# fighting dwarf hamsters



## miajay (Jan 3, 2013)

hi all i need help.I bought 2 dwarf hamsters in oct for the kids, they were living together great for a month or so now they are fighting the bit out with one constantly bullying the other.It rules the wheel, the food and the house, it has became a lot larger than the other because of this should i buy a new cage and split them as this has become very stressful for the kids to watch???


----------



## kodakkuki (Aug 8, 2011)

hi,
i'm by no means a hammie expert (not owned one for a fair few years) but i'd say they need separated asap. hamster bites hurt us a lot, so i can imagine the one being bullied will be Very. Very sore if he is getting bitten.
my syrian and my sisters syrian used to argue from across the room at each other- had we tried to house them together i dread to think what may have happened 
would you have a spare cage to pop one in to now? or even pop another bowl, bottle and house in for them until you get a new cage? a clean ashtray with some food in it would even do- and i've used food containers as temp beds before...


welcome to petforums btw!


----------



## Lil Miss (Dec 11, 2010)

in order to help i will need you to answer a few questions

when they are fighting are they drawing blood?
what type of dwarfs are they? eg robos, winter whites, campbells, hybrids or chinese?
what cage do you have them in?
do you only have the one wheel? 1 food dish? 1 house? 1 water bottle?


----------



## Hannahmourneevans (Dec 16, 2012)

I have seen dwarf hammies fight even when there are two of everything - i would consider getting a second cage x


----------



## Louiseandfriends (Aug 21, 2011)

This happened to me and we were told that we had to separate them into two different cages. I'm pretty sure that they lived happily alone, but it's hard to tell from a hamster's perspective.  

I'm not sure if there is anyway of rebonding hamsters. May be there is and I wasn't aware at the time.


----------



## Louiseandfriends (Aug 21, 2011)

kodakkuki said:


> hi,
> i'm by no means a hammie expert (not owned one for a fair few years) but i'd say they need separated asap. hamster bites hurt us a lot, so i can imagine the one being bullied will be Very. Very sore if he is getting bitten.
> *my syrian and my sisters syrian used to argue from across the room at each other- had we tried to house them together i dread to think what may have happened *
> would you have a spare cage to pop one in to now? or even pop another bowl, bottle and house in for them until you get a new cage? a clean ashtray with some food in it would even do- and i've used food containers as temp beds before...
> ...


Syrians are 100% loners in captivity and the wild. Dwarf hamsters can actually live together except Chinese (generally).


----------



## kodakkuki (Aug 8, 2011)

Louiseandfriends said:


> Syrians are 100% loners in captivity and the wild. Dwarf hamsters can actually live together except Chinese (generally).


i've never had dwarf hammies- only known the horrid creatures my friends owned (being kids play things they weren't very nice) i was using our boys as a (bad) example of how hamsters can disagree... but the idiot in the pet shop told us they'd be friends! :mad2:
i always thought i'd read that dwarfs were all loners... whoops!


----------



## Wobbles (Jun 2, 2011)

Sperate them if you don't want dead hamsters...


----------



## Louiseandfriends (Aug 21, 2011)

kodakkuki said:


> i've never had dwarf hammies- only known the horrid creatures my friends owned (being kids play things they weren't very nice) i was using our boys as a (bad) example of how hamsters can disagree... but the idiot in the pet shop told us they'd be friends! :mad2:
> i always thought i'd read that dwarfs were all loners... whoops!


From my owner experience I have found Syrians to be a lot more tame and nicer than dwarves too. However, there are so many in our recuse at the moment.  
You aren't wrong, they can live alone. It's just that they can also be happy together as well. 

NEVER trust pet shops. They know nothing!  Ours advise people to get single rabbits in 4ft hutches...

EDIT: Read that wrong. You were talking about the children ahaha.


----------



## elmthesofties (Aug 8, 2011)

kodakkuki said:


> i've never had dwarf hammies- only known the horrid creatures my friends owned (being kids play things they weren't very nice) i was using our boys as a (bad) example of how hamsters can disagree... but the idiot in the pet shop told us they'd be friends! :mad2:
> i always thought i'd read that dwarfs were all loners... whoops!


Yeah, the advice seems to have changed over the years. Now if it isn't a dwarf hamster, keep it alone no matter what. (seeing as Chinese aren't true dwarfs, then that covers them too) Dwarfs CAN be kept together, but only with the understanding that there is a fairly high chance of things going wrong.

If I were in the situation of the OP, I would separate them. I know it seems very sad, but they will probably be much happier not fighting all the time.


----------



## Wishfox (Jan 23, 2013)

Hey. I recently bought two russian hamsters. Both male and from the same litter. I bought one last night and the other one the night before last. They started fighting viciously and after googling, I found something that really worked. I put them in the boxes I took them home in and took hot soapy water and scrubbed down absolutely everything in the cage and the cage itself. Once I finished that I introduced the two hamsters to each other again in a neutral environment. After they ran around and seemed to be a heck of a lot better than before, I added some cardboard candy box, empty, and a finished TP roll to play in. I let them run around and have fun for 2 hours before I put them both in the cage. They are now snuggling and all friendly, a complete reverse in behaviour. You could try that to see if it works for you, too.

Good luck!:thumbup1:


----------

