Currently the cat sleeping on my bed is the daughter and sister of a cat that has since disappeared. There are two cat's next door who are inbred. When I had siberian hamsters as a child, they had babies. If I didn't remove the male before they gave birth the male absolutely would eat the young. In nature the male would not have remained present through it's pregnancy. Later one of the 3 siblings got it's leg caught in the wheel and damaged itself. The next day the other brothers ate him. All that was left was blood. Soon after for no apparent reason, another gets eaten. And then eventually the sole survivor died. Tell me that didn't happen why don't you? Oh and for the record, those hamsters were inbred also. 4th generation spawned from a combination between a female of the 2nd generation and a male from the third.
Umm...do you think all of these additional behaviors might have occured because they were inbred in the first place?
It's a behavior that occurs among almost all domestic hamsters. In the natural habitat, the male hamster will rut, then leave. The eating of the offspring/litter mates by the parent and each other is likely created by forced proximity in an artificial environment. BTW, anyone who's read a book on the hamsters they are raising would know that scenario would play out. Breeding animals in captivity without even basic research before hand is reprehensible. Jeff should be ashamed.
I was only 8 years old, and they weren't my responsibility. I did state "had as a child" but should have phrased it, witnessed my Mom's hamsters... Either way, what place do you have judging anyone? But I'll leave it up to you to decide which way you feel about your behavior.
Domestication is not the natural state for most animals. If you could find me significant examples of incest occurring in the natural habitat of Siberian hamsters, or incest between large cats, then this might hold some water.