Hamster baby help!

So there I was replaying The Wind Waker in my basement, where I'm keeping the hamsters. They're not my hamsters, you see, but those of my biology teacher that I am taking care of over spring break. Their names are Romeo and Juliet, and Juliet was pregnant when I got her, although no one knew how far in pregnancy she was. I heard a squeaking noise, followed by another squeaking noise. I'm sure you can guess what happened next: I looked at Juliet, and saw 3 babies next to her!

The reason I'm saying this is, does anyone know what to do with newborn baby hamsters? Are there any special precautions I must take?

Has anything similar happened to you before?

I'd appreciate you're help.

first of all - Congratulations on the new hamster babies! =D

Secondly, I have no idea as I'm actually.. scared of hamsters >__>

But! I just wanted to comment about something - am I the only person who finds it strange how animals can just have their babies so quickly without so much as a squeak or a whimper?
When my kitty had her litter, I just returned to find her nursing 2 kittens, I ran out to get a towel and returned to find another. Surely it should be painful, and therefore scream-worthy for them too?

That has always just.. puzzled me >___>

^______^ congrats, noscreenname, on those fine additions to the hamster family! You're going to have to make your teacher think up some awesome shakespearian names for them too.

I actually used to breed hamsters when I was little, so I know a smidge about the subject. The mother of my hamsters, Yoda (yes, her name was Yoda), tended to spit out up to 10 hamsters at a time, and would drop a new one every half hour or so for about six hours straight. Odds are, there are quite a few more hamsters coming, and odds are most of them will be pretty healthy if the first three weren't stillborn. :3

As long as you make sure the mother has plenty of food and water to get at, she'll have the means to feed them. Check her food once a day or so - make sure she's eating, and make sure she never runs low.

But even though she has the means to feed her children, that doesn't mean she *will*. :/ When a hamster first has babies, she tends to freak out and wants to have nothing to do with them, especially if they start to get a human scent on them. Don't touch the babies at all, and just leave the cage alone for a bit. It doesn't matter if it's dirty - disturbing the younglings and moving them or their cage at all before they're at least 2.5 weeks old is a big no-no. :O If Romeo's in the cage with Juliet, remove him immediately. :O You don't want him and her to cause a ruckus together - if she gets pregnant again while she's feeding, it'll make it almost impossible for her to feed all of her young.

Also, some hamsters are just pains in the butt - most mothers try to bury their children in the wood chips from the cage to either keep them warm or to suffocate the little buggers. While this will certainly wean out the runts from the litter who sink to the bottom of the pile, if you don't want to deal with a few hamster corpses you should probably just shove her off and move the wood chips. Or, you could also throw in some tufts of cotton or ripped-up bits of tissue or toilet paper so that she can cover them with that instead. She might be trying to keep them warm, or she might be a ***** and trying to smother them, but either way it's best to keep a close eye on the mother and children during the first week and a half. :O After that, she'll be used to them and they'll be mostly strong enough to do basic tasks on their own.

Congratulations again, and best of luck! :> Tell us whenever more pop out, and feel free to post if you have any questions or notice something weird going on! :3

A hamster that has given birth should be disturbed as little or possible, or she may become agitated and abandon, neglect or even eat the babies. This means other than providing food and water, you should leave the hamsters and their cage alone as much as possible for the first couple of weeks. While it is tempting to look at the babies and make sure everything is okay, it is probably best to leave the mother to do her thing.

* Leave them alone for the first 10-14 days. You can spot clean really wet spots if absolutely necessary, but avoid disturbing the nest.

* Make sure to provide plenty of food and fresh water, but make feeding and watering as efficient and calm as possible.

* While it is okay to have a quick peek in the cage on occasion, avoid sitting and watching for long periods.

* Keep in mind that the mom will be very protective as well so may act more aggressive than usual; this is natural and no cause for concern.

* Though interference should be avoided if at all possible, if for some rare reason you must move a baby, use a spoon so you do not get your scent on the baby. It is rarely necessary to move a baby though even if they are out of the nest; the mom will usually retrieve any stray pups and return them to the nest.

