How to Care For Hamster Babies
Hamster babies need special care. If your pet hamster just had babies you may be wondering what to do with them. You want to make sure that they are healthy and that they survive. That is why you should understand what type of care they need and how to provide this to them in the appropriate way. This article will explain how to care for your new family additions.
The first thing you need to do is keep the babies safe. You can help do this by leaving the hamster and her babies alone. If you bother the mother she may neglect the babies or even eat them. She will do these things if she is agitated or stressed.
You will simply want to give the mother food and water for the first few weeks and nothing else. If they are left alone, the mother will care for the babies.
You will want to place some toilet paper of tissues into the cage so that the mommy hamster can make a nest for her babies. It may actually be a good idea to do this just as soon as the figure out that the mom is pregnant. That way the nest will be ready for when the babies are born. Do not touch these little additions for the first several weeks after they are born.
You will also want to leave the cage alone once the babies are born. Do not worry about cleaning the cage as soon as they are born. It may be a good idea to clean the cage one time, really well, before the babies are born.
You still need to make sure that your mommy hamster has plenty of food and water in the cage. When you do need to put food and water in the cage, you are going to want to keep very calm and do it quietly.
You do not want to spend a lot of time staring into the cage at the babies either. It is ok to peak every now and then but avoid hanging out around the cage.
Once the babies begin to open their eyes you can place a water bottle in the cage. The babies are going to figure out how to use this very quickly but you are going to want to keep it low so that they can reach it. Do not put water in a bowl for the baby hamsters.
They have a large risk of falling into the bowl and drowning if you do. If you start to notice that the babies are not actually drinking for the bottle, you can attempt to give them very small pieces of cucumber. This will help keep them from becoming dehydrated and you will not have to worry about them as much.
You can usually hold the babies after the first two weeks but you are not going to want to hold them for a long period of time. This will cause the mother to panic and cause her stress. Also keep in mind that the mom may be a little bit more aggressive with her babies.
She is going to be very protective of them. In about three weeks you can begin to wean the babies away from the mom. You will want to separate the males from the females.
Caring for hamster babies is not very difficult if you simply remember to leave them alone. You do not want to cause the mother any stress and risk the chance of her harming her babies. Give them time to adapt to each other and everything should be fine.
Once they have started to grow you can make your presence known more frequently but in the beginning you want to keep your distance.