Dwarf hamsters fighting

[bedraggledsidekick]

Hello!
I am new here and would greatly appreciate any insight from this community. We recently purchased three Russian dwarf hamsters for my daughter and I am worried they are fighting. We have never owned hamsters before so I am not sure what is normal play vs fight. While at the pet store my daughter fell in love with one of these little guys but we were told we had to buy all three - the total amount in the pet store cage - as they needed companionship. Specially the woman said this species liked living with another. I didn't plan on buying all three but they seemed much more friendly and docile then the other Syrian hamsters available there so we did it. We have a large cage (32 x 16 x 16) which the pet store said was sufficient) for them and they are living together. When they are active I am noticing a lot of squeaking and sudden aggressive actions that usually are quite quick but they happen very frequently. It feels pretty rough but is usually short lived. Is this normal? Not sure what to do. Currently we are waiting for our hamster toys to arrive and we only have bedding for them, food/water containers and a wheel. I was thinking maybe they are bored? Thank you for any help!

 

[Maz]

Hello The pet store has really not done you any favours, and unfortunately they keep doing this - selling hamsters in pairs and trios. I'm so sorry you're having this, because yes they will fight, and can actually kill each other or seriously maim each other. Pet store advice is horribly out of date on this generally! If they are fighting already, they really need separating and have a cage each because it can get much worse quite quickly. Hard as it might be I would either tell the pet store you need to return two of them - or advertise to rehome two of them. But they will need to be separated and each in a different cage, and not many people can manage space for three cages. The cage is also too small unfortunately, even for one dwarf hamster. That is another thing pet stores do! Sell cages that aren't suitable. Are you in the US? Many people make a large bin cage or use a glass tank because there aren't any barred cages big enough (well there is one but it's a bit smaller than most people use). The recommended size for hamsters of all species is approximately 40" x 20" in the Uk as per three pet charities. It is similar in the US (not officially but among the hamster community), but some people in the US use something like a 40 gallon breeder tank which is about 36" x 18". Or the cage I mentioned which has a similar floor area.

This is a very tricky situation for you. Ideally you'd want to return the cage for a refund as well, but then you wouldn't have a cage to keep a hamster in! Do you still have the receipt? It was very bad of them to say you needed to take all three. You should be able to buy a single dwarf hamster if you want.

I hope the cage wasn't too expensive. Maybe the first thing to do would be contact the pet store and say you need to return two of them because they are fighting. But you might prefer to find homes for them yourself.

 

[Maz]

If you just have the one hamster, the current cage size is not too bad actually, and would do for a while until you can upgrade. Do you know which cage it is? Or you might prefer to try and get a refund towards a larger cage. It's the equivalent of about an 80cm x 40cm cage. Which used to be considered an ok size for a dwarf hamster some years ago. Providing it's not too tall or there could be fall risks. Small hamsters can be injured easily if they climb to the top of a tall cage.

 

[bedraggledsidekick]

Thank you so much for the information. I am going to talk to the pet store tmrw and see if they will take two back. I put up an add on our local neighborhood parents group as well but I feel like that may be harder to sort out. Just such a bummer for my kids. We do not have the space for three proper cages. Will look into larger cages as well. It wasn't too expensive and sort of temporary as I was looking into nicer looking tank style cage for longer term.

 

[Maz]

You're welcome And yes very unfair on your kids - they may have already become attached to one in particular, or all three. I have two hamsters and believe me it does take over the living room with two decent sized cages! There is also the cost of setting up two cages, each with their own contents.

The current cage is fine for now for one hamster. I would keep a close eye on them. You may need to have a large plastic bin (Ikea Samla type thing) handy with some bedding in, in case you have to move one or two of them out.

I can't believe pet shops still do this, but there is no legislation about it unfortunately. The other thing that commonly happens is someone is sold a pair of boys and one turns out to be a girl and the next thing they have three litters of baby hamsters - which can be very stressful.

