Sometimes the babies eat the mom too. Yes I speak from... I guess second-hand experience. First-hand would imply I was a matricidal cannibal hamster.
this post was submitted on 17 May 2026
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That is way more impressive. Any idiot can eat a baby.
Who would you rather fight: one mumma sized hamster or 5 baby sized hamsters?
Depends on the species of the mumma / baby used to size the hamsters.
Amoeba: I'm taking the 5 babies. It'll be harder but I still like my chances.
Oak Tree: I think my only chance is to take the babies, Though I'd be tempted to choose momma just to marvel at such a creature.
Elephant: No good options here, in a fair fight I'd lose either match. I think my only shot is to choose the momma hamster and try to win through trickery.
Hummingbird: I would lose via forfeit. They're too cute I can't do it.
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Tarrare, is that you?
wow, TIL. Poor guy.
That whole wikipedia page reads like a tall tale.
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But can any baby eat an idiot?
I would love to find out but the man keeps denying my grant applications.
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Great band name.
Just a random thought, stop buying your kids hamsters. They are weirdly fragile, and die if they are feeling spiteful that day. They don't love being held (but can be chill!), and cleaning their enclosure is gross and nonstop. They are cute, and I do enjoy them when they come into my life (friends/partners have them in occasion).
Instead, and I am dead ass here, get a tarantula (new world). They are the stupidestly simple thing I have ever kept, feed them when you remember to, clean their cage at some point, don't handle them. They live for 5-20years (males live very short lives, females live creepily long) and are absolutely fascinating tank pets. Like fish, with 1/100th the work and expense. Oh also baby spiders are basically free, cus while hamster have large broods they ain't got shit on yet old spider bros.
The biggest downside is that they are literally a spider and that freaks people out, but it freaks them out even more when I tell them unlike the probably tens of other spiders in the house I know exactly where mine are at all times.
Have you tried a pet rock?
Hamsters are specialty pets which require specialty care and knowledge and I wish to God that more people understood this.
Jumping spiders make good low maintenance pets as well. They are intelligent, cute, and typically smaller than a tarantula.
My mom, an arachnophobe, had a pet jumping spider who lived on her desk at work.
I have had a couple of these. They only live 1-2 years but they are like tiny dogs!
Spiders can absolutely become addictive though! I got my first pet jumping spider a couple years ago. I fell down the rabbit hole inadvertently pulling my lifelong arachnophobe partner with me. Our collection now inlcludes hundreds of jumpers, about 60 tarantulas, and a handful of other true spiders. Spiders fuggin rock.
Totally! If you have one spider, it's basically the same effort to care for like 5+ more, and even more than that isn't much additional effort just becomes space.
Even feeding them is like $3/mo and that's with buying feeders at big box store.
And the absolute best part about spider? Zero chance of dumping tens of gallons of water on the floor, or chewing up something valuable, or peeing on a pile of laundry. I guess you could get bitten but for the vast majority of tarantulas your have to stick your hand in front of their face and wiggle your fingers, and even then the majority would freak the fuck out and bolt for their safe place.
Spiders are really the best low/no effort pet.
They are weirdly fragile
Meanwhile, my childhood hamster would escape even with books holding the cage door down and once wandered all the way across the house to find us while we were watching TV.
Just make sure to put enrichment in their cases and make sure the case is big enough.
Some species, like rodents who reproduce stupidly fast, will eat their own young when under stress to recoup lost nutrients because they can't easily take their brood on the road to a safer location. It's easier to just start over with a new batch.
I had a collegue who would always tell children running in front of cars: "You're faster reproduced than repaired."
"This baby is easier to move as my own fat ass."
-Hamsters
Some egg-laying species do this as well. Oh, your survival is at stake and there's now a chance you won't be able to protect your brood of eggs? Best to cut your losses and chow down on your babies while you're still around. Best case, you have the hardware to make more and the nutrients are put back to use.
Apparently when a captive hamster does it it's usually caused by a nutrient deficiency. There was some research like a decade ago on how corn based diets didn't offer enough B3 and would create nearly 100% cannibalism rates, with similar problems in diets lacking in protein.
So if you've ever had a mad cannibal hamster mom don't worry, it was YOUR fault!
What food do they need added to their diet?
Insects are good, for example something like dried mealworms is an easy way to add protein that's pretty natural to them. These days good quality hamsterfoods usually have enough protein already, but you should always check the protein, fiber and fat percentages just to be sure (and the ingredients as well, the foods shouldn't have colorants at least). The good numbers are around 20% protein and 10% fiber, in fat there's bigger variance depending on the age and weight etc. but it shouldn't be over 15%. I haven't checked what the latest research says though, these numbers and recommendations for diets can change over time
Thanks! I don't actually have a hamster, I was just curious 😅 and hopefully, someone will find this thread at some point and it helps save some hamster babies
Yeah I like to post these small animal facts just so if someone reads these they also get answers!
My anecdotal evidence is that I raised a couple litters in a stressful environment few years back (we have active dogs so there's quite the commotion most of the time) and had zero babies eaten, so what I did with the diet likely worked
baby mice
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You can use the calories to do anything, even make more babies!
My son is almost 30. Is it too late?
Absolutely not honestly he might be thinking the same about you. Strike before struck upon
—Saturn
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Mama hamster ain't letting no predators have all those nutrients.
I've never seen a hamster grow to old age. They always die in some horrible way first. Get your kids a hamster! It's not so much a pet as it is a $25 life lesson on the fragility of mortality.
I (and my siblings) had a total of 6 hamsters. 4 died of old age, 1 suddenly bled out overnight, and 1 died pretty young, but nothing was obviously wrong, so I dunno.
My neighbors had more than a dozen rodents (including 5 guinea pigs). They all died horrifically, including 4 that were killed by mouse traps. Because of course you should have mouse traps, and also keep small rodents that you allow to escape constantly. As an adult, I think the parents were seriously negligent in teaching their children, and then also negligent in buying more rodents for the grinder after the first two or three met horrible fates.
We've got two guinea pigs, and in my opinion, they aren't that hard to keep alive.
My daughter's guinea pig just died, but he was an older fellow. He went with her to college and got her all the way through to a few months past graduation.
As George Carlin said, "You're supposed to know it in the pet shop. It's going to end badly. You're purchasing a small tragedy."
grief is the debt we take on by loving something
there will always be a tragedy at the end
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I've heard that hamsters will play dead so effectively, that they will convince their owners that they actually are dead.
So, assuming that's true, some hamsters die horribly in a small box underground.
Since we are on the hamster death topics,
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My first one's cage was left in the yard by my dad. In summer. I don't even need to tell you how this ended.
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We got a second one, went to grandma's house for like 2 days and when we were back he got a parasite on his stomach. The treatement didn't work. :(
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I'm so stressed out I'm gonna eat this baby!
Depriving the enemy of food so they are too weak to fight is a good tactic.
Hamsters out there reading Sun Tzu?
It’s funny how The Art of War is just a senior NCO (Sun Tzu) telling a bunch of idiot hereditary officers how to not lose wars with extremely basic advice because he’d seen what had happened if they didn’t have that
some of that basic advice still boggles the minds of leaders today
"always leave a way for your enemy to escape, a hopeless enemy fights to the death"
oh what was that? grind all the money out of everyone so they feel hopeless and feel like there's no way out? yeah great idea let's do that - apparently every profit centred institution
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if the baby is gonna die either way, then you might as well get that valuable protein back
They just forgot the cheek pouch isn't meant for baby, but i wouldn't blame them, you're not you when you're panicking.
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