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.
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!
how come b3 deficiecy leads them to want to eat other hamsters?
Hard to say exactly but it causes dementia and increased aggression in humans as well, it’s simply necessary for proper brain function. Brains need glucose to function and B3 is used in several vital functions related to both energy production and neural health.
It could also just be an instinctual trigger in hamsters that makes them think they’re starving and tbf they kind of are.
What we can say is fixing the deficiencies almost entirely eliminated the cannibalism.
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.
That is way more impressive. Any idiot can eat a baby.
Tarrare, is that you?
wow, TIL. Poor guy.
That whole wikipedia page reads like a tall tale.
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.
Hummingbirds I get, but you’re telling me scientists finally figured out how to get elephants to bone hamsters?
I’m going to have to go with Ditka.
But can any baby eat an idiot?
No way. Babies can’t even have fucking honey, my money is on the idiot.
Counterpoint: babies will chomp anything within an inch of their faces. Given enough time the idiot might just get gummed to death
I would love to find out but the man keeps denying my grant applications.
Great band name.
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
That’s just extra calories
No. Harvest his organs /s
Mama hamster ain’t letting no predators have all those nutrients.
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
It’s important to cut off supply lines, true.
What a grand epiphany, hamsters are Russia in the winter.
Okay I never realized you can put @ in a username for some reason??
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.
Hamsters are cannibals.
It’s weird, I know, because they’re so cute. They are though,
I listened to a lecture recently on the devouring mother archetype.
Do tell.
(If you don’t mind typing up a comment lol)
It’s basically just the smothering mother. Living her dream through her children, overprotective, sheltering, etc.
