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Baby Hamsters ate a newborn hamster Why2007-11-24 21:58:17

When i say baby hamsters I mean they are just starting to open their eyes! We saw the last minute one of the baby ha,sters with the only newborn eating it..We would have stopped it but it was already in the babies mouth. We think the newborn may have had a fatality because it was really weak.

Why did the babies eat the newborn??

Answers:

When my hamster had pups, the siblings had the weakest one (whom I named "Tiny") for lunch. I vowed then and there never to name the runt again.

They're not evil, they're not mean. They're rodents. They don't think in terms of hamsteracide, they think in terms of "you're not getting any bigger, and you'd make a good snack".

Make sure that the mom and babies have protein, and then perhaps they won't view their siblings as meal supplements. But that's no guarantee.

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Birds and other animals do the same... Chicks will gang up on the weakest & push it out of the nest so they get the food & grow to be the strongest.

sorry 'bout that :-(

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cause it was the weekest and they have to get food

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I think your hamsters are malnourished. Feed them more and better stuff.

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because the mother knows if the baby wont survive so it eats it or someone touched it

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Syrian hamsters? If so, the mothers and the two litters should be kept apart. They're very territorial, combining litters wouldn't help that any. The baby was either born dead or killed by one of the mothers (something wrong or mother stressed...even peeking in the nest can stress them). At least, I'm assuming there are two mothers, but maybe there is one...and she's fostering some? Anyhow, they (probably babies too) typically eat the dead to remove them from the nest and living area...for sanitary reasons. In the wild, the decaying animal could cause disease or attract predators. Although, in some cases there might be a nutritional explanation. At least, this is what I've always been told and have read many times before. It certainly makes sense.

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It was the weakest and most likely it was dead. My baby hamsters ate their baby sister (only around 7 days old). Their baby sister got attacked by Papa and probably died. When I checked on them in the morning, the siblings were devouring her legs. It was so sad. But yeah, I hope I answered your question.