Why Do Hamsters Eat Their Babies
Like most rodents, hamsters become pregnant fast. Hamsters can begin breeding as young as 10 weeks of age. They might have as little as three or as many as twenty babies! It is determined by the hamster’s species and the mother’s egg production.
Depending on the breed, a hamster pregnancy lasts 16 to 22 days. Babies are born blind, deaf, and motionless. However, they are sexually mature by 4 weeks. The most difficult aspect is getting through the first several weeks.
Hamsters mostly commit homicide in captivity. There hasn’t been enough research to determine whether or not they exhibit such behaviour in the wild. Nonetheless, under some conditions, they kill their infants. The killing, which has been observed particularly among young, first-time moms, may have been triggered by an overpowering sense of sheer responsibility.
Reasons Why Hamster Mothe could eat her Babies
Mother hamsters do not have the same level of feeling as human moms. There are several reasons why a hamster mother could devour her young.
1. They Are Stressed
Hamsters eat their babies for a variety of reasons, including stress. The stress might be caused by a variety of factors, one of which is too much disruption from their human partners. These rodents require as much privacy as possible throughout childbirth, post-birth, and weaning. Until then, visiting them frequently, putting the mother and litter to photoshoots, and other such activities can put the mother under a lot of stress. And the only way she can escape it is to get rid of the cause, her babies.
2. Motherhood Is Difficult
Young first-time moms are more likely to commit hamster infanticide. The responsibilities of motherhood and raising a litter might be too much for her. And if she decides that caring for all of them is too difficult, she may pick and choose which ones live and which do not. She kills the less attractive ones and feeds them to the entire family once she has made her selection. It is important to note that the hamster does it as a selfless gesture, not as an act of violence.
3. Not Enough Resources
If you do not give enough food, water, or treats, a hamster mother feels her family must compete for these resources. She sacrifices some for the sake of the rest, believing it to be the final test for their survival. Hamsters make these judgments automatically, ensuring that some of their offspring prosper at the expense of others.
4. Squeezed for Space
Hamsters require a large amount of room to live properly, where they may extend their limbs and burn off excess energy. At any given moment, a single litter may include 6 – 12 newborns. With the advent of litter, the living area becomes suddenly too crowded.
Cage fury is a condition in which hamsters exhibit violent behaviour such as gnawing at the cage bars and biting their owner’s fingers when confined in a place that is too small for them. Putting the mother hamster in this circumstance may also push her to make more room for herself by dying off her offspring.
5. If There Is a Problem with a Baby Hamster
Because some of their infants are sick, hamsters may kill them. Hamsters use instinct to choose which young have a greater chance of surviving. If some newborns seem weak or misshapen, and the mother feels that if the baby survives, it will not have a healthy life, she compensates by conducting mercy killings on the physically unfit.
6. Mixture of Scents
Hamsters have poor eyesight and rely on odours to get around. As a result, if an overjoyed owner tries to hold the newborn or simply touches it, the infant’s health is jeopardized. Killing one’s infants because the parents do not identify them as their own after being touched by someone else is a behaviour shared by other members of the animal kingdom.
How Can the Hamster Babies be Saved from Being Eaten?
When a mother decides that feeding her young is an option, there isn’t much you can do. However, you may preserve the infants 90% of the time by avoiding putting the mother in a position where she believes she must eat them.
Keep the following points in mind:
Do not overburden the mother: This is the primary reason hamster moms eat their young. The stress and difficulty of giving birth, especially her first litter, combined with your frequent monitoring of her will irritate her.
- Make Large Cages Available: As soon as you discover that your hamster is pregnant, seek a larger cage in which she can live peacefully with her children. Provide enough thick bedding for the mother and baby to be born. A hamster’s gestation period spans from 16 to 22 days. Transfer her well in advance to make her feel at ease.
- Before the hamster’s mom gives birth, leave food/protein for her: Bring your hamster some protein if you find she has given birth overnight. This is the diet that will assist her to rebuild her vigour as soon as possible. Cooked egg white or cooked plain chicken is beneficial to your hamster.
- Do not disturb the mother or the cage for at least two weeks after she has given birth: This is because the mother feels exhausted and agitated, despite the fact that her infants are still very little. So don’t open her cage, replace her bedding, put her in an exercise ball, or separate her from her offspring.
- Do not touch the infants till the mother has weaned them (3-4 weeks): When the newborns are so little, it’s a great blunder to touch them. Only after 3-4 weeks may a newborn hamster be separated from his mother and placed for adoption.
Why Do Hamsters Eat Their Babies Conclusion:
Many pet owners are puzzled as to why their hamsters are killing their offspring. From a human perspective, it appears brutal, but from the perspective of a hamster mother, it is either to prevent them from more anguish or to guarantee that some survive rather than all perish.
Hamsters are tiny and delicate creatures. If they are not properly cared for, they are prone to a variety of ailments. We are here to guide you on how to take care of your little buddy, what to feed them and how to treat them when they are sick or not feeling well. Keep visiting for more.