I keep hearing people talk about Dwarf Hamsters killing and eating their young. In particular the myth is that dwarfies kill their young if we touch them. THIS IS NOT TRUE! I have never seen this happen. I had my first litters in the summer of 2000 and I have 80+ hamsters. I figure we are past the 30th generation now. If it was going to happen I would have seen it by now!

I had never had any kind of hamster when I started breeding dwarfies so I had no preconceived notions. I have just observed them to see what they do. Dwarfie babies are born very immature and undeveloped. The mother must stay with them continuously for the first 24-48 hours. They are so fragile that many of them die. This is how nature planned it. Many babies are born, but not all survive. They eat the dead babies to protect the living. Nothing attracts predaters faster than the smell of a dead animal.

I have seen a strange male kill a baby, but not a father. I saw a pregnant aunt kill her sister's baby(I moved her so the rest survived). Very rarely 3 week old babies will eat their newborn siblings as they are being born. This is rare and I beleive it only happens in the extreme summer heat when moms can't nurse anyhow. Mom let them do it. Usually the older litter helps keep the newborns alive. The bennefit out weighs the risk. Removing the father drops the survival rate to less than 50%.

I have had a couple of females kill their young. They just weren't into motherhood. If I remove the babies right away, other mothers will nurse them. I have had success with that. I hand a nursing mother babies from another litter and she takes them from me and raises them . That really defeates the theory that mom will kill them if you touch them. The babies smell of the other mother and they smell of me. Am I sure that those babies survived? YES. I had already handled the adoptive mother's babies at birth and I knew how many there were. Also the new babies were a diferent color. I haven't had a mom kill a fosterling, but sometimes she didn't get them soon enough to save them.

How fragile are baby hamsters? If the litter is big, the first born has to wait to nurse until she is finished delivering and that can be fatal. Dad has to keep the babies warm at that time. Some males are terrific, their children survive and they are well represented in my gene pool. A few males are "dead beat" dads and they have few surviving young. If they are not nursed contiuously and kept warm, they die. As much as I can, I keep putting babies back in with their moms. I have even built a nest for a mom and helped her settle in. If the female gets startled and runs around, the babies get cold and will die. They are very undeveloped at birth and they die so quickly. Anything that dies gets eaten, but the mom did not kill them. They are quite distressed when they lose babies. They grieve, but they don't kill.

Catherine that is a fantastic insight into the world of parenthood of dwarf hamsters from a very experience hamster keeper and breeder.
I find it tremendously uplifting to see and hear of such high standards of care and compassion from these wonderful little creatures and, as a male myself, feel a little pride and redemption for us males (with all the fighting and not getting along problems that us male animals cause, that is well documented throughout our forums and blog) from the wonderful example that father dwarf hamsters can demonstrate, as our Sunny has time and again.

A female just gave birth a few hours ago and it is not going well. She was sitting in a corner looking unsure of what to do. Two babies were in another corner dead. Dad had the other baby and was keeping them warm. I removed the dead and she seemed more relaxed. I got her into her house and gave her the baby and she is in there now trying to nurse it. It may be too late, but she accepted her baby from me. Good for dad he took over when mom was having problems. This may be a milk issue or the delivery may have been hard. They don't all survive, but at least we have tried. She was so glad to see the living baby when I gave it to her.

At least they are in the hands of a good midwife, we've been lucky with our two litters all has gone very smoothly. I hope some survive to reward the parents (and your) efforts.

Ooo, good luck , hope they're all OK.

Re your thread, I wonder why it is so commonly written about hamsters killing their babies.  It's something that I've always been lead to believe was a risk and that you should never touch the pups - I looked in some of our books that we have on hamster care and they reinforce this fact, not distinguishing between different breed types.

I wonder if the fact that some pups will naturally die and the parents eats the bodies to instinctively protect their remaining family, has lead to this belief?

Here is a some of footage of Elly dragging a baby back into the nest, again showing her maternal instincts.



Sunny is also fussing around over the babies as well, early nomination placed for parents of the year 2008  

Quoted Text

I wonder if the fact that some pups will naturally die and the parents eats the bodies to instinctively protect their remaining family, has lead to this belief?

This is exactly what I think happens. Babies do die and parents have to eat the young for health/safety reasons. You will notice the female this afternoon had not eaten her two dead babies. She was still upset about the loss. Another few minutes and she would have taken care of them. While she was attending to that, dad had the surviving baby with him and was keeping it warm.
I want to make something clear about handling babies. I would never pick up the babies and walk off with them. I put my hand in with the hamsters and we deal with things on their level. If I have to take a baby out to deal with a medical issue I do it quietly and return it quietly. I always speak to my hamsters and let them smell my hand. Sure mom will pinch me when she has babies, she is nervous. I don't react and she calms down.
I do put off a full cage cleaning until the babies are 5-7 days. If I can leave a newborn cage uncleaned I will. If it is just too dirty and therefore not good for babies, I do a partial clean. I remove the parents, but do not disturb the nest of babies. I use my hand to scoop out as much dirty bedding as possible and then add new bedding. then I return the parents.
It is a matter of approaching your hamsters with respect for their territory and reasuring them that you are a friend. Like I said, I get away with fostering and that is strange babies from another mother being offered by my hand. Caitrin prefered her foster son to her own babies.  

I agree. Hamsters are smart how to know to eat the body so a predator does not sniff it out - even though its a bit gross.

