Hand Rearing

Question
On the 28th I started hand rearing two 5 day old baby syrian hamsters. One has died and the second one is now 10 days old. I have been feeding her watered down milk, water, baby food(apple), mashed carrots, tofu and crackers. She has eaten a small piece of the tofu and the carrots and crackers were turned into a liguid. I'm not sure if I should be feeding her solids yet. She squrims a lot when I feed her, is there any way I can control this? What foods should I try feeding her? Also it looks like she has air in her stomach and parts of the inside of her stomach look yellow. What is this from? Last night her stomach also looked flakey so I searched and found that I should give her salt and suger water.Is there anything else I can do without taking her to a vet or buying any medications?

Answer
Hi Kristi,

   At 10 days old the baby should be starting to eat the smaller pieces in the hamster food mix. Also start giving her hard boiled egg (about 4-5 pieces a day), this will give her the extra protein she needs. You can stop with the hard boiled egg when she reaches 4 weeks of age.
   The yellowing could be from some sort of back up (urine or feces). When hand rearing babies they need to be stimulated so that their bodily functions work properly. This is done after every feeding by gently rubbing the  baby's lower back side, near the bottom area. Do this until she is 2 weeks old.
   I would suggest stopping the apple baby food. To much of this could give her diarrhea and she does not need that at this young age.
   The baby cannot maintain body heat, they are highly dependent on Mom for this.
Keep the cage in a very warm location, no less than 70 degrees, use a heat pad if need be (place it under the cage on the lowest setting) up until 3 weeks of age.
   From what you have wrote, it seems that you are doing a great job in taking care of her and I am hopeful that she will survive.
   If you have anymore questions, please write again.

Thank you for writing and best of luck!