robo's killing each other???

[Sway]

Hey everyone,

I've got a Syrian, two Russian and did have 4 robo's. I feel like a bad pet owner when I say this but my cats managed to smash open my robo's cage and ate two of them. The two remaining robo's seemed fine. Then when my other half was looking for them the other night one was simply dead and the other was gone leaving nothing but tufts of furr. I thought robo's lived happily in groups? It seems to me that they must have had a fight and killed each other. Why would they do that? is it because two were eaten by the cats? It was about a month ago that that happened and I'm really quite upset about the whole thing. I'm scared to get any more as I don't want this to happen again. Doesa anyone have any ideas as to what happened? They were fine the previous day.

Thank, Kat x

[souffle]

I am sorry to hear of this sway. It would seem that the loss of two of the group and the stress likely tipped them over the edge into fighting for dominance. It is common for all types of dwarfs to end up fighting and this can start very suddenly and viciously leading to death. Four is quite a big group and you would need a good sized cage to keep this many together. If you want to try again it may be best to opt for just two. A single robo can also live quite happily alone though.

[Tammy22]

Hiya Kat,

i am very sorry to hear of your loss - it must have been very upsetting for you to find them like that

I get asked similar questions al l the time - 'why have my robos killed each other?' - but the fact is that Robos will not usually fight for the death and will not usually kill each other - it is very rare!

In the wild they will fight for dominance and the weaker one will leave the territory to the stronger, more dominant one - they probably dont even cause that much damage to each other in the wild - the probably sort things out with squeaks and boxing etc.

The problems with captive robos is that they will have their little arguments with squeaks and boxing and the least dominant one will run off, but then he / she will have to face the dominant again, and then again - and soon the dominant one will get sick of trying to frighten the weaker one off and will then attack - obviously this is not either of their faults - they cannot get out of the cage / territories

The attacks gradually get more ferocious and serious and eventually they will cause a wound which is serious enough to cause death - they do not usually kill each other, