babies and mother

Question
Hey my hamster is a european black bear n I dont really know the difference between those and the drawfs but whatever u know will be great.  My hamster had babies about 2-3 weeks ago and they eyes were open and they have hair all over and there fluffy as anything and yesterday(friday) we found one of the hamsters dead and it looked like it got eatten out of its head.  Then we started to notice the mom acting weird.  After that we found another one of the babies having a problem with pooping.  It was pooping out something red and it was extremely long and the hamster tried and tried to push it out.  So i put the mother and that hamster with the problem together in a seperate cage to see if that would help any because I didnt want the other babies interfering.  The red thing never got out and the mother just ate it and now the mother isn't walked as fast or running as fast as she used to.  It is also her second pregnacy since about 3 months ago.  Please help me :)
-nikki

Answer
Dear Nicole,
thank you for your question.
Your hamster is a Syrian hamster, they are much bigger than dwarfs. There are four species of dwarf hamsters: Winter White Russians, Campbell's, Roborovski Dwarfs and Chinese dwarfs. Here you can find pictures and more info:
http://www.petwebsite.com/hamsters/about_hamsters.htm

I strongly recommend that you stop breeding your hamster. It sounds like she is very stressed (I suspect that she killed the first baby) and seriously ill. I cannot say what is wrong with the other baby, I am no vet, but it doesn't sound good - for me, it sounds like a anal prolapse - in that case, the gut was coming out of his anus. That's very painful and even if the mother hadn't eaten it it probably would have been deadly.

You need to keep the mother seperate from the babies and seperate male and female babies or you will end up with even more babies. They are able to breed with four weeks (but should stay with their mother for three weeks). The mother shouldn't become pregnant again, if possible not ever again in her life, but at least for six months to give her a rest.  If the babies still drink from her - if they are just two weeks old, they do - put her back, they still need her milk. However, she might kill them because she's stressed. But two week old babies cannot live without their mothers care. If they are closer to three weeks old, you can keep the mother seperate. It's not ideal, but they will live.

See a vet with both mother and babies. You might find a rodent vet here:
http://www.vin.com/vetquest/index0.html
Ifd you don't find one, call several vets in your area and ask for a rodent vet, then pick the one most of them recommend.

If you want to continue breeding hamsters, I recommend joining a hamster club. You need to learn about genetics and hereditary because some combinations of colours can lead to dead or deformed babies. But I really don't think it's a good idea to breed hamsters. There are too many hamsters in shelters already, looking for a good home. I don't know how easy it was for you to find homes for the first litter, but usually it gets harder and harder to find good homes for them.

If your really want to breed, take a look at this website:
http://groups.msn.com/InternetHamsterAssoc/home1.msnw
It has a message board and lists of regional hamster groups. There is info on breeding hamsters on the first website I gave you the link for, too.
I hope I was of some help
Jennifer