Hamster Horror!!!

Today was the first time I have met someone who actually had many years of experience handling hamsters. Since there wasn't much to do after church, I went to have McD with some friends. Anselm and Aurea related their horrific experience on how their mother hamster started to cannibalize on their babies!! They screamed and they were so disgusted by the whole incident.

I for one know nothing about rearing hamsters, didn't know immediately that there was such a thing and it was quite shocking. Of course I've heard of cannibalism in the animal kingdom but not amongst mammals. Their description of the entire incident was quite graphic, blood in the cage head torn off, limbs disengaged from their puny bodies. I'm sure the baby hamsters didn't even know what ate them. What kind of survival instinct would you expect from baby hamsters moments after coming out from their mother's womb???

Anselm and Aurea knew that this was possible but it had never happen before, until today when they sort of let their guard off. They told me that usually before it happens, they will immediately separate the mother from the babies or separate the babies from the father.

They had a theory. If the babies come in contact with the father, the babies will lose their original scent and the mother can sense this. When this happens, the mother will get rid of the smell by eating her own babies alive!! So when it happened, they really can't do anything for the poor tiny hamster except maybe keep the hamsters a distance away from Mama Hamster Hannibal.

After McD, we went to their house a to see some hamsters. They introduced me to their hamstervillage. I call it Hamsterville. They had three cages with quite a lot of hamsters. I think if I were a hamster I would have enjoyed it. There was a chimney which would seriously make them fit but nearly impossible to scale. Anselm told me that there was once one hamster manage to climb all the way to the top and got stuck there, I was like WOW!! Of course there is the wheel. Overall it was really cosy except a little overcrowded. Then, they introduced each of their family members. Then they showed me the mother. She looks so cute, and even the untrained eye can tell the difference between the male and female hamster. The male hamster kind of have more rough fur and was more aggressive. Of course their private parts can tell the difference instantly. The mum has better looking fur and they were more flowing.

Then something happened. It wasn't so obvious at first cos hamster babies are so small, smaller than half your thumb. But their maroon pinkish bodies sort of gave it away. It was then I witness the disturbing sight of Mama Hamster Hannibal nibbling away one of her baby. Even when there were 4 of us surrounding the hamster cage, we couldn't spot the baby, camouflaged by the hay and nuts in the cage. Everyone went "eeeeewww....." blearghhh..." No!!!...." It nibbled and bit the head off first. Then tiny speckles of hamster blood spewed out. The rest is a lost cause. Later on we even heard a soft snap.

I went to look up on this. And it turned out that it is important to separated the babies from the mother at least a day. The most important thing is, you must not touch the baby because the mother can detect the change in scent otherwise it becomes food for the mother. The mother is usually hungry after the whole pregnancy thing. So it is important to give the mother some food.

Hamsterland recommends this:
You should keep the mother and father separated for at least one month.
Hamster mothers eat their babies mainly when the babies are ill or injured and the mother know they won't be able to survive. They don't do this because of hate, just because of caution.