They probably would find things we do gross. We just don't know what our pets think of us. I know they like me and trust me. They have some respect, but they do not look up to me as a being that is wiser. They trust their own instincts. So far the rescued newborn is holding its own and mom is happily in a nest with it. It is sad when they lose a whole litter. They do grieve. It is sadest when it is an old couple since there will not be a new litter. Young couples just try again.
I think I was able to see what actually takes place because I had not done any reading about hamsters. I simply chose to start breeding them and observe what happens. I knew enough about animals in a general way, but I was blissfully ignorante of the things that everyone knows to be true(but no-one has ever seen it. Perhaps dwarfies raised under very stressfull conditions kill their young because they are so stressed. That would not be normal behavior and pprobably has little to do with the babies being touched.

I had 3 little girls in today and I let them handle babies. I held a mom so she would feel safe and they each gentley cupped a 2 day old baby in their hands for a short time. Mom is back nursing then and all is well. I didn't let them handle the 7 day old ones from a nervous mother. I wasn't afraid for the babies, I just don't like upsetting a nervous mom. Her male is no help and she feels stressed because she is carrying the whole load. They other female has a great mate and is very relaxed.
I have never seen a female kill babies because I touched them. That extends to others touching them as well.
I have seen very little baby killing for any reason. I would say less than 1%.

That just proves they don't eat the babies because you touch them. Lucky girls! Even I have not held a 2 day old hamster, lol. I think Elly has given up of having more litters - which is a good thing.

It is good that Elly is giving you a rest. She could still have a spring litter though.
I find my biggest baby losses come from fathers that don't help and the weather. If the weather turns too bad the girls sleep and I think they forget their babies or can't manage. In the bad winter weather and the extreem summer heat babies don't make it. It  is sad, but nature never intended them all to survive.
The best parents have the most surviving babies and therefore the most grandchildren. The  better the parents are the more represented they are in my gene pool. Moms that kill babies don't pass the tendancy on because their babbies don't survive. It is not the fact of babies being touched. If I have to intervene because babies are not being looked after chances are the babies will not suvive anyhow. If I help parents with big litters keep their babies in the nest they have a higher survival rate. I can help if the parents are doing a good job, but I can't help if they are not. If mom can't/won't nurse the babies all I can do is foster them. They are so fragile.
I watched a big litter being born on thursday and as she was having babies dad was picking them up and taking them into the house. What a good dad!

Just out of interest, what is the biggest litter you have ever had? And have you ever had a litter of all girls or all boys?

Quoted Text

what is the biggest litter you have ever had

The biggest litter was eleven, but none survived. In the end that couple never had a surviving baby. They couldn't figure out how to look after babies and only had a few litters anyhow. The next biggest was nine and they all survived, but Anna, Cocoa Bean and myself were up all night for days keeping them warm and with their mother. I have had litters of eight and all have made it. It depends on the parents and on the weather.

Quoted Text

have you ever had a litter of all girls or all boys

Yes and yes. Some males have all girl litters and most of their children (sometimes all) are female. Some males only have sons. More males are born than females so it is more noticeable if a litter is all girls. It is seldom ever half boys and half girls.  

Hi

Just found this site and im really glad i did.  i have 2 dwarf hammies. one male and one female. got them for my little boy as his syrian died.  well i put them both in to large rotastack at the same time and they bonded really well.  babygirl is in charge while chunkymonkey is very laid back.  decided to put them in the playpen for my little boy to play with.  they decided to have lots of sex instead, right in front of him.  very embarassing haveing to explain that one.  well we have just had 3 little babies.  they are the cutiest in the world.  babygirl has always been a bit hypo, she always bites, she'll climb out into you hand and run about then try to take your finger off.  chunky monkey has a nibble but never draws blood.  since having the babies, not sure when that happened, they all have fur and are just beginning to open their eyes.  mum runs about feeding, playing, and doing all the usual stuff.  dad sleeps at the top of the tubes all day and keeps guard.  when hes in the nest he looks at babies and has a sniff, then ignores them.   when mum is away he keeps them warms.  so many sites say dad will kill them etc, however i have found he is really docile and a good dad.  he keeps them all safe.  its like other people have said its nature at work.  if they were in the wild they would act the same way.  i havent cleaned of touched them, however when mum and dad are out of nest i remove some of the dirty bits then put in clean bedding at the top which mum and dad take to nest to replenish it.  it is frightening when you suddenly find youself with pups, and you read all the horror stories, but i feel that you should just play it by ear.  constant vigalance is needed, as all hammies are different.  no two will ever be the same.  i hope other people read this thread, i know it quite old now but the info should really help other hammy owners out there.  i'll stop waffleing now.

I am glad out discussion helped. I have always handled my babies and my males are the best dads ever. I do clean the cages, but very carefully. If the babies are very young I remove soiled bedding and put in clean stuff. I have moved  newborns and their parents to a different cage on the first day and it has worked, but you do have to be careful. Once the babies have fur and look stronger I fully clean the cage. I think a dirty cage is worse than the risk of disturbing the parents. My hamsters are used to me handling them and I talk to them.

Moms do nip. They are nervous and it is their way of being in control. Sometimes that nip is my first sign that a hamster is pregnant. They calm down later and are just fine.

You need to remove the babies by 21 days. You do not want the daughters to get pregnant. Dwarfies are very fertile and your female may already be pregnant again.