rejected baby hamster

Question
QUESTION: My dwarf siberian hamster had her first litter of seven babies a week ago - they were doing fine, but one is not getting enough food and has remained tiny where the other ones are thriving. It's still strong, following his mom around, but she keeps ignoring it, just licking it, or moving it about, or just plainly stepping on it! Do I feed it myself, or let nature run it's course?

ANSWER: It is very sad when this happens.  What sort of relationship do you have with your hamster? Does she allow you to touch the babies?  If so, then you might be able to do something.  

The only way you can help is to go to your vet and ask for some special baby milk - this is a powder and is designed for baby animals who are orphaned etc.  Don't use human or cat milk as these aren't suitable and baby animals can't digest it.  You won't want much - if you have a nice vet they might just let you have a small bottle of it as it comes in huge tins which you obviously don't want. If you are able to get some of this you could mix up a very small quanity with warm water and put it in a dropper and give a few drops to the baby every hour or two (or as much as they will take within reason - you don't want to overfeed).  The milk mixture should be warm (room temperature - not ice cold)and would supplement any milk from its mum.

Once the baby is a bit older (at this stage every day is very important, and the closer the baby gets to 2 weeks old, the greater chance of it surviving and growing up normally), you can try human baby food - get some of the powdered food (porridge or rice mixes that are for babies of 4-6 months old) and mix some with water.  I always use this for litters and indeed the nursing mum to make sure she is getting enough nourishment - put some onto a jam jar lid so the babies can reach it - I usually put a teaspoonful every night and morning for them for a couple of weeks.  Don't mix it with milk as this is indigestable - water is fine.  

Apart from that, I'm afraid it is often a case of keeping an eye on the situation and hoping everything works out well.  Providing the baby is getting some nourishment and looks as though it is strong enough it will probably be fine, but this is always a worrying time.

Remember to make a fuss of the mum as you don't want to isolate this baby from her - I would suggest you handle all the babies so that your scent is on all of them

Good luck with this - let me know how you get on.



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

QUESTION: Yes, she lets me handle her and the babies - when all the other ones were fed, I took her out and put her with the tiny one for an hour or so, and it was feeding with her - but he has no chance when the other ones are about, they are about double in size, so I will get some milk from the vet.
ANSWER: These little runts often do very well in the end, providing they haven't been deprived before they were born.  I've got a hamster at the moment that was the sole survivor of a litter of 6 - you'd expect her to be huge as she was the only one, but the mother wasn't that interested in feeding her and even now she is half the size of a hamster of her age - but these runts tend to have an incredible fighting spirit that gets them through.  Good luck with this little one.

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

QUESTION: no, it didn't make it. the mom had fed it and i think that was too much - it peeped a little, and then seemed to fall asleep - i put it back with its siblings to keep warm, and then later on didn't see it move. I removed it, it was dead, its tummy was pretty swollen, so I think it must have been hungry and eaten too much. didn't think I'd be so upset. Should have fed it sooner but we never had a litter before. The other six are really thriving.

Answer
I'm very sorry to hear this. I've learned that no matter what I do to help these little creatures when something like this happens I always wish I had done more, but the fact is that there is always the possibility that it didn't develop properly in the womb and there were more complicated issues going on - so in reality nothing could be done, other than allow nature to take its course.  It's good that the others are doing well.  Thanks for letting me know the outcome.