It will also be best to remove the male as soon as possible, with as little disturbance to the female as possible. While the male will not harm the babies and may help with rearing them, the female can get pregnant again shortly after giving birth and this can be very hard on her body.

Make sure you are feeding a high quality diet with lots of protein. In addition to a good quality diet, you can offer small amounts of hard boiled egg, bits of cooked chicken, cheese, and wheatgerm to give the mom a nurtitional boost.

The baby hamsters will be ready for weaning at about 3 weeks of age, and it is best to separate the male pups into one group and the females into another. Syrian hamsters can stay in these male and female groups for another 2-3 weeks, but then must be separated so there is only one per cage as they will often fight, even though they are siblings.

Hah, andi said everything better than I did! :3 Oh well, and by the way, congratulations Noscreenname and all the best!

Thanks andi!

I knew that more babies would arrive, but I haven't been able to see- she seems to be covering up most of them (giving them her milk, perhaps).

I don't see any future trouble with Romeo: he's mostly just being useless and sleeping in the other cage (it's a two-cage setup, connected by a tube).

Speaking of two cages, the food bowl is in the other cage from Juliet. In fact, she's just staying in a room at the top of her cage, connected to the main section through another tube. Will she be able to move with the babies there? Should I move the food?

I actually don't have wood chips in the cage, but soft paper-made bedding instead. I hope any burying won't be a problem then.

EDIT: Anime Queen- my teacher said that the will actually sometimes eat their babies, and I had a friend once who said his hamster did just the same. Apparently there is no way to avoid this, as some babies won't survive anyways and the mother needs the nutrition. If I am wrong in anything here, please correct me.

Ok, andi and Pelagias, you two seem to have had experience dealing with Hamsters and their babies before. That is why I shall pose this question to you - has it ever happened with your Hamsters that the mum has eaten her young? :/

On the one hand, Pelagias says the mum will be overprotective, and on the other, andi says she will try to suffocate them (._.) - how do you know which she's leaning towards?

noscreenname, it'd definitely be best if you could completely remove romeo at the moment. :O If there's a way to separate the cage he and Juliet are in and remove the tube, you should definitely do that. If not, you should put Romeo into an empty fishtank or something for the time being, but they're going to HAVE to be separated. Odds are, you'll have to come up with some sort of improvised food and water setup for Romeo (since you should DEFINITELY move all of the food and water into the cage with the babies, so Juliet won't have to travel far to get it in her weakened and super-busy state), but he'll come through it fine.

The temporary situation won't last very long - as soon as the babies are weaned (about a month after they're born) they'll be good to be separated from the mother. Then, you'll have to separate the boys into one cage and the girls into another - if they start mating, you'll have big trouble. As soon as the kids are moved out, Romeo and Juliet can easily be reunited. :3 ... that is, if you're up for having more hamsters around.

Also, you should definitely inform your teacher as soon as possible of what happened. :O He probably didn't even know Juliet was pregnant, if he asked you to hold onto them. :3 You'll clearly be holding onto the creatures for the next 3-4 weeks, and he should be aware of that if he isn't already. :3


Asia - no, none of my hamsters have ever eaten any of their babies, thankfully. :/ During the first few days after her first birth, she was frantic and would bury her children every few hours... :/ I'd have to shove her aside and dig out the babies by hand, but eventually she got used to the situation and left them be. :O Honestly, it all depends on the situation... If the mother is afraid about her food supply, she'll eat some of her babies so she can feed the rest or if she's fed up with them she'll just do everything possible to be rid of the runts quickly. :X Out in the wild, it takes a lot of sacrifice for any of your babies to survive, y'kno... :O

I used to work in a petshop a couple of years ago, and every so often there was the occasional female hamster that came in pregnant, so we'd raise her and the babies before selling them on once they were old enough and fully weaned. Most of the hamsters that had babies tended to be slightly more aggressive and secretive during pregnancy and after birth when venturing out to forage for food. I assumed this was overprotectiveness, especially as a few hamsters were generally fine with being handled later on once the babies were weaned and sold on. I never personally experienced the 'cannibalistic type mother', but there was one that absolutely refused to rear its litter of pups and though the shop owner and I attempted hand-rearing, it wasn't successful, though the second (and fortunately last) time it happened, we managed to rear two to the weaned age.

