[Lilafernim]

Hi, I think I saw this thread earlier, and welcome back by the way! I think it was Ria who said this and she’s had lots of experience with different hamsters so I would definitely take her advice.

Unfortunately, pet shops are incredibly poor with lack of correct information they give to pet owners, myself and many others have been made a target of this for profit. I actually got two male robos when I was younger being told “they’re better in pairs” which is entirely not true. As I understand, smaller breeds such as robos do have the ability to live with each other but most the time they like their own space. So if you have a big enclosure as Ria said, two habitats within the enclosure could work. But I agree to have a spare enclosure ready in case they fight.

I even had the incredibly traumatic experience of having to put a rabbit up for adoption who I loved with absolutely every ounce of my heart, but I trusted the “experts”. The recommended cage size was massively to small, the food recommended was wrong, the toys and litter was incorrect, they didn’t even have a signed vaccination card so she’s had to have vaccines redone. Vet bills were also massively downplayed in terms of costs. I simply didn’t have the space or the money to give her a full life, even though they told us we were more generous with space than most. I should’ve known better with my experience of pet shop hamsters but I didn’t believe they could be wrong about every pet they sold.

My previous hamster passed away suddenly and I really don’t know for sure if it was the pet shop way of breeding for money, but it did teach me not to trust them after reading stories online and massive help from this group explaining how they were wrong. If you have any questions about hamster care don’t be afraid to ask it here because there are people who have massive experience in hamster care, and also knowledge of ethical breeding, so if you have any doubts don’t be afraid to ask it helps so much.

In terms of should you take one back, if you have genuine concern that you could not care for them if they had to be separated I’d say you have two options. Return to the store, which as a reminder they might sell to another customer the same lies they told you meaning they might not go to a good home. Or, it’s a lot more work but try and find someone to adopt one from yourself so you can ask people for their cage set ups so you know they would be going to a better life.

Honestly though, my two robos I did have separate cages in the end and I believe I gave them both a full life. Even though when they first fought I thought I’d never be able to balance time between them. You could always look on gumtree or fb marketplace for cheap enclosures as a back up just in case, and see how it goes maybe?