baby hamsters!!! urgent.

Question
QUESTION: my hamster had 7 babies and she was taking care of them. the babies are now 10 days old. but the mother hamster has ran away a couple hours ago and i can't find her at all. i want to now what can i do with the baby hamsters? what and how can i feed them? how do i handle them? please help.

ANSWER: I'm really sorry to hear you've lost the mum.  

Can you get someone to look for her straightaway and try and find her?  If you do find her quickly you can put her back in with her babies and she should look after them - but keep a close watch on her.  If she is away from them for any length of time, then she may attack her babies - so you must be very careful.

10 day old babies are very vulnerable and their chance of survival isn't that great.  I've only known one person who managed to save babies of this age and only 2 survived.  The main things are keeping them warm and feeding.  Make sure the cage is in a warm area of the house - if necessary put a fire/radiator on near them.  Make sure they have extra bedding.  You can warm them in your hands before returning them to their nest.

Regarding food - they need their mother's milk. Don't give them cows milk as this causes diarrhea and will make them sick.  If you contact your vet they will have a special powdered milk that is for orphaned animals - see if they will let you have some of this.  Mix a little with water and using a dropper feed the babies - this needs to be done every 2 hours, night and day.  Mix the powder up with warm water.  You could also try them with human baby food - the powdered variety is good such as creamy porridge oats.  mix a little with water.  I usually feed my babies this when they reach 2 weeks.  They can also have raw porridge oats, small pieces of bread, seeds and hamster mix, along with small pieces of vegetables.  The closer you can get the babies to 3 weeks old  the better - every day is an achievement at this age.

To find the mum - look in the obvious places - call her name and stay quiet and see if you can hear her moving.  Females are often easier to find than males as they are more active during the day.  If you locate her - make a fuss of her before trying to put her back with her babies as she will be stressed - also give her the human baby food for a week or two - this will give her extra nutrients.  If there is no sign of her today, you will need to leave a small amount of food in the room where you think she is and see if she comes for it in the night.  This will give you an indication of where she is and help you locate her.

I do hope you find mum quickly and she takes her babies back.  If not, I wish you all the best with trying to save the litter.  Please get in in touch if you have any more questions - please let me know how you get on.

regards

One other thing - if you warm the babies in your hands, when you put them back in the nest put them all together with plenty of bedding on top.  They will help keep each other warm with their body heat.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thank you very much. the babies are doing fine and all seven are still alive. i found the mum today. i tried putting her back in the cage with her babies but she looked very nervous and stressed and she kept bitting the babies and trying to kill them and jumping on top of them. i thought she was hurting them because the babies were crying very loud. so i kept the babies away from her. is there anythinig i can do about that??

ANSWER: Glad to hear you've found mum but I'm not surprised she's reacted the way she has. If she hasn't calmed down by now it is unlikely you will be able to let her near her babies.  Once the mums have been away from them for any length of time - i.e. more than an hour or two, often they won't go back and sadly I have heard stories of the mum killing the babies as it is impossible for you to watch them all the time.  The babies are also probably crying because they are hungry.  If she won't settle down and feed them, then don't leave her with them.  I had a mum who was very neurotic, and when I disturbed the nest she panicked and ran round with a baby in her mouth for hours.  It was very worrying and although she finally settled and I thought everything would be OK, the following morning I found two dead babies - they had been pushed out of the nest and had died from hypothermia as their body temperature drops rapidly at this age.  If you are in any doubt about letting her near them, don't risk it - this just means that the babies are totally reliant on you and you should prepare yourself for the fact that you may not be able to save all of them.  Over the next week you need to keep them very warm and fed regularly (ideally every couple of hours) - I know this isn't easy especially if you've got school/work - but perhaps you know someone who is around during the day time who could look after them for you and feed them while you are away and make sure they are kept warm.

Is there a pet rescue near you?  If so, it would be worth contacting them to see if they could do this for you.  Alternatively, have  word with your vet as they may know of people nearby who are good with dealing with orphaned animals.  Also, it is very important you try and get some of the special powdered milk they have.  If you can't get this you could try the special 'cat' milk that you can usually buy in pet shops - but this isn't ideal, but better than nothing.  Under no circumstances give cows milk as this will make them sick.

I really hope you manage to save them as this is a heartbreaking situation.  Good luck with this, please keep me posted.

regards

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thank you again. and i did seperate the babies from the mum.
i didnt want to risk it. all seven are still alive and doing very well. i bought the babies the cat milk and their doing fine with it. they have also started eating the hamster mix. so i think they will be fine now that they are two weeks old.


Answer
Hi Rebecca

It's great to hear that they are doing well.  If you can get a packet of human baby food (powdered variety lasts longer) and mix a little with water each day - this really helps babies, especially if they are slightly underweight.  They can continue having this daily for 2 or 3 weeks.

I do hope they all survive - you're moving out of the 'danger zone' now, so every day that goes by is a good thing.

Regards