwards she ran around the cage for awhile, digging through the bedding. But then she calmed down and made a nest in the corner of the cage. Now, every once in awhile she'll run around the cage and do the same thing for no apparent reason. Whenever she hears a loud noise, she'll run out of the nest and the babies will come with her. Sometimes I'll hear her in the nest doing God knows what and making random jerking movements moving the tissue paper I put in there all around and I can hear the babies squeak. She didn't kill any, on the first day I took a look and saw there were 7 and there are still seven. But today I noticed on one of the babies there is a large hole in its back and it's yellow-ish in colour. I picked it up just so I could take a picture which I know was wrong but the mother didn't hurt it afterwards and it's fine now. I have no idea what this could be. Is it from the mum biting it? Please help, I'm really worried for this baby.

Answer
Hi Victoria

Thanks for your question and for the photo.

I suspect that this is a bite mark - babies skin is incredibly delicate and if mum keeps gathering them up and moving them, she may well have nipped him.  Try to keep the area clean - it is difficult using any creams on one this size because if you apply anything that smells will make it stand out from the others and you don't want mum abandoning him. Also, trying to find a medication that is safe for such a tiny creature could be difficult.  You could gently wipe the area with salt water to try and keep infection away.  

It is difficult to know why some mums behave like this and others are very relaxed with a litter.  I had a similar situation, only there two of the babies got left out of the nest overnight and both were dead when I found them the next day - that mum kept relocating her nest if anything spooked her.

I suggest you try to ensure that the cage is in a quiet part of the home, away from noise and other animals.  Don't try cleaning them out - this will have to wait until the babies are 2-3 weeks old (if necessary just scoop out any smelly corner).  Even when they are older and you can clean them I suggest you don't disinfect the cage - just empty it - and try to return some of the old bedding if you can that has her scent on it.  This might calm her down a bit.

Regarding the one with the bite mark - if it looks as though it has infected then it may well need treating - the problem is that if you take it away from mum to treat then chances are it won't be accepted back and will end up dying.  If you take mum and all the litter to the vet for treatment, then the whole experience would probably spook her so much that she may end up abandoning the litter.  Also, if you had this baby treated you would need to treat all of them, including mum - so that this one wasn't singled out.  Salt water is a great natural antiseptic - you might want to put a drop on the other hamsters too and even mum if you do this.

Being a 'parent' is sometimes very worrying as often you just have to let nature takes its course.  Hopefully the wound will clear up and there won't be any more problems.  The closer you can get the litter to 3 weeks of age, the more chance of surivial.  Up until the age of 4 weeks they really need mum, but if there are still problems, and you are worried about the safety of the litter, when they are about 3 1/2 weeks old you could separate the whole litter (don't risk separating them before this).  At 4 weeks you need to sex the babies and separate out the boys anyway.  It is a good idea to supplement the hamsters food any way - if you give some baby food (I usually buy a packet of the 'creamy porridge oats' and mix a little with water) mum will enjoy this and it will give her extra nutrients.  When the babies start leaving the nest at around 2 weeks of age they will eat this too if you put it in a jam jar lid or very low dish.  Also, make sure mum has plenty of food closeby - drop food beside the nest so that she doesn't have to keep leaving the nest for food. If you give her small pieces of bread, nuts, raw porridge oats, seeds etc. she will take them into the nest and the babies will eat these too as by now they will have teeth. Also, talk to her - let her hear your voice - especially if you are near the cage so that she starts to associate your voice with a treat.

You were right in removing the tubes - although there is always the worry that mum will turn on the babies or abandon them if they are disturbed in the early days, in the longrun it is a lot less stressful having them in the open or under a platform.  If the litter is in a tube often they get separated anyway and you end up with dead babies.  So even though she wasn't happy with this, you were right to do this.

I do hope you get on OK.

Regards
Sheila