[TheFeldhamster]

@njwilde: experiences with group housing vary wildly depending on which country you are in. On US/UK forums you'll see a lot of happy dwarf groups, Italian and Spanish forums are strictly solitary housing only - you'll be kicked off the forum if you even bring up the the topic of group housing and on German forums it used to be strictly solitary but is now moving towards a mixed approach (depending on the forum). Dwarfs are complicated - they are not that easily classifiable into "definitely social" like mice or rats or "definitely solitary" like syrians.

So, why is it different between countries? There are several reasons - eg. in the US there are many more campbell's dwarfs than winter whites (at least from what I see on forums) and there is scientific evidence that campbell's dwarfs are more social than winter whites. In Germany there are much more winter whites and very ww-like hybrids than campbell's. So it's not that surprising that in the US many more groups will go well while in Germany many groups will fall out - the worst of which will end up at the Hamsterhilfe. Also, there is other stuff to consider - eg. the sociality of a line. In the US and UK the lines of robos seem to be very social while in Germany the lines seem to be less social. I suspect that the lines in Italy and Spain are very unsocial, too, because otherwise the forums would not be that strict.

If you are in Germany I'd suggest getting a single WW/WW-like hybrid from a Hamsterhilfe as your first ham. If you get your hamster from such a rescue you have the advantage that they will be able to tell you whether the animal is shy or tame and it's guaranteed not pregnant (which happens a lot with pet shop hams). They always have a lot of young hamsters, too, because they take in pregnant hamsters or litters from people who bought a pregnant hamster.

When you have got some experience and want to have a group later on I'd get in contact with one of the few reputable campbell's breeders and get a group from one of them. Your chances of the group working well are much higher than with two pet-shop bought WWs.

I'm Austrian and currently have two groups of Campbell's (from a German line) but I also have two Campbell's who live solitary.