Last night, I was asked how common this was in Syrian hamsters.
I answered that is was pretty effin’ common.
The females eat their babies for a lot of reasons. Generally, if she feels stressed for any reason, she may eat them. If she doesn’t have a good diet, she’ll eat them as a dietary supplement, which I think is what happened here. She didn’t eat her whole litter.
The reaction of the young owners is priceless.
“Family friendly pet”— LOL
Syrian hamsters are the most bizarre mammals we keep as pets. They aren’t social. Many are bad– very bad– about biting.
But they are so cute.
Which is why we keep them.
Mice do it too, especially when they feel like their nests will be raided, stalked by a cat or it’s a poor season for foraging.
My friend during 5th grade got a hamster. I thought it was pretty cute. Then it did this, and frankly I was so disgusted that I never liked hamsters again. Childhood trauma, I suppose. =P
Also rabbits can eat they pups, so do fishes, hedgehog, dogs and so on.
Cannibalism is not rare in the nature including the man.
http://www.livescience.com/animals/070323_cannibals_disease.html
Ps.
Hominidaes do it better!
They take a slave to do it:
That’s the first time I’ve seen something like this. Who knew even chimps have their own kinks.
The child in the video sounds like he’s being traumatized for life. Poor kid.
I have to wonder why the child knew to cry when seeing something like this? If that is why he was crying, not just normal complaining crying.
Toads sometimes have poisonous skin, particluarly on their back. This chimp could well of gotten poisonous sweat on his male parts. He might have ended up worse off than the toad.
Dogs don’t usually eat their puppies, but they often absorb some, or all, or the fetuses. The dog has no control over this, like a miscarriage, it just happens to her.
Vet scans have shown puppies, which were not there later.
Hamsters look like tiny bears – there is even one type called the Teddy Bear Hamster. Bears are not good pets. Some people like the baby look of rounded animals, but these animals are not always as sweet as people want to believe.