Hamsters are cute and fluffy little creatures that sleep during the day and are active at night. But often owners have no idea what passions can occur in the cage at night. The owner is in shock when he sees the consequences. One hamster can easily eat another. Or, which happens quite often, the female eats all the offspring or only part of the cubs. To prevent this behavior, you first need to find out the reasons and eliminate them.
Before getting a hamster, you should study information about care, maintenance and diet. Hamsters are herbivores. Their diet consists of a mixture of grains, vegetables and fruits. Both in the wild and at home, hamsters do not simply eat other hamsters.
The most common mistake owners make is failure to comply with maintenance rules. Such mistakes often result in the adult hamster eating the offspring or even another adult hamster.
In what cases do hamsters eat other hamsters?
- An adult hamster ate another adult hamster.
- The adult male ate his offspring.
- The female ate the male.
- The female ate part of the offspring.
- The female ate all the offspring.
Each action has its own reasons for such behavior. You can avoid such situations by following the rules for keeping adult hamsters and properly caring for a pregnant female.
Excessive attention from owners
Close attention and excessive care will harm not only human relationships, but can also cause cannibalism in female hamsters. Since this rodent is a solitary animal, and after the birth of the cubs, the female needs a secluded environment and tranquility even more, excessive care will only harm these animals. Do not pick up hamsters and do not get into the cage. Let your family see you less.
Foreign odors repel the mother hamster. Sensing a foreign smell, she does not identify the cubs as her own creatures and, as a result, abandons them and destroys them. Do not touch the hamster family for one to two weeks after the babies are born!
It is necessary to prepare in advance for the new offspring of furry rodents. When cleaning the cage, if you find hamster supplies, do not touch them. This is a strategic supply of products, which unpleasantly traumatizes the animal’s psyche in the event of its loss, even to the point of an uneven breakdown in a pregnant female. Only spoiled products can be thrown away to avoid the growth of putrefactive bacteria, odor and poisoning.
To arrange your own nest, it is recommended to put a few paper napkins. Your task is to fill the drinking bowl with clean drinking water and pour food into the feeder on time. This is all that the rodent needs from its owner at this time. Nature will do the rest.
Too early pregnancy and childbirth
A female hamster reaches childbearing age at 4 months of age. This is a physical opportunity to bear and feed offspring, but psychological maturation comes a little later. A mother who is too young may be frightened of her cubs and “eliminate” them simply because she does not know what to do with them next (you can compare this with pregnancy at 13-14 years old in a person; such a young girl rarely becomes a good mother). In subsequent pregnancies, such a female becomes an exemplary mother; past experience does not in any way affect the new cubs.
Possible reasons for eating baby hamsters
Offspring with health problems
In the wild, in order for the entire viable hamster species to survive, weak offspring are destroyed, which will interfere with the rodents' ability to escape from danger.
Domestic hamsters, which have long been tamed by people, remain true to their natural instincts, developed over centuries, which have saved them for a long time in the wild.
Born sick and weak, hamsters are usually eaten by their mothers. Injuries received by hamsters before or after birth equally make newborn babies weak and are immediately classified as non-viable. Such cubs, with almost one hundred percent probability, will be destroyed.
Important! If you notice a sick or even dead hamster in the cage, do not remove it; the female herself decides what to do with it. Your unnecessary interference may cause the death of all remaining offspring.
This is due to foreign odors. Not being able to smell herself, the mother may start to panic and kill the rest of the newborn hamsters. Don't worry, these rodents eat everything, including meat. No matter how shocking it may sound, the female herself will “clean up” her nest.
If this does not happen within several days, then use gloves to remove the dead cub. This will at least somehow protect other hamsters from your smell.
Unpreparedness to become a mother
Often, the first pregnancy of a female hamster can cause severe anxiety, anxiety and drive the young mother into a stressful situation.
Unpreparedness for maternal responsibilities can be another reason for cannibalism in hamsters.
The female is not ready for pregnancy, nor for giving birth and caring for her babies. This reason can provoke the killing of unwanted offspring. The subsequent gestation of offspring and their birth usually do not cause such a reaction in the female.
