52 replies to this topic

[Happylilanimals]

What a great topic! I am currently owning two winter white sisters that are very young! I know they are siblings because I actually adopted them from DearMedina here on HH! And I'm looking on ways to improve their lives!

[Happylilanimals]

Thanks, the petstore employee said it was okay, :( waste of money, don't worry though, I have a proper size LOUD wheel. they petstore I bought it didn't have any others so....
But I'm not using it and only used it for one night and realized this is waaaaaaay to small

Not a complete waste of money! Maybe you could use the 6 inch for a baby roborovski!

 

 

[PiebaldPony]

Very informative for newbies

[gj311]

Very informative.

[littlepaws3]

Amazing! I knew nothing about hamsters living tigether except for Russian Campbells and syrians didnt know about the other species!

[Winter Whisker]

This was very helpful!Good job Tax!

[3LittleMonkeys]

Great information!  Thank you so much. 

 

We added an approximately 4 month old Winter White to our family this week. 

[Rachel1995]

Very informative and well put! I have a pair of male robos I got from a closing down pet shop just before Xmas. They chase each other around the cage a lot and one tries to mate with the other and one would have the other pinned down and they'd paw at each other but teeth is never involved. It's very obvious it's just a squabble but just the other day my mother was freaking out saying they're fighting and I swear my heart jumped straight out my mouth. Got up stairs and it was just a teeny little squabble. My 2 boys get on quite well. Run on the same wheel despite there being 2. And they've so so many options for sleeping but they sleep together. Even chew on the same treat sticks. I do however scatter feed. Works better in my opinion and it gives them something more to do

Taming is impossible though lol 3 robos and neither want to be tame!

Edit: those 2 "boys" turned out to be brother and sister.. and 2 turned into 7.. dad lives in a detolf with his 3 boys and mama ham.lives with her daughter in the zoozone 2. The ither girl was adopted over the weekend. Any other Irish member on here who want a little robo feel free to message me.

Edited by Rachel1995, 07 March 2017 - 01:54 AM.

[VintageGal]

"Help me, please!  My two Robos are fighting really badly and one is bleeding.  The other one keeps attacking him.  I can't separate them because I don't have another cage and it's late and all the stores are closed for the night!"

 

 

Regarding people in this situation,I have some advice for them.I had to separate a pair two nights ago,and am flat broke while waiting for a check,though I have been trying to sell any extra item I have around the house in case I can get the funds together sooner.This isn't perfect,but it can work in an emergency.

I recently got some packages and so had a few larger boxes,and put one of the hamsters in there.I've had them for a few weeks and so have been able to observe their habits.He isn't much into chewing,the other one is,and will create holes in paper rollers very fast so I knew I couldn't put that one in a box,left him in the cage.

I work from home,so am here most of the time,and have him on my nightstand so when I wake up at night,as I usually do quite a lot,I can check on him (not like I slept much the first night,too worried about him!).

My boyfriend is also here most of the time,so it helps if you have someone else who will check on him,at first I checked on him every 15-30 mins to make sure he wouldn't chew out but hasn't shown much interest.I still check him at least every hour,and those box corners.For water,I put some in a tiny bottlecap,and when I see him out and about and active,I take the bottle from the other cage so he can get some from there like he is used to,then put it back.Kind of a hassle but well worth it to keep them safe and alive.

You can use shredded paper towels or toilet paper (unscented),for bedding,if you don't have enough for both,though I recommend taking at least a handful of old bedding to put in the box with it.

What would work best is to have one smaller box,put that inside a medium box,then put those inside a bigger box,making it so if your hamster chews through one box,they will have another box to chew through before getting loose and as long as you keep checking on them,you will see them.This set-up is of course best for just overnight with a lot of check-ups,especially if your hammy is a chewer.Better for a hamster to be in a smaller set-up without a wheel for a day or two than end up hurt or dead.

 

What is even better than that,is if you have a decent sized plastic storage bin,very important to make sure it's tall enough that your hamster can't get out,and use it as a temp cage,without a lid,of course.If you have the supplies to make a bin cage,that would be best of all.

 

 

Hope this helps someone,most people do have either boxes or a plastic bin somewhere around their house.If you don't,then you could try this.If you have dressers or metal file organizer with a deep enough drawer,it might work to open one,empty it out and line with a towel,then bedding and essentials,and leave it open,to use as a temp cage.

[lil~daisy]

I know this is an old post, but does anyone have a good sense of the social patterns of hybrids?

[jennisheppard]

Hi there - I'm new here!

Just yesterday we brought home a couple of male, 11 week old Roborovskis – Tuck and Roll – that had been together since birth and were described as "bonded" by the animal rescue where we adopted them. 