I honestly can't say for sure whenever to tell if the mother is being overprotective or 'abusing' the pups, but making sure she's disturbed as little as possible and given plenty of food and water will decrease the chances of rejection or cannibalism and increase the chances of successful rearing.

I'm also partly suspecting calcium or vitamin/mineral deficiency as a possible factor for cannibalism, so adding broccoli or even peas to the hamster's diet may help, though not too many fresh vegetables as it may induce a bout of diarrhea.

Originally Posted by Noscreenname

So there I was replaying The Wind Waker in my basement, where I'm keeping the hamsters. They're not my hamsters, you see, but those of my biology teacher that I am taking care of over spring break. Their names are Romeo and Juliet, and Juliet was pregnant when I got her, although no one knew how far in pregnancy she was. I heard a squeaking noise, followed by another squeaking noise. I'm sure you can guess what happened next: I looked at Juliet, and saw 3 babies next to her!

The reason I'm saying this is, does anyone know what to do with newborn baby hamsters? Are there any special precautions I must take? Has anything similar happened to anyone here before?

I'd appreciate you're help.

Holy hera, my Biology teacher from last year has hamsters too!

Their names are Mrs. Peppers and Sergeant Peppers. Although my teacher only had Mrs. Peppers when I was in his class.

But, the only thing I've ever done with hamsters is pet them, so I can't help you. Although I can congratulate you. ^^

Thanks again, everyone!

Andi: the teacher is a girl, and she did know that Juliet was pregnant. She just didn't know exactly how pregnant, and didn't think she'd be giving birth anytime soon.

Here's the problem: Juliet gave birth in a small room at the top of the cage she is in. The cage is designed for the water bottles to be drunken in the main cage, and that is the only place they will fit. Seeing as the two rooms are connected by a tube, would it be possible for Juliet to move her babies to the main area? Would I be able to do it myself?

If I disconnect the two cages, there's an impossible to cover hole in both of them in which the hamsters will escape- and I know this through experience (the moment I brought the cages home, one of them completely fell apart! Luckily, I was able to fix it). Romeo seems to be fine on his own for now- should I just watch over him and make sure he doesn't cause any trouble?

:O Oh goodness, this is a kind of sticky situation then...

The babies can't and won't move down the tube to the main room, and Juliet probably won't travel there on her own... And Romeo absolutely can't be around Juliet or the kids right now - if she gets pregnant again this soon after the birth, they're all going to be in a heap of trouble.

Can you block off the tube with something like a rock so that Romeo can't get through, while still making sure there's a decent airflow to the area? Are there airholes in the side of the part of the cage she and the babies are in? That would solve one problem... Also, is there any way to pop off the top of the room she's in? :O If you can, you could probably tape or wire the water tube into place so that she can drink from that. Romeo won't be too happy about having to drink from a bowl, but if any of them aren't likely to take to the new eating arrangements, it's Juliet. :/

Wahhh, what an annoyance. :/

If worst comes to worst, the only way you can move the babies without injuring them is to very carefully scoop them up one-by-one into a large spoon or something and move them into the other area... You can't touch them, and they're so fragile right after birth that they can't really be disturbed. :/ That should only be done as a last-ditch measure, though. If there's any way to separate the two and get Juliet the food she needs without moving the babies, you should definitely try that first.

Oops, I didn't see the part of andi's post where the female gave birth for 6 hours straight! I probably shouldn't do anything until she's finished.

Yes the top does come off... but when it does, Juliet has a high chance of falling out. So, not a good idea. Of course, the cages have air holes scattered about them, so that's no a problem.