Weight of cubs
Many or seemingly large numbers of newborn babies. Having become a mother for the first time, doubts overcome both people and animals. Can I cope, do I have enough milk? Your female, who was very small herself, gave birth. I lost a lot of energy and vitality. And then numerous newborn offspring squeal nearby and ask for food. The hamster may panic and think that she won’t be able to feed everyone, and it will be difficult to cope with such a horde of babies. Therefore, this is where natural instinct kicks in; several individuals of the offspring can be eaten.
In order not to provoke the occurrence of such a situation, the owner needs to improve living conditions and improve the hamster’s nutrition as much as possible. She now needs nutrients and minerals, as well as vitamins. Feed her special food for pregnant females, vegetables and fruits. Don't forget about clean water.
Male living with offspring
After the process of mating a female with a male, they must immediately be separated into different cells. This is due to the fact that the male is completely devoid of any parental instincts. He will not even think about whether to leave his offspring or not, he will destroy them.
Some owners think that the hamster is jealous of the offspring of the female and receives little attention from her. In fact, such passions do not need to be attributed to them. Let us remember that the hamster is a loner by nature. And the struggle for territory is ongoing all the time. Here in the cage there is a whole brood of competitors, which are easier to deal with while they have not yet grown.
Why do hamsters eat each other?
Cannibalism among hamsters is not always associated with the birth of helpless babies. These rodents fiercely defend their territory from relatives and other competitors. In nature, a killed enemy is a valuable source of protein food. Another reason: the dead animal must be disposed of so as not to attract predators. In freedom, the loser has the opportunity to escape, but in a cage - no.
It is a proven fact: hamsters eat their relatives, and, on occasion, other, smaller rodents.
Hamsters must be kept separately, otherwise they will fight among themselves. Gender does not matter. The owner may remain unaware of the hostility for quite a long time, because fights occur late at night, and the animals sleep during the day. If one of the opponents manages to gain the upper hand, the second hamster will mysteriously disappear. A hamster may not be able to eat an entire adult animal, or there will not be enough time. But the situation when a hamster ate a hamster is not an out of the ordinary event. They don't bite each other because they don't have enough food. Hamsters eat a corpse not so much out of hunger as guided by instincts. At home, the owner usually discovers in the morning the bloody remains, bones, or chewed off head of one of the hamsters.
Aggression towards adults
Adults in the wild fight for territory, but cannibalism rarely occurs.
The hamster knows exactly what territory he needs to create reserves and drives the competitor away from his lands. Why do hamsters eat each other in captivity? Once in the cage, the animals fight for their territory to the last. It doesn’t matter what gender the hamster is, by nature the animals are individualists. They do not want to share either their territory or their pantry with others.
Two males, two females, a pair of opposite sexes - the division of territory will happen in any case. Adult hamsters eat each other if they feel oppressed.
Important: if in a hamster company there are several contenders for the attention of one female, aggressive behavior increases many times over. Thanks to the nocturnal lifestyle, the owner is not aware of territorial wars until the last moment. Peacefully snoring or chewing hamsters turn into monsters at night
If the animals decide that they are cramped in one cage, it is a matter of time to find the loser with marks of the winner’s teeth. Situations when, after a vacation, the owner does not find one of the pets are not uncommon. It is usually believed that the second animal was able to escape, because it is impossible to suspect a furry, sleepy neighbor of a crime
Peacefully snoring or chewing hamsters turn into monsters at night. If the animals decide that they are cramped in one cage, it is a matter of time to find the loser with marks of the winner’s teeth. Situations when, after a vacation, the owner does not find one of the pets are not uncommon. It is usually believed that the second animal was able to escape, because it is impossible to suspect a furry, sleepy neighbor of a crime
Thanks to the nocturnal lifestyle, the owner is not aware of territorial wars until the last moment. Peacefully snoring or chewing hamsters turn into monsters at night. If the animals decide that they are cramped in one cage, it is a matter of time to find the loser with marks of the winner’s teeth. Situations when, after a vacation, the owner does not find one of the pets are not uncommon. It is usually believed that the second animal was able to escape, because it is impossible to suspect a furry, sleepy neighbor of a crime.
