Mother Hamster Abandoning Hamsters Pups! Helpline!

Chances of mother hamsters abandoning pups are normal due to a few facts such as:

• Mother hamster is too weak by nature so she cannot raise her pups by herself.
• Mother hamster is in distress / uncomfortable with the surrounding as in too much noise/movement around the cage.
• Someone/some other animals have rub their scents onto the pups. Hence mother hamster cannot recognise the pups as her own.
• Pups are deemed too weak to raise. Hence it is better for the mother hamster to give up on the pups and nurse herself health back.

Hence I recommend the following steps hoping to salvage the situation.

• Feed the Mother hamster with tons of calcium and nutritional food like cheese, butter, milk and sunflower seeds (PLEASE NOTE in MODERATION.)
• Try moving the cage to a quieter location and partial cover the cage with a cloth to avoid sun rays/lightings.
• When feeding Mother hamster, avoid touching the pups for the 1st 2weeks as they are not wean (milk-free) from their Mother as such. If one really requires to touch the pups, use a plastic spoon and scoop the pups out gently.

If all situation fails, then one can consider the following options:

• Find a adoptive Mother hamsters for the abandon pups. Chances for this to work is low unless the adopting Mother is very gentle temper in nature and can take care of pups other than her own. (Not recommend for Syrian Hamsters as Syrian Hamsters are super territorial by nature)
• Be a nurse yourself. Usually for me, I can safely say that pups that are 2 weeks old have good chances to survive on their own as they are almost going to be wean free from their Mother hamster.
• As such, do the following things : check if their eyes are open.
• If yes, try feeding them solid food and see the response of the pups. If they can chew the solid food, they are safe. Lower the water bottle to their neck level so that they can drink the water bottle.
• If not, prepare a dropper (those used for eye drops and can be purchased from pharmacy easily). Take small dosage of milk ie few drops - (room temperature milk or lukewarm milk) and gently drop 1 drop by 1 drop by the pup's mouth. It won't be easy and requires tons of patience as the pups might be scared of foreign objects near them.

Hope that you may never read this article as reference as this means that your Mother hamster had just abandon her pups.