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.”
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.
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
First rule of rodent fight club is you don’t talk about rodent fight club.
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,
-
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.
-
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. :(
-
I’m so stressed out I’m gonna eat this baby!
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.
Great band name.
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!
Hamsters are cannibals.
It’s weird, I know, because they’re so cute. They are though,
