fight

[Matty Day]

my two girls have massively fallen out with each other . Aphrodite has hurt Athena a bit but not to badly. she has been hurt in the ear a few small bite marks and on the bum . i have separated them and put Athena up in a old fish tank temporarily luckily i found a good size gerbil cage in the paper which I am going to pick up tomorrow. strange one minute they were fine and next they were fighting

[souffle]

Sorry to hear that Matty. That seems to be the way as they mature with girls. You have done the right thing to separate now. Keep an eye on the cuts and watch for any sign of infection such as redness, oozing etc and see a vet at the first sign of any problem. I hope she heals well. Lots of attention from you and they will be fine alone so don't worry.

[Holly]

Sorry to hear that also. It does seem a common story and, now that P@H are selling Chinese hamsters more and more and labelling them as "social," I wonder if it would be worth the hamster clubs (who seem to have been working with P@H lately) having a word?

It's different to dwarf hams who seem like they may or may not fight later in life - every Chinese female seems to want to live on her own and most males. Well that's how it reads if you read the forums anyway.

[Matty Day]

i think its down to bad breeding i think that if all chinease that have shown agressoin towards another one shoudnt be breed from for example athena was trying to get along aprodite was always starting it maybe this can be breed out of the hamsters.

[Matty Day]

and i agree that it seems to be females more than males and i would suggest to anyone buying a chinease to try to see if they can live togther first. it would however be good to see it the quality of the hamsters has any difference in temprament

[I_am_plankton]

whether they stay together or not has nothing to do with "bad breeding". It is just your luck and of course what you know. For example they should have a large single level cage, old substrate mixed in with the new on every change out and same with bedding, handling at the same time and generally not being separated at all even for a few minutes to try and keep scents the same at all times.

I think people need to accept that Chinese are generally not social like first thought, many pairs have to be split up, even those that are quality animals.

[Bunsey]

in my opinion, chinese hamsters are solitary, especially females. i don't think females should ever be together. i have two females and whilst i've never had them together, i can just TELL that they are solitary. they act like syrians. they are move possessive over their homes than syrians. i don't think people should be sold female chinese hamsters together. it's so wrong. owners end up blaming themselves or even worse, they don't notice in time and one ends up dead. hamsters can be fine and then 2 hours later one is covered in blood - i've seen that (robos).

[Matty Day]

i agree with you that some hamsters do pefer to be on there own but some hammies do get on well togther even females.
i think there is no set rule like syrains. some will some wont its all down to the temprament of the hamsters and the cage. maybe in the wild they burrow sleeep togther but dont stick togther all the time and channge who they share there burrow with all the time, its just the cant do this in captivity hence the fights

[souffle]

In my opinion it is luck really if you can get any same sex pairs of dwarfs of any type to live together. The crux of the matter is that it simply is not a natural situation for them. In the wild this would not happen. There would be males and females around and litters and youngsters to dilute the hormonal swings. The females would be pregnant and nursing and would not be in a constant oestrous cycle and a controlled breeding plan. They would have things to do such as foraging, territory marking, mating and baby raising. Really caged animals have a very unnatuaral life so they vent their frustrations on their, usually same sex, cagemates, though sometimes fights would occar in colonies and I imagine fights do occur even in the wild but then they can run away from each other which they cannot do in a cage.

[lau200]

in my opinion, chinese hamsters are solitary.

i totally agree that chinese hamsters are solitary. my chinese female Su-Lin is very territorial and has gone to bite me a few times before she has realized it was me. if she was living with another i can see them fighting very easily over that territory. the chinese male i had, Chan, who died in March was notorious in our house for his aggression. he was the sweetest hmster ever towards humns but put another furball near him and that ws it. he bit another hamster on the foot, swiped at a rat and went for a chinchilla. i'd hate to see what he would have been like with a friend- i can imagine fur would have been flying in no time.

i am sorry to hear that your hamsters have fought with with chinese it is very common and i disagree that they are social, no matter who says it (but that is just an opinion i suppose!)

[Foreverhamsters]

i would very much agree that chinese hamsters are solitary, and P@H are terrible with there hamsters to be honest, the one near me can't even label them correctly, and at one point had syrians labelled as sociable?????? ive seen chinese labelled as rbo's and campbells.

in my experience chinese hamsters do not get on well and its very rare that they do from what i have heard from other breeders. i dont think its bad breeding i think its their natural status as "solitary" its very different to bad breeding sometimes you get certain colours in syrians and campbells like argente which some can have a tend to be more agressive (before the argente breeders out there start hunting me i did say some :lol: )

[sarahh]

Hi sorry to hear Matty that you are going to have to separate your two chinese. I am not sure why tthey say they ccan live together when they can't. I know someone that had to separate her 2 I told her she woulod have to but she said she would see and I was proved right.

[ami_j]

my two ive rehomed are about a year and still live together happily , should i be prepared to split or will they be ok ? they are males btw

[Foreverhamsters]

boys do generally get on better than females, however i have never seen a pair of boys live together for more than a year. if they have been living together up until now then unless they have some major dispute they should be fine. always be perpared for fights with chinese groups or pairs even if they are getting on fine
1 min they will be fine the next they are full on aggressive to each other

good luck, i hope they stay together,

Alex

[ami_j]

thanks. they seem fine will just have to keep an eye on them