Having read on here all this advice about keeping hamsters together, we put them in a 40 gallon tank, they have two wheels, two water bottles, scatter feeding and two hidey homes, as well as a few toys too.

However, as soon as they came out last night, Roll seemed to totally dominate the territory. Meanwhile, Tuck was forced to stay out of the way, because when he ventured into the territory, Roll would hound him out of the area.

There was much squeaking. We were wondering if they may sort this out overnight, but this morning we witnessed the same thing, and it looks like Tuck is missing some hair from his bum, although there's no blood at all.

Now I'm wondering if this behaviour is due to the bigger space... We saw them previously at the animal rescue, where they were in a much smaller home and we didn't see any territorial behaviour like this. Just a little normal squabbling. Perhaps now they've got enough territory to argue over?

What's your opinion? Is there anything else we can be doing? At what point should we give up and separate them?

We actually got these two so we could keep them together, and the animal rescue assured us we could keep them together, in fact, they wanted them to stay together and made a point of only adopting them as a pair.

So it would be super sad if we have to separate them so soon after getting them.

 

EDIT: This morning, when I messaged the woman who had been fostering the little guys up until yesterday about it, I got this response: "Oh no, I hope it's just a temporary behavior due to a new habitat. Yesterday they were running in the wheel together happily for 3 hours straight and able to eat at the same time and sleeping in the same cubby."

Edited by jennisheppard, 25 July 2017 - 12:49 AM.

[SyrianSugar]

Hi there - I'm new here!

Hey there! Welcome to the Forum.

 

Sadly, it does sound like they are fighting over territory. Although it might not seem too bad yet, they could seriously hurt each other

very soon. I recommend separating them. They can live happily on their own.

[jennisheppard]

Hey there! Welcome to the Forum.

Sadly, it does sound like they are fighting over territory. Although it might not seem too bad yet, they could seriously hurt each other
very soon. I recommend separating them. They can live happily on their own.

Do you think it's at all possible it is a temporary situation due to the new surroundings and it will calm down once they get used to their new home?

EDIT: Or do you think they have declanned because we put them in such a large tank? It is 40 gallon, compared with what they had previously, which was probably 10 gallon. Would moving them back to a smaller tank help?

NEW EDIT: On their second night with us, Tuck and Roll seemed to be getting on better. There was no bullying and they were both running in their wheels at the same time and mooching around without a problem. But we woke up this morning to find Tuck had lost a huge amount of fur on his bum, which looked quite sore. So we have separated them, with an opaque divider down the centre of the tank. It makes me so sad but we don't want him to get more injured. I worry this is my fault, we thought getting them a bigger tank was better. Maybe it wasn't?

Edited by jennisheppard, 26 July 2017 - 12:07 AM.

[EeveeOfEternity]

I am currently debating on getting a pair of dwarf hamster this month. My previous hamster Thorin Oakenfur passed away last week and looking in his empty cage hurts. I have a large enough cage and the space for another cage if need be, but I have a few questions if anyone could answer it'd be greatly appreciated. 

I just want to cover all the bases I can:

 

1. Which would you say are better at being in pairs? Russian Campbells Dwarfs or Roborovski's 

2. Do females or males get along better?

3. When we got Thorin we were told he was a Winter but when I posted his pic on here I was told he was a Campbell.

Does it matter if they are 2 winters or 2 campbells?

 

4. I was planing on building a little loft in the cage with multiple stairs leading up to it, would this be a bad idea?

[MerryBB]

I am currently debating on getting a pair of dwarf hamster this month. My previous hamster Thorin Oakenfur passed away last week and looking in his empty cage hurts. I have a large enough cage and the space for another cage if need be, but I have a few questions if anyone could answer it'd be greatly appreciated. 
I just want to cover all the bases I can:
 
1. Which would you say are better at being in pairs? Russian Campbells Dwarfs or Roborovski's 
2. Do females or males get along better?
3. When we got Thorin we were told he was a Winter but when I posted his pic on here I was told he was a Campbell.
Does it matter if they are 2 winters or 2 campbells?
 
4. I was planing on building a little loft in the cage with multiple stairs leading up to it, would this be a bad idea?

If you have the space for two cages, why not just get two separate hamsters? You'd need all the same supplies (two wheels, two water bottles, double the toys & hides, 2 cages of reasonable size, etc) and keeping them seperate from the start would eliminate the very real risk of you waking up one day to a dead or injured hamster as a result of a fight.

I also suspect that there is no way to keep hamsters socially in a domestic setting that doesn't put at least moderate stress on them, because any amount of space a domestic setting would be able to provide simply isn't enough for one hamster: let alone two. Even if a pair never escalates to physical fights, the tension could still be very real and it just doesn't seem to be worth it for the little-to-nonexistent benefits of cohabitation.