baby hamster is born

Question
baby hamster is born on Friday, I know not to touch the baby, but the mommy come to me for food, I had fill up her food, also giving her baby food on side, but she come to the gate to me so I feed her more food, but I not sure, can I touch her??? Can I hold her? Thank you for your advise.

Answer
Hi Megan

Congratulations on having a baby hamster.  I would advise not touching mum - you don't want to distract her from looking after her baby.  Right now you need her to concentrate on being a mum.  Babies can get cold very quickly so it is important mum stays with them as much as possible to keep them warm.  They also need feeding hourly so mum needs to be around for this. Did she have other babies??  It is strange that there is only one.  I usually don't get the mum out for a play until the babies are 2 weeks old at which time you can also handle the baby albeit for a few minutes at a time - it really depends on how well I know the mum and how good a job she is doing with raising her litter.

Continue feeding normal hamster food and also baby food.  The baby will eat this too when it is old enough.

I hope you get on OK.  Any other queries, please get back to me.

Regards
Sheila