Why do people say hamsters eat their babies? BECAUSE THEY EAT THEIR FUCKING BABIES! A cautionary tale.
By Margaret Louise
It was 3 o’clock in the morning on Friday, February 22nd. I was just falling asleep when I heard several high-pitched squeaks from my newly-acquired hamster, Adora. Bleary eyed, I reached up to turn on my light and see what was the matter. I peered over my pillow into her cage and saw it: a pink blob, as far as I could tell. But wait! Then it moved. My first thought was that somehow Adora had got so caught in her little hamster wheel that her leg had been torn off and was twitching, severed on the ground. I cleared the sleep junk from my eyes to get a better look and saw three more pink blobs, all squirming about.
I’ll admit it took a couple of minutes to realize what was going on. My initial fear that somehow Adora had lost all her limbs was tossed out the window when I saw her saunter out of her box and look up at me. That’s when it clicked: babies. My hamster had just had babies (AKA pups). I also realized that Adora was not taking care of her pups, as she kept kicking them around her cage. And I didn’t even know she was pregnant.
My old friend Rationality left me then. I grabbed my laptop and, with the weak signal of a neighbor’s wireless router (charmingly named Analmedusa), began frantically posting on my zoology-major friend’s Facebook wall, shaking and crying the whole time. 3am logic told me that since she breeds birds and wakes at 6, she would know what to do. Enter my brother, pleasantly tipsy after a night out. As always when I am home, especially with my pets, he comes into my room to annoy. I can only imagine the sight he was met with. Me, curled up at the bottom of my bed, crying, shaking, and trying desperately to type. He asked what was wrong and I shakily pointed to Adora’s cage. Normally, when that happens (as I have had many hamsters in the past), this means my hamster has died, so the pity starts right away. But instead, he looked in the cage, turned to me, and said, “Can I poke them?”
I was still virtually hyperventilating when my brother opened the cage and started poking the pups into a pile, while giving Adora a stern talking-to. I tried to tell him to leave them alone, that she won’t care for them if they get his scent, but he was not really listening. He did notice how I flinched whenever one of the pups made a noise, and so gave me the best advice: to sleep in the den.
My mom came down to see what’s been going on, but I couldn’t talk about it, and my brother was not giving very coherent sentences. After watching some TV to get my mind off things, I finally fell asleep closer to 4:30am. When I checked on Adora the next day, the babies were gone, and she’s acting normal — if slightly fuller.
Fast-forward to almost a month later. I’m back at my university home in Guelph. I had been busy all day and went to my room for a well-earned nap. When I wake up, I look over at all my other little hamsters, but notice something odd in Stan and Brutus’ cage. There’s some sort of fluffy red thing in there with them. I go over for a closer look and see that it is not a cotton ball, as I had originally assumed — it’s the mutilated corpse of Stan, my favorite of all my hamsters. Apparently, Stan had died, and Brutus had decided that eating his internal organs was a good idea. Once again, I freaked out. I ran upstairs and hid under in a blanket in a corner.
This is where my housemate Jennica found me. She didn’t know what was going on and used my brother’s approach to dealing with things: poking them. Although this time it was me. I couldn’t go in my room all day.
All of this points to one conclusion: that hamsters will, in fact, eat each other. A lot. And it is scarring. Just beware.
My sympathy to you for these traumatic experiences.
However, perhaps in future before taking on any more hamsters, it would be best if you did a bit of research about them first.
Firstly, when hamsters have babies, it is absolutely crucial that they do NOT be disturbed. Due to the fact that they are prey animals, if disturbed, they feel the need to destroy anything that may encourage the disturbance to return. This means their babies and it is well documented. I am sorry to inform you, but as their owner, you should have taken responsibility for them and actually stopped your brother from poking them rather than just trying to tell him.
Secondly, hamsters are solitary creatures. Syrians are well known for being aggressive to others of their own kind and there are countless reports of other hamsters doing the same despite what the pet shops say about being them being sociable.
As I said at the start, though, you have my sympathy as those times must have been horrific. However, hopefully you will have also learned from them which will make you aware of such behaviours in these creatures and therefore a better owner.