baby hamsters killing the moms?

Question
I have (had) two hamster moms with litters. The one hamster, Sandy, has had babies before so she raised her four babies fine (they are two weeks old). The other mom, Annabelle, this was her first litter and she was raising eight babies. I know that they will kill some of the babies if they can't handle the amount, but she wouldn't kill any of them. She steadily got weaker from nursing so many babies and eventually died. I was able to get Sandy to adopt Annabelles babies and it seemed to be going fine. Today Sandy (with no signs of anything being wrong)died. What is going on with my hamsters? Did this litter of babies really kill both moms?

Answer
Hi Melanie.

I doubt that the babies killed the mothers.  You didn't say what kind of hamsters you have, but four and eight babies is not a very large litter for a Syrian hamster to raise.  Even twelve babies (when you put the two litters together with one mom) is not extreme for Syrian hamsters.

Ten babies is a pretty big litter for a dwarf hamster, but even at ten (and upwards of ten) they usually do just fine.

When moms have too many babies than they can handle they will usually eat the smallest, or the weakest, or they will just let nature take it's course and the smallest weakest babies will never get a chance to nurse because they get shouldered out by their larger siblings and will die eventually.  

It sounds to me like something else was going on there - both female hamsters died of the same cause or they didn't and it just happened to be a coincidence that they died a few days apart.

If Annabelle was getting steadily weaker since she had the babies, I would guess something went wrong with the delivery.  She may have had a prolapsed utuerus or gotten a uterine infection, or had some other complication from the birth.  It happens, unfortunately.

It sounds like Sandy died suddenly.  This could be from a blood vessel breaking in her brain (just like happens in humans), a congenital heart problem, or her ingesting something that was in her environment.

Some of the "fluffy" bedding sold in pet stores can kill hamsters very quickly.  It is made of synthetic material, and when hamsters ingest it (as they inevitably will, since they must use their mouths to carry it and make a nest from it), it is undigestable and will kink up their intestines and kill them.

Remember, if it doesn't dissolve when you put it in water, it is not okay to put in your hamster cage!

Here is a few links to dangerous bedding materials:

http://www.petwebsite.com/fluffy.htm

http://www.writefunny.com/bedding.html

I am sorry to hear of the deaths of your girls.  :(
Perhaps you can get a veterinarian to perform a necropsy on Sandy and tell you what exactly she died from.