Help Litter Died

[stephanie32705]

Hi I am new here! Quick summary....bought two hammies at Christmas. They are in separate cages, but my female got pregnant. (I do not know how old they were when I bought them). Had a litter of 11...cutest babies I ever saw. I kept mom alone, feed her hard boiled eggs, etc. When pups were 4 weeks, eyes were open, very alert and eating and drinking on their own. 2 died and I thought maybe it was because they were runts. Anyhow, I ended up giving 2 away to someone I work with, they both died three days later. 2 more that I gave away, died within two days. What is going on? Two more babies of mine died, and I could see (now that they were older) they had wet tail. It was very devastating. Is this normal? I mean did my female get pregnant too soon? Please help!

[chesca_27]

Hi. Sorry to hear that you've lost so many pups. It is very upsetting .

What species is your hamster? What age were they all rehomed? The youngest a hamster can be rehomed is 5 weeks, which is the very youngest. Any younger, and pups are unlikely to survive, without special care.

Stress is what causes wet tail, so the hamsters would have to have been very stressed to have died from wet tail.

It isn't normal to lose this many pups, but it could be they were separated from Mum too young.

There are many breeders on here who may be able to help you better.

[Pebbles82]

That is very sad. It sounds like you bought a pair that were incorrectly sexed and the female got pregnant. As Chesca says it would help to know which species of hamster. Did the others die of wet tail as well.

[stephanie32705]

They are Syrian. The male is all white (Spike) and mama is a silky orange (Cinnamon). It was 5-6 weeks when I found them homes. They were all doing fine, with the exception of the two runts. They were all very active, they were eating on their own, drinking and playing. At 5 weeks old, we took them out and handled them. They were simply precious. We lost the two earlier than that though. Then when I found them homes, their owners contacted me and said they had wet tail and died? I had two left at home so I did not let them go to a new home and both of them ended up dying within two days. It was devastating. These last two looked like wet tail to me, but we cleaned their cages and kept their stress down. I cried my heart out. I just wish I knew what happened/ Thank you so much for time

BTW, my Spike and Cinnamon are doing just fine. Love these little guys.

Originally Posted by chesca_27

Hi. Sorry to hear that you've lost so many pups. It is very upsetting .

What species is your hamster? What age were they all rehomed? The youngest a hamster can be rehomed is 5 weeks, which is the very youngest. Any younger, and pups are unlikely to survive, without special care.

Stress is what causes wet tail, so the hamsters would have to have been very stressed to have died from wet tail.

It isn't normal to lose this many pups, but it could be they were separated from Mum too young.

There are many breeders on here who may be able to help you better.

[souffle]

Was she pregnant when she came to you. If she was it seems likely that it was a sibling mating and that there was something wrong in the genetics. That would seem the most likely reason to lose a whole litter. Young mums do tend to be less successful with litters as their bodies are not fully mature and raising pups is quite a strain on them. They are still growing themselves.
We separate in to male and female groups at 4 weeks then run them on till at least 6 weeks before homing them. It does happen though and most breeders even will have lost the odd young hamster or whole litters (usually in the nest through bloat) . The cause is often unknown.
I wouldn't breed unknown background hammies knowingly though. You did your best with a pregnant hamster that came to you and it is sad you lost them but you did try. Run free at the bridge little ones.

[Pebbles82]

That does sound sad. There is a Wiki page on wet tail here. It says that if one hamster gets it, it can quickly spread through the whole litter. It may be that your first two who died got wet tail and the others all contracted it with the symptoms coming out later. It also mentions that if a hamster has ever had wet tail they shouldn't be bred from. It's possible either the Mum or Dad had had wet tail before and be carriers maybe?

Wet Tail - Proliferative Ileitis - Hamster Central WIKI

[stephanie32705]

That is what is odd. The first two that died, didn't have wet tail. They were runts and just couldn't up. I wouldn't handle any of the babies either. And after those two died, we were able to take the babies out and we cleaned their cage immediately. It was just horrific I even fed the runts with a dropper. Broke my heart. Thanks for your help though!!

Thank you for this. You made me cry. They really were precious.

Originally Posted by souffle

Was she pregnant when she came to you. If she was it seems likely that it was a sibling mating and that there was something wrong in the genetics. That would seem the most likely reason to lose a whole litter. Young mums do tend to be less successful with litters as their bodies are not fully mature and raising pups is quite a strain on them. They are still growing themselves.
We separate in to male and female groups at 4 weeks then run them on till at least 6 weeks before homing them. It does happen though and most breeders even will have lost the odd young hamster or whole litters (usually in the nest through bloat) . The cause is often unknown.
I wouldn't breed unknown background hammies knowingly though. You did your best with a pregnant hamster that came to you and it is sad you lost them but you did try. Run free at the bridge little ones.

[leedsgurl]

I'm so sorry for your losses

Sometimes these things happen and you never get to find out the cause, but to try to minimise risk, we don't breed our hamsters unless we know the background of both, and the females are usually around 5-6 months old.

[stephanie32705]

Thank you. I am not a breeder, nor never will be. I just wanted my kids to experience it. I had gerbils as a child and it was a great experience for me. I am surmising my Cinnamon was just too young

[Thin Lizzy]

So sorry to hear that. You were unfortunate to get a hamster then find out she's pregnant, you did everything you could but sometimes things happen out of your control.