Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I started out with a 1.2 group of Russian Dwarf hamsters. The females started out having litters of 3-5 pups. I fed off a few, but ended up keeping a few as well. Now I'm up to about 7 hamsters. Lately I haven't been getting any litters. The last litter was only 1 baby which I thought was kind of odd. Then last night, I found several of the hamsters chowing down on a headless hamster (an adult). I figured I had a canibal on my hands. I noticed a female was about to give birth soon. As I was changing the cages today, the female started giving birth while I had them in a temporary box. She dropped 2 babies, and one of them already had it's head chewed off, with several hamsters participating in the feast. I don't know which one started it. There may have been more babies in the litter, with some already being eaten, as I only saw two babies total. Any idea on how I can stop this madness? I need my feeders for the snakes.
Paul

Seperate them all into individual areas....Hamsters are really not social creatures.. I used to raise them as well as gerbils.. Gerbils are much less prone to things like that...and more dependable in their production once they're over about 5 months of age.. I've had female gerbils throw 6-8 pups in consecutive litters averaging about every 45 days or so..

With the hamsters, you could try adding a bit more protein to their diet though even that may not help... I know alot of people keep hamsters in groups.. but it never worked out for me.. they always ate each other.

not dwarf hamsters..

dwarf hamsters do BETTER in a colony environment actually...

keep an eye on the group, i bet money its a female eating them and not the male.. could also be due to stress..

how often do you clean your dwarfs?..

i used to change their litter every 30 days.. and i never even noticed any stinkk..LOL

best of luck

dan

I actually clean them about once a week. You're right, they rarely stink. I just clean them because I'm doing the mice cage anyway.
That's interesting you think it would be one of the females. I was thinking maybe another male grew up and was wanting to plant his own seed, so was killing off the babies.
I plan to separate out the original 1.2 group from the ones that came along later until I find out what's going on.

I never owned Syrian/Teddy bear hampsters. I owned Dwarf hamster and bred them at one point.. I could never get them to set up in a colony even though I bought one batch all together..by the time the first week was out I had 4 dead and 3 wounded.. the females killed off my male.. Dunno what happened really... could have been an isolated incident but I had better luck with the gerbils anyway.... had 40 of them running around at one point.

especially dwarfs..

i had a nice colony setup.. with 10 groups of 1.3.. and they were producing quite well for about 5 months.. then all of a sudden they just all up and killed eachother off in like a 3 week span of time.. it was horrible.. and i havent kept them since.. LOL

all in all.. im a rat/mouse person myself..

dan

*chuckles* I'm definately a rat and Gerbil person...Especially now that I have a growing monitor.Right now, I'm scrambling to lay in a supply of food for him..I need to add another 6 females in (Which 3 rats are growing up right now)to get production where I need it. I have to feed off one of my breeders...she's bit me 4 times now...twice fairly deep but nothing a butterfly bandage wouldn't take care of. If they bite me..they're snake food..save in exceptional cases...she would have had to be producing over 14 pups at a time for me to keep her..as it was, she only had 8 out her first litter and 6 out of her second..all died because she refused to care for them. Luckily, I only needed pinkies...

I keep my dwarves in 1:2 or 1:3 colonies and the females produce litters of 4-8 every three weeks like clockwork. As long and the groups are introduced at a young age, they get along fine. Try to introduce them at an older age and somebody's going to get hurt.

I hate the nasty little things, though.

I have had similar occurences. Rarely, but only found 'the pelt' in the morning. I left the group alone and life went on. You could, if you group is getting large, divide it.
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Sonya

I used to raise Teddy Bear Hamsters WAY back when, when they first came out. Man what a bunch of evil little devils they were. I kept all of them in separate cages so they wouldn't kill each other. Only introduced the male when the female came in heat, let them breed, and then out he went. Could leave the babies together for a while but once they got old enough to breed, I had to separate them too. I hated these things, but wanted to make extra money to save for a horse. LOL. Had 20 or so cages going in my bedroom, each one equiped with a wheel. All night long with the running, it drove me crazy. I finally got rid of them.

Many years later I got mice and was absolutely thrilled over the difference. Just seeing them all get along in a group (most of the time) was worth having to put up with their odor. Now, though, I put a teaspoon of imatation vanilla in a gallon of water for them and it really cuts down on the smell. I know mice aren't as easy to breed as rats... but they are a thousand times better than Hamsters in my eyes.

MissHisssss.