To help try and avoid the fighting and squabbling meantime, you ideally need three of everything in the cage - three houses, three wheels, three water bottles or bowls etc. Even if they do everything together, it's so they can have one of their own, because what happens is they get territorial over the wheel or house or similar, and a more dominant one can trap another one in the house or tunnel. Any tunnels need to be big enough that one hamster could get past the other. So houses also need two or multiple entrances or exits - so if one tries to trap the other in there, it can get out through a top or side door eg. Cardboard tissue boxes are fine for a house Just cut two or three entrance holes - maybe one at the front, one on top and one on one side.

At one time people did sometimes try and keep pairs, and this was the way it needed to be tried - with three of everything and multiple exits and no platforms. Even a platform can make one hamster get territorial. Invariably they had to be separated once they were a few months old (when their hormones kick in) and over time, there have been some unpleasant stories as a result of fighting, which is why generally now people think hamsters need to live alone.

They actually don't need company like the pet shop said - they have their human owners to bond with and they are quite happy living on their own.

I think the idea they can live in pairs or groups comes from the fact that they do so in the wild. But and it's a big but - those are pedigree species of dwarf hamsters that live in the wild - Campbells or Winter Whites. And virtually all dwarf hamsters in pet shops these days are a hybrid dwarf hamster (the two species got interbred in the pet world over a few decades). So there are no hybrid dwarf hamsters in the wild so they would never normally live together! And each hamster will have various traits of one of those two species and sense that the other hamster is different.

Aside to that, the only reason they live together in the wild is for breeding and feeding purposes. And as most owners won't be breeding them, that natural progression isn't needed.

Syrian hamsters always have to live alone, which is well known

You do occasionally hear of someone who has had a pair of dwarf hamsters that live alongside each other, but I think it's rare, needs a lot of experience, and even then there is psychological dominance even if it isn't physical fighting, and one hamster may be being bullied and end up smaller.

I'll stop going on now! Obviously you don't want to be going out buying another wheel at the moment. Maybe adding a couple of extra cardboard hides might help at the moment. Food, you can scatterfeed rather than use a bowl so there is no bowl to fight over.

It is very hard when you've already fallen in love with them

Final thing - if they are physically fighting or one has bitten another or drawn blood, you really will need to separate them very quickly.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Welcome to the forum. I am sorry you have beeen pressured into buying all three hamsters There is an interesting discussion on the You Tube channel Rachel got Hamsters where she discusses keeping dwarf hamsters together. The hamster rescue people she spoke to said possibly if the hamsters were siblings and had never been separated, but they did say that in practice for inexperienced owners it is safe to keep one hamster and pairs are risky. A trio would be extremely risky. Animals in pet shops tend to be relatively inhibited and withdrawn and won't display their full range of behaviour until they are in a quiet cage. The other concern is gender. If they are all males, there will be a lot of conflict. Domesticated pet hamsters manage well on their own and it is easier to care for one hamster than three if you can, try to keep a male hamster just in case the pet shop has got their gender wrong. It has happened before . I hope they are willing to straighten this out with good grace. As they mature the bickering will turn into bullying and real fights, not what you wanted to buy and not fair to give you such bad advice

 

[Socks' Mum]

The only other thing is if they do fight, don't try to separate them with your bare hands, but use as some oven gloves or a magazine as they might bite you in this situation without meaning to

 

[Maz]

I still think they need to be pedigree dwarf winter whites to have any chance of trying to live together - and it needs to be an experienced owner. The Campbell’s species don’t do well sharing unless they are males possibly and pedigree Campbell’s are extremely rare. I think there is only one breeder in the Uk and none in the US. Hybrid dwarf hamsters are a mix of winter whites and Campbells so don’t have the same traits. There is some research on it on the home page article

It’s very unfair on people because they severe hamsters snuggled up together and think it’s nice but they are a territorial species especially as domestic pets.