are they social and a good choice?

[ZuZu]

Hey one last Q before I am done w/ this for the night, do you peeps think that a chinese would be a good choice for a new ham? and are they social or better kept alone? (I like the smaller breeds ok?!)

[SarahJ]

I have 2 chinese boys - when i got them they lived together but a bad fight broke out so i had to split them up.
You can keep them together but they are a hard breed to do this with and more then likely you will need to split them up. if you do try and keep them together you will need a big cage and 2 of everything. no platforms in the cage either as they can fight over these.
but over all chinese's are amazing little pets, they can be rather timed to start with but once tamed are lovely. i would deff recmond chinese's :)

[souffle]

I would not recommend a pair of Chinese. They are really hard to keep together. Females are a definite no no but the odd male pair do stay together. They are pretty much solitary though and I would say more Syrian in this respect than dwarfy.
We have a Chinese male and he is lovely and friendly. They like to just sit on you:) They can be shy and like to hide away quite a bit. They enjoy lots of hidey holes rather than big open spaces and I think they prefer tank type cages to bars myself.
I'd just get one to be safe. If they fight it is very nasty :(

[SnickersTheFirst]

I don't have a Chinese but I have a Winter White and a Syrian. Out of these two my Syrian is by far the friendliest, begging for cuddles etc. My dwarf is fine with being handled but he's more shy and doesn't crave human attention.

It depends if you want a hamster to bond with - if so get a Syrian.

As the others said, I wouldn't get a pair if you decide on Chinese. :)

[Vectis Hamstery]

Chinese hamsters are lovely hamsters and make wonderful pets. They won't beg to come out like Syrians will but can become very tame indeed. Mine love sitting on my shoulder, under my hair, up my sleeve :) They view me as one large climbing frame! Several of my baby chinese have gone to live with people who have never owned one before and the owners are thoroughly converted. A cage with plenty of hidey holes is a must as they don't like open spaces.

I would agree with the others that they are better off kept singly. Some experienced Chinese owners do keep them in pairs/colonies, but they need very plain cages which are small enough for them not to develop a territory. Chinese hamsters fight without much warning and can cause very nasty injuries.

[ZuZu]

ahh, single, right, Ok got it now! just that I heard some preferred company of others and some don't, so wanted to make sure! yeah I loved my ww dwarf but I wanted to try a diff. breed. cause I wanted to see how they differ in size interaction ect. Are they less or more social than dwarfs? I have heard that Chinese like ppl more generaly, but this was from a pet store and they usualy do not have the best knowledge on pets:rolleyes: if you know what I mean.