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Orphaned Baby Hamsters.
Orphaned hamster pups. One of the most helpless feelings a hamster owner can experience is finding a cage full of hamster pups on their own.
When the mother hamster has died in or shortly after giving birth leaving the pups behind. Or the mum has escaped and left the pups before they are old enough to feed themselves. Sometimes in the very rare case the mother may abandon the babies, and may refuse to feed or nurse the litter.
Trying to hand rear new born pups is impossible, and most efforts are unrewarding. But the older pups are the more chance they have of survival. From about 7-8 days old, and depending on the size of that litter mum has had would have a bearing on the survival of the litter. The larger the litter the less chance of survival they would have.
It is just not possible to hand rear hamster pups from birth, but from about 7 day's of age they can be drop fed. This is very tedious and time consuming and even then may not always be successful. Some of the litter may not survive.
The hamster pups need to be fed approx: every hour 24 hours a day until they start to eat solids. They will start to eat small amounts of solid food at around 8-9 days old. The milk feeds can then be reduced to every 3 hours. The milk for feeding baby hamsters is Lactol: Lactol is a specially formulated puppy - kitten milk made to match mothers natural milk as closely as possible. This is an ideal milk feed replacement for orphaned hamsters and other animals.
Do not use cow's milk. If Lactol is not available ordinary dried baby milk (for human babies) is an excellent substitute. I have on occasions used this with very good results.
To mix the feed place 3 level scoops into 10 fl oz (½ pint) hot water. Allow to cool to body temperature then feed with a dropper or a bottle. The remainder can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Heating or warming up the required amounts for further feeds as and when needed.
The pups will not be able to maintain normal body heat they are highly dependent on mum for this. Using a heat pad or heat lamp will help in keeping the babies warm. Keep the cage in a very warm location and the temperature around 70 deg.
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