boy or girl

[comprido]

Hello,
I am looking around and around and I can't get any conclusions.
I have 2 russian dwarf hamsters but I am not sure if they are male or female.

I dont find any nipples, nor testies.
It also seems that the distance between the anus and the genitalia as close (so maybe girls), but I have no references, so confused.
Can anybody help me?

I have 2 pictures there (one for each hamster)

Many thanks for any assistance.
Btw, I asked chatGPT and he thinks there both boys , but I am really not sure if he is correct.

 

[Maz]

The first one looks like a boy I can't see that well on the second photo but he seems to be a boy as well. On the first one you can see a penis and his back end shape protrudes a bit - which is where testicles are. Are they very young? It can be really hard to tell but if you can't find nipples that's also a sign they are boys Are they living together or separately? It's better if they're not kept in pairs and each has their own cage.

 

[comprido]

Here are some extra pictures of both. Maybe it will help a bit.
I am not sure their age since when they gave them to me, I forgot to ask their age , But they are with me for 2 months and their size was basically the same as it is now. (so I am guessing they are at least 2.5-3months old)
They are both in the same cage for the moment, sometimes they fight each other (I guess due to food, even though they have a ton of it). When that happens I separate them for a bit. Their cage has 3 floors that can be isolated.

BTW, that black thing in the previous picute is poop "There is no poop in these 4 images"

Many thanks for your help

 

[Maz]

They look like boys to me although I am no expert in dwarf hamsters I've mainly had Syrians. They look adorable

Please do separate them permanently though - it's really important. If they've already fought occasionally, the next time it could be very sudden and one kill the other one or seriously maim the other one - the remaining one will sometimes eat the dead one as well and the first you know about it is a hamster is missing one morning. Aside from the physical risks, there are bullying risks as well. If you have a large plastic storage bin, you can make that into a temporary cage for now and move one of them in there. Unfortunately a cage with a few levels isn't really safe either with such a small species as there are fall risks and they can get injured. A cage needs to be no higher than about 25cm above the substrate level. With perhaps one level or shelf. Levels in cages also can cause fighting with pairs as one can get territorial.

There's an article on the home page about why dwarf hamsters should live separately - I'll link it below.

Can hamsters live together?

No hamsters should not live together. They are solitary creatures who are territorial but will form a close bond with a human owner. Dwarf hamsters can fight to the kill.

www.thehamsterforum.com

 

[comprido]

many thanks for your feedback.
I will do that.

 

[Maz]

You're welcome Pet shops, unfortunately, keep selling them in pairs and saying they can live together, but most dwarf hamsters are hybrids and there are no hybrids in the wild so they would never have lived together. They are a mix of two species of hamster.

What you could do is adapt the current cage for one hamster and just make a bin cage for the other hamster for now The bin needs to be as large as possible really and plenty of bedding for them to burrow in But not too much open space either as that freaks them. Cardboard is your friend here - you can fill it with tissue box hides or egg box hides. Or cardboard tubes (toilet roll inners, kitchen roll inners, pringles tubes) etc.

With the other cage maybe you could use two platforms to kind of make a lower roof inside it so the hamster can't get too high?

Would love to hear more about your hammies So do keep posting about them and what they get up to What are their names?