We got 4 chinese dwarf hamsters in july last year......we were told they were all male and that dwarf hamsters were communal animals that love the company of their own kind.......everything was going great untill they all started fighting one another......we tried seperating them on different levels of their cage, but that didnt work.....and when we were saving for another cahe to really separate them we found one of them dead,,,and half eaten by the others, this really upset me as i was just waiting for the money to sort the problem out...... fortunately we have 3 cages for them now so they are all separate from one another and they are all really healthy etc..... has anyone else had any problems like this?

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This is my dog Jasmin......

hamsters do eat the dead bodies of their house mates as they like to keep their cages 'clean'

We had a simular problem with roborovski's, we only had two though and they just had little squables.

Problem with more than two is they can "gang" up on one of the others and it often ends in them killing the "picked" on one and eating it.

I had two Robo sisters for a while, until one escaped at night and died by accident (long story!), so we went back to where we got the girls from and we got another two of my ones sisters. They were fine but one seemed a little off and unfortunately died in the night. Her sisters never touched her though, they didn't want to be near her.

The thing with rodents is that most will pick on one that isn't doing too good or has something wrong with it (thats still healthy though) because they know its "different". My gf had this problem with two female rats who were sisters. One was blind and deaf and the other would pick on her a lot, so they had to be seperated.

For them, its life. Its instincts and you can't take that away from them. For us, its weird and upsetting

Hi there,
Sorry to hear of your problems with the Hamsters. My girlfriend and I have the same problem. We bought two males about 7 weeks ago and they have obviously both matured. One is extremely violent towards the other, so much so that we have had to separate them permanently. Luckily no damage was done to the submissive hammie but it is a real shame to have had to separate them. We have yet to get another cage, doing it tomorrow. I was sort of thinking I could join the two cages together so they could still get together should they want to but after reading your blog iI think it wise not to do so.

Hope things work out for you.

Stuart

just keep them seperated

xx

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My Zoo!
Hamters - Millie & Princess.Gerbil-Drexel Mice-Salazar, Chocolate-drop, Snowflake, Monty, The Twins. Rat-Walter Goldfish-Orange Horses- Sinbad, Pinkie & Jasper Dogs- Freddie, Charlie, Suzie & Tacco 60+ CockRoaches, 13 Giant african land snails and 22 Stick insects! R.I.P TO ALL MY BABIES OVER RAINBOW BRIDGE <3

Same problem here. We bought two (Chinese dwarf hamsters), they were fine for a week or so, now the one is attacking the other one every ten minutes.

I feel quite sorry for the smaller one, both of them are also wandering up and down with their cheeks (pouches) completly stuffed with food, looking very unhappy as they try to find a new territory away from each other.

I've just separated them into two cages. Tomorrow one is definitely going back to the shop.

dont take it back to the shop !!
poor thing!

its not his/her fault

any way it isnt that much more to keep 2 cages

xxxxxxx

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My Zoo!
Hamters - Millie & Princess.Gerbil-Drexel Mice-Salazar, Chocolate-drop, Snowflake, Monty, The Twins. Rat-Walter Goldfish-Orange Horses- Sinbad, Pinkie & Jasper Dogs- Freddie, Charlie, Suzie & Tacco 60+ CockRoaches, 13 Giant african land snails and 22 Stick insects! R.I.P TO ALL MY BABIES OVER RAINBOW BRIDGE <3

I agree, don't take it back unless you really really feel you cannot cope with cleaning two cages (Which isn't difficult if you keep on top of it). It's not that you've got an aggressive hamster, they're just very territorial animals and as you might have read in this thread, it's not uncommon for them to fight.

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R.I.P Buster - Causing mischief over the bridge, sleep tight soldier

Thanks for the kind and friendly advice, much appreciated.

What happened was, I only saw your emails this evening, and this afternoon I had already taken them back to the shop - BUT we now have a lovely Syrian Hamster instead, same as we had before we had the two fighting Chinese dwarf hamsters.

The problem was, the one Chinese dwarf was attacking the other one very aggressively, quite a few times, it was getting to be every few minutes, so once they were separated into two cages, they were a lot happier. At least the little one was. He stopped squealing and leaping out of the way, he must have been very stressed out.

I think the shop will re-home them, it was a big chain "Pets At Home" and they have masses of different rodents, hamsters, Chinchillas, rabbits, guinea pigs and so on. They were very understanding about it.

I've just spent over an hour cleaning our four-part Rotastack cage, I scrubbed it down in the bath tub using detergent, then rinsed it very well and dried it all by hand.

As usual I'm giving the new Syrian 24 hours to settle down now that he is our of his cardboard box and in the sparkling new cage, but he has been running on his wheel madly for fifteen minutes already, I thought he'd be cowering in his cage at first, but he is already getting in a good run.

Anyway I look forward to getting to know him (handling) tomorrow, after he has had his 24-hour settling-in.

Thanks again, I'm sure the two Chinese dwarves will be in someone else's home before long. Our last Syrian Hamster lived for nearly two years and was sorely missed, so we thought we'd try the two Chinese dwarves, but now we have a Syrian again, we are all much happier.