bought pregnant hamster without knowing

Question
What do I do.
Im very new at this.
She is gnawing at the bars of the cage.
We bought her 2 weeks ago.
She has biten a few times my little boy.
AND NOW WE HAVE 5 BABIES ABOUT ONE WEEK OLD.
I have not changed anything in the cage except giving her more food and water.  Do I change the wood chips or any nexting cotton that I put in there?  I hope you can help me.

Answer
Hi,
leaving the hamster alone was a good idea. She's probably agressive because of the pregnancy and the babies which are a great source of stress for her. Provide her with enough nesting material. Use plain toilet paper or other paper tissue for this. Forget about the cotton, it's harmful when eaten by the hamster.

The mother needs protein, feed her curd, fish flakes or mealworms (a huge favourite even with non-pregnant hamsters). You can check on the babies when she leaves the nest for eating and drinking. Best use a small stick to look into the nest. When the babies come out by themselves which they should do any time now if they are one week old, you can safely touch them.

The babies will begin to eat normal hamster food when two weeks old (you can feed them bird seeds as an addition). Hamsters are sexually mature after four weeks and you need to seperate the male babies from the mother and from their female sibling after three weeks. Make sure they cannot escape through the bars of the cage. It might be a good idea to keep them in an old fish tank when they start exploring the cage (by then the mother won't mind the move).

Start looking for new homes for them now. Don't try to keep one baby together with the mother. I know it's tempting but they won't live together peacefully and might kill each other in the end.

As for the bar gnawing: many hamsters do this. For some it seems to be a hobby and they do it even in huge cages. But it might be a way of saying: I'm bored, my cage is too small or I don't have something else to chew on. I don't know how big your cage is, but a good hamster cage is at least 3 ft long, 1.5 ft deep and 2 ft high (with second levels). Most hamster cages that are sold in stores are nothing more than hamster prisons.
Give her new toys often to keep her occupied: tubes, twigs and leaves, tufts of grass, moss, place the food everywhere in the cage (hamsters don't need a food dish, they like to search for their food), wrap the food in paper, bead pieces of fruit on a string and dangle it from the top of the cage...
Maybe she won't stop gnawing the cage bars but if you keep the cage interesting, she won't do it as much.

You will need some time to tame her after the babies are gone. Handfeeding is always a good method. Don't grab her and don't reach into the cage from above (things from above means danger to almost all small animals. birds of prey, bigger predators...). Place your hand in the cage and let her sniff it, get used to it. After a while she will come to investigate and will sit on your hand. Then you can take her out gently (this might take some time, be patient). You can place some old piece of cloth that has your smell to it (or that of your son) in the cage so she can get used to the smell.

Many hamsters are friendly once outside their cage. If she keep being agressive towards you, try shooing her into a container and take her out with it. Then wait until she somes out by herself. It might very well be that she will be perfectly friendly then. I once had a dwarf hamsters that could only be taken out if he sat in his food dish.

Hamsters are often said to be agressive and even vicious. I cannot agree, I have been bitten two times in twenty years of keeping hamsters (both times my fault). But hamsters take time to tame, they don't like being woken up during the day and they often are made agressive in the pet shops by constantly being woken up. If you are patient, your hamster will be tame and friendly to you, they are great pets.

I hope I was of some help
Jennifer