Wow I never realised it was such a mine field
Sorry you lost your hammies so young
Out of interest, how does one tell if the hamster dies of old age or heart disease or diabetes? I had a number gerbils when I was young and we were really lucky inasmuch as they all lived to a ripe old age of 4. But when they died, they just died. It’s not like they had a long stay in hospital with palliative care. Did you take them to the vests and have them diagnosed or a post mortem or something?
Both of ours seem to be in fine fettle. They’re happy and healthy and full of life and love. Are there particular symptoms I should be looking out for?
With regards to play dates. Sossij and Chungles have “been together” since Sossij was a baby. They have adjoining cages and so even now they are only separated by a cage wall. We regularly swap them round too so they are fully familiar with each other’s scent. We were obviously planning to mate them so everything has been working towards that end goal. As for causing stress, my observation would be that Chungles is utterly unfazed by Sossij. If anything she’s the one who is more hyper when they’re both up and about. When we’ve had them both together, he’s the cool one
And again I stress I’m not the expert when it comes to hamsters, but I would think it a real shame to have to split them up now. They’re friends.