do-hamsters-eat-their-babies

Hamsters might be the cutest pets that humans can own. But sometimes even they can scare the people, especially the female hamsters. Many people have noticed that the female hamsters eat its own babies like an act of brutality. How can mothers do a thing like that, right?

But this is not a lie. Female hamsters do eat their babies for various reasons. This might sound very vicious, but the intentions behind this are not that cruel. The mother might be doing it because of some apparent and valid reason. As a mother, they don’t think about a single baby but instead of the whole brood. So, it is her moral duty to keep them all safe no matter what actions must be taken for their safety and well being.

 

Why Hamsters Eat Their Babies?

The behavior of animals is not like humans. They are not endowed with the reasonability feature like humans, and that’s why they behave instinctively. There are different theories that tried to explain this kind of behavior. Some of them are as follows:

 

Stressing out for the Family

This situation arises when a mother gives birth to babies for the first time. This raises the insecurity level in their mind, and they feel stressed out. The fear becomes more and more intense as the babies start growing up. As they grow up they will start demanding for food and supplies and to prevent this from happening, she eats her own babies.

 

Mixed Scent of Humans on Their Babies

Humans often love to handle small and cute little things with their hand. But they don’t have any idea how dangerous it can be for the hamster babies. The Hamsters recognize its babies with their scent. When humans touch them, they leave their own scent on them, and the mother gets confused. As a result, she eats her own baby thinking that it can be a risk to other babies.

 

Sustenance Issues

Sustaining the lives that a mother gave birth to surely needs some sacrifice. The sacrifice is made in the form of her own babies. If there are scarce resources and the mother is unable to fulfill the needs of her babies, she eventually east them so that they won’t struggle and die a painful death.

 

To Make Life Easier

As we all know, the mother does the moral duty of providing love and care to her entire family. But if a hamster is unable to provide it, she perceives it as her sole responsibility to manage the whole litter. If she recognizes that managing the entire brood is getting difficult day by day, then she will cut out the size of the herd by eating her babies.

 

Other Possible Reasons

The mother can also eat the babies if they are not born healthy and she detects that they won’t be able to live longer. And for some unlucky pups, she can eat them only because she feels weak and to fulfill the nutrition she so desperately needs.

 

How To Stop Hamsters From Eating Their Babies?

Well, seeing your pet hamster giving birth to two, three or more of her own is really intimidating. But no matter how much excitement you have for them, you must remember some points to prevent the mother from eating her pups. Here are some ideas that you can follow to ensure that something like this never happens.

 

Don’t Stare at the Cage

Humans have an inquisitive nature and sometimes that curiousness can be an enemy for the babies. If you keep staring at the cage every now and then, this will irritate the mother. In the beginning, she will hide the pups from your sight, and if you try to look for them, then she will make sure that you never find them by eating them.

 

Keep Your House Calm and Peaceful

Noise and weird sound stress out the mother. She has already gone through enormous pain to give birth to the babies. So she needs the environment to be calm and peaceful. So, make sure that you don’t make loud noises in the house to disturb her.

 

Don’t Even Try to Touch the Babies

Not until the babies are more than two weeks older, don’t even think about touching the babies. If you touch them, the mother will detect your scent, and they will be dead for good.

 

Don’t Clean The Cage

You might have a habit of cleaning the cage every week, but not after the hamster has babies. You can drop extra roll or foils and change the water but don’t clean it up.

 

Provide Enough Food for Them All

The main reason hamster eats the babies, is because she has her doubt regarding their survival. If you provide enough amounts of food and water for the mother and the babies, then she won’t need to eat the babies for her nutrition, and the pups won’t die because of starving.

 

Hamster Cannibalism Story

There was a time when I thought that Hamsters are the cutest little things that can’t bring harm to anything. But I didn’t know that opinion about them is about to change forever. I had a pair of hamsters, and I bought them together from a pet store. Everything was good for five months, I played with them, feed them, and they behaved like the perfect pet. I was so happy to have them.

But, soon the female hamster got pregnant and gave birth to 4 adorable pups. They were like little pink toys, and they couldn’t even open their eyes. I have heard that the hamsters sometimes eat their babies, so, I checked up regularly and counted their number every morning I wake up. And one day, when I was counting them, they were only three. Then my friend told me that it was because of me the mother ate her baby. It was so shocking to hear. But I realized my mistake. So I left her alone and provided her food and other nutrition and stayed as far as possible. Thank god that the next time she had babies, all were safe and healthy.

 

Conclusion

So, as you’ve read, you must stay away from the hamsters when they give birth to pups. That’s the only possible way the babies will be safe from her mother.

 

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Photo by Keren Tan, https://www.flickr.com/photos/keren/3983502639