Solution: a large cage with an abundance of food will solve the problem of the presence of relatives, but in case of hunger or stress, the war will break out with renewed vigor. It is better to divide the cage with a partition or buy another one to stop adults from eating their own kind.
The hamster is not a toy, but a part of nature. He lives by its laws. There is no need to humanize the animal; it is never lonely or bored. He does not need friends and does not seek to spend time with his owner. At the same time, it is easily tamed, willingly breeds in captivity and will allow you to spend many fascinating minutes watching it. A few simple rules will help you avoid unpleasant situations and not force the good-natured animal to defend itself and its territory.
Numerous offspring
On average, the number of children born at the same time in a hamster ranges from 7 to 20. If the female thinks that she is unable to feed all the offspring, she eats her hamsters to give the rest enough nutrition. She is told about difficulties by severe pain in her nipples. Babies, trying to suck out even a drop of milk, injure their papillae. This does not happen when there is enough milk in the breast for all the babies.
To improve lactation, a nursing mother is provided with a sufficient amount of clean drinking water and food. Moreover, the presence of only grain mixtures is not enough. During this period, the hamster requires an increased amount of protein food: boiled meat, eggs, cottage cheese, fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs. With good nutrition, the likelihood of eating offspring decreases.
Features of reproduction
Among the people, hamsters are known as very prolific animals, although this is only partly true. In captivity, hamsters actually breed all year round, but in the wild they obey instincts and reproduce only in the spring and summer. On average, a female gives birth 2–4 times per year, and the number of cubs in a litter varies greatly - from 1 to 18, but on average 8 animals are born in a litter.
The ability to reproduce offspring occurs already at the age of 1.5–2 months, although at such an early period pregnancy may not end successfully. It is optimal to mate a female from 4 months and a male from 3 months. In this case, the male can be used as a sire until the age of 10 months.
Did you know? Did you know? The most numerous offspring of a hamster is a litter of 26 cubs, which was produced by a hamster from the American Miller family in 1974.
How to behave correctly for pet owners
The main and indispensable condition is to place the cage in a quiet and peaceful place.
Don't bother your pets unnecessarily. Explain to your children in an accessible form why you are taking such measures. Prevent other pets from accessing the cage. You can look at the kids, once again make sure that everything is in perfect order. But do not touch or move them under any circumstances. And, of course, do not forget about enhanced nutrition and fresh drink for the young mother. Original publication: Why Do Hamsters Sometimes Eat Their Babies? Author: Adrienne Kruzer. Source: thesprucepets.com Photo: pixabay.com
Aggression towards adults
It doesn’t matter what gender the hamster is, by nature the animals are individualists. They do not want to share either their territory or their pantry with others.
Two males, two females, a pair of opposite sexes - the division of territory will happen in any case. Adult hamsters eat each other if they feel oppressed.
Thanks to the nocturnal lifestyle, the owner is not aware of territorial wars until the last moment. Peacefully snoring or chewing hamsters turn into monsters at night. If the animals decide that they are cramped in one cage, it is a matter of time to find the loser with marks of the winner’s teeth. Situations when, after a vacation, the owner does not find one of the pets are not uncommon. It is usually believed that the second animal was able to escape, because it is impossible to suspect a furry, sleepy neighbor of a crime.
Solution: a large cage with an abundance of food will solve the problem of the presence of relatives, but in case of hunger or stress, the war will break out with renewed vigor. It is better to divide the cage with a partition or buy another one to stop adults from eating their own kind.
The hamster is not a toy, but a part of nature. He lives by its laws. There is no need to humanize the animal; it is never lonely or bored. He does not need friends and does not seek to spend time with his owner. At the same time, it is easily tamed, willingly breeds in captivity and will allow you to spend many fascinating minutes watching it. A few simple rules will help you avoid unpleasant situations and not force the good-natured animal to defend itself and its territory.
Newborn defects
Since the number of hamsters born is quite large, they are often born with pathologies or injure each other after birth in the struggle for food. A hamster eats her children if she considers them incapable of life. This way she saves them from suffering in the future. Some cubs are already born dead. Usually the female eats them on the first day. If she has taken such a newborn to the corner of the cage, she needs to carefully remove it without disturbing the rest of the offspring. Long forceps or tweezers will help with this.
