baby problem

Question
thanks for the advice before but i dont need any more for the baby.Last night the mother ripped it apart infront of me and my friend! im so upset.earlier that day she and the male moved the bed and then just left the baby out in the open on it's own. It didnt cry or anything but it was still alive.When i saw it it was light grey but it didnt even have whiskers even though it was six days old. in the morning i heard a screach and turned the light on. it was the male squabbling with the mom and it looked like he was tryin to breed with her again. they were running all over the cage and even running over the baby. then she just turned flipped it over like she was cleaning it and then gashed it's leg off!!!! what i need to know is if she's pregnant and has more babys and tries this again can i try to save them and is there anything i can do to take of them like buy special types of food from the vet to keep them alive? I also can't help but slightly resent the mother for what's she's done even though i know shes an animal i keep seeing her as a mother killing her child.

Answer
Hi Stephanie,

really sorry to hear about your loss.

This is a very common occurence amongst hamsters and can happen for a number of reasons.

She could have been too young to cope with the stress of the new baby and not know exactly what she was doing.  She could have been confused as to whether the father was safe to have in with the baby.  Also, there could have been a problem with the baby that was not visible to the human eye and only the mother would know about it so she would kill it because it wouldnt have lived for very long anyway.

She could just have been very stressed with this being her first litter and could have felt disturbed too.

It is completely natural for a mother hamster to destroy or abandon her litter if she feeld it is in the best interest of the babies or herself.

Please, please do not blame her for something which is as natural to her as eating is to us!  It is not her fault and she is definately not evil or a bad hamster.  Also, this does not stop her from still being an excellent and loving pet!

If you continue to keep the mother and father living together in the same cage then she will almost certainly have another litter very soon.  So i would suggest you split them up straight away.

If she does have another litter and the father is still in the cage , please take him out straight away and do not disturb the cage at all for the first two weeks - this will reduce the amount of stress for her and will give her the best chance to keep all of the litter alive.

Please do not feel any different towards her - she hasnt done anything wrong!!

Please let me know how you are getting on.

Kind Regards,

Tammy