Why must I seperate the father hamster from the mother and the babies immediately after birth?

Question

I heard people saying that I will have to seperate the male hamster from the female and the babies after she has given birth. Why is that so? Will the male attack the babies or something?

I don't believe that pets will kill their own children.

Answer 1

I'm going to presume you are talking about dwarves, because two syrians should never be housed together, and would have fought badly before babies were even born.

General thing to keep in mind with hamsters, is that they breed quickly, they gestate quickly, and the breed again within 24 hours of birth. For instance, if you have a mom & a dad in a cage, within 21 days, you'll have a batch of babies.

If dad is left in the cage, within 18-21 days, you'll have a 2nd batch of babies. At this point, batch 1 is still nursing, but almost hitting puberty. In 1 week, the babies from batch A will be reproducing. 3 weeks after batch B is born, batch C is born. 1 week to 2 weeks later, all of the female babies will have their own litters.

Basically, that means from the day you put two hamsters in together (male & female), you will have at least 3 batches of hamster pups within 9 weeks time. Within 10, you'll have more. Dwarves give birth to litters of 2-15 pups at a time.

So, let's say litter A is only 3 pups- 1 boy, 2 girls. Litter B is 9 pups, 4 boys, 5 girls. Litter C is 5 pups, 4 girls, 1 boy. Litter A1 is 4 pups, 2 girls, 2 boys. Litter A2 is 2 pups, both girls. At this point, it's been 10 weeks since you bought mom & dad. Your two hamsters are now 25 hamsters, with Mom pregnant again, two female pups pregnant, and litter B gearing up to hit puberty. Within 6 months, you'll literally have close to 200 hamsters.

That right there is why a male hamster should be removed BEFORE the pups are born, and all hamsters should be sexed at 3 weeks, and seperated exactly 4 weeks after birth. Girls can remain with mom, boys can be introduced to dad.

This is if they are dwarves, keep in mind. Syrians will reproduce just as quickly, but they are solitary creatures, and WILL attack each other.

Pups are only attacked when the parent feels they are in danger, or senses that they are sick. A male dwarf hamster will act just like a female, with the exception of being unable to nurse the pups. He'll sit on them to keep them warm, he'll carrall them back to the nest if they get too far from it, he'll bring food to the mom. Males are very family oriented, and want to make sure thier pups are safe. They will not attack for no reason.

Females are the exact same. Now, if it's a Syrian, the male WILL attack, because he's extremly territorial, however, he should not be in with the mom to begin with, and will attack her as well. He requires his own space. When syrian pups are 4-5 weeks old, they need to be removed from Mom's space. Boys can be kept together for a few more weeks, and girls can be kept together for a few more weeks. But once they hit about 3 months old, thier playful wrestling will turn into violent fighting, blood being drawn, etc.

I hope this helps you out. If you've already got pups, and have mom & dad in together, expect another batch roughly 3 weeks to the day from the birth of the first set, and remove the dad before then. She's already going to be pregnant, and he WILL help her out quite a bit, so removing him now is only going to isolate him. If it's been at least 24 hours, just leave him in there for now. Remove him about 4 days before the pups are due. So, if the babies were born yesterday, the 19th, then remove dad on October 5th. No later, or you risk having the new pups born, and a 3rd set "cooking", so to speak.

Once the pups are 3 weeks old, you can sex them quite easily. Pet shop employees generally have no clue how to do it, so here's a diagram:
http://www.hamsterific.com/HamsterUniversity/SexingHamsters.html

Answer 2

Pets really do kill their own children. even the mother sometimes does but you can't separate a mother from the babies so you'll just have to take that chance. After six weeks you also have to separate the males from the females otherwise you;ll have loads of hamsters. I've had seven hamsters myself and I had to separate all of them because they were attacking each other. I even had to rename one "Scarface"because he was attacked by all the other hamsters.

Answer 3

Actually it is the female hamsters that may kill the offspring. There are several reasons, the most common being:

- the mother is feeling stressed or threatened

- human scent has rubbed off on the offspring, which causes the mother to think they are intruders

There are several animals that may endanger there offspring, no matter how much we don't like it and how horrifying it is. That's nature, though.

Answer 4

Yea, the male hamster could eat the babies... the female hamster will drive the male away, anyways.

Answer 5

it is not definite that he'll eat them as stated here by so many people, but he might. the mother also might. u may not believe it but it happens often with many animals---it's from stress, fear, or when the babies are malformed. the main reason for separation is because the mom can immediately become pregnant again which is not good for anyone. she wont have enough milk for so many babies so close together which will definitely stress her & make her more likely to kill them. also it's stressful on her body---shortening her lifespan with each birth.

also, syrian hamsters are territorial.(assuming your are syrian) adults must be kept one per cage or they will fight often to death. we dont want that for mom or dad. so please separate them and then at 4 weeks when they r weaned the boys and girls must be separated or u will have even more babies!

Answer 6

i'm a zoology student and yes, he kills. sometimes when the hamsters (female and male) are placed together at different times (maybe you bought the other one first then got the other hamster after like some months) they are prone to killing each other...

Answer 7

The father hamster eats his children.

Answer 8

He will eat the babies. Sorry, nature lovers; that's the way it is.

Answer 9

he will eat them trust me just do it i done made the mistake and lost a litter due to popcorn!!! i have raised hampsters for a feew yrs.

Answer 10

Believe it or not, not only will he kill them, but also eat them.