If I put moist food, such as fresh vegetables, in for Juliet to eat would it be enough water for her? or do I really have to move the hamsters? (I'll wait a few hours if so, as to not disturb the birth process... Juliet still is pretty fat.)

I'll do what I can with Romeo, last time I tried to cover up the hole he was strong enough to push right through. Juliet is, however, in a cage that he doesn't go into so commonly, so I think I'll leave him alone unless I catch him in that cage.

Well, I'm closing up for the night....
I put a food bowl in with Juliet, but she hasn't eaten anything....
I couldn't find a way to separate Romeo....
Still no accessible water for Juliet....
But maybe I'm just worrying too much....

I will post a video my sister took of the babies and her mother tomorrow (maybe).

BTW, Pelagias, did you get your first post from Answers.com? I looked there, and it used almost the same words!

I had this great idea early today: I held up the bottle on my own for Juliet to drink while she stayed in her place. This didn't seem to solve the problem in the long term, though.

Soon after that, we found the mother going down the tube- with most of the babies still trying to cling to her. One of the babies was even left behind. At this point I panicked: I got spoons, and first tried to use them to get all to the bottom part safely. The mother didn't want this, though, and tried going back up to the nest she made. So I then tried to use the spoons to get the babies back to where they were, which turned out to be a disaster. At one point I found Juliet with a baby in her mouth, and became horrified. Eventually I realized that she was simply moving the baby, not eating it. But it was still a scary experience for me, and my attempts to help only made everything worse.

I have since seen Juliet outside of the "nest" of babies twice, leaving the babies behind while she gets water. I have already put the food bowl in with her. So, I have done everything necessary except separate Romeo, which my mother thought would cause the cage to collapse again (as it did when we first got the hamsters).

After emailing my bio teacher, I got the following responses:

Originally Posted by My teacher's co-worker

How exciting!

There is nothing special you need to do...instinct takes care of it all, although you may want to separate the male and female -- she may be very defensive and try to fight him.

Sometimes hamsters do eat their babies. I am not sure why this happens but don't worry if it does. A while back I had a contact at Bucknell University where they do a lot of research with hamsters, and I was told that even under the most controlled laboratory conditions the mother hamsters eat their young sometimes.

I usually let students handle the newborns ...it is a very special experience to hold something that young and helpless. In my experience that has not caused the mother to reject the young or to object to having someone touch her pups. Play it by ear...Juliet will let you know if she doesn't want anyone interfering.

Enjoy this special experience!

Barbara Brown

Originally Posted by My teacher, Ms. Nieh

Oh lucky, David!

I can't believe I'm missing their birth! That means that that Juliet
must have become pregnant right after Mrs. Brown bought them at the pet
store.

Don't worry... like Ms. D said last week, just make sure the area where
the babies are and the cage are properly cleaned (the top tray). And
try not to touch the pups so that your scent doesn't get on them because
that can cause the mother to disown the pups... or eat them...

Don't be alarmed if the mother eats a few of the small ones if the
litter is too large (10-14). This is most often done to make sure that
there is enough resources for all surviving pups. If you would like, you
can feed the mother some carrot or other veggies.

I guess when we get back to school, we can study how to determine their
sex and get them ready to be given away near mid-May.

Thanks for taking care of them, David. At least you will have some
great stories for all of us about your spring break! How interesting..

The babies have already developed a bit of fur. I will post a video of them as soon as my sister puts it on youtube, which is as soon as her friend gets to helping her....

I used to own hamsters and one had babies so I'm experienced with it. While scrolling down I noticed it looks like you already have lots of advice so I'll share a bit with you.

There isn't really any precautions. For a while they will stay blind and just nurse on the mom. Once they start walking around you may want to seperate them from "juliet" while you aren't watching because she will EAT THEM! I never did this so it may be bad to seperate them but we started with 6 babies and ended with 2.

Otherwise not much to say but let nature take its course.

Oh and somebody HELP ME PROVE MY BROTHER WRONG!