My sisters hamster had babies...

Question
Okay well my older sisters hamster had about 7 or so babies and there going to be 2 weeks in well 2 days.  The hamster keeps digging and moving the house around.  I researched on google about stuff like this and it said to scatter the food around the cage.  So i did that and the mom keeps putting them right back in the nest!! i don't understand!!!  also 4 babies came out of the cage today and the mom picked them up by their butt and put them back in!!!  The babies wanna come out but she wont let them!!  It looks painful and they squeal.  Is that normal for the mother to foce them back in??  Also she keeps acting like she wants to get out of the cage by like standing on their little igloo.  can i pick her up or will she bite me???  and one more question!!  she hasn't been sleeping as much and shes been peeing allot... is that just what mothers do??

Answer
Hi Katie,

everything you are describing sounds like perfectly normal behavious for a new mother.

She will move the nest if she feels it is a good idead and she will try to keep the babies in the nest, but soon she will not be able to keep them all in the nest especially because she has 7 of them to look after!  She will soon get sick of the babies trying to get out and she will stop putting them back in.

When she picks them up they will squeal because they dont want to be picked up but she doesnt hurt them at all so dont worry about that.

Once she stops putting them back in the nest and lets them wander around the cage, it is safe to handle them for short periods each day and it is also safe to handle the mother too.

She wont be sleeping much because she is being a good mother and collecting food for her babies to eat and also checking the whole of the cage to make sure everything is safe and there is no danger to the babies.

None of my females have seemed to urinate any more than usuall while nursing their babies so i dont know why that is.

Maybe you should take her to the vets when the babies have been separated from her when they are about 6 weeks old, just for a check up and make sure she doesnt have any medical conditions.

Good Luck

Kind Regards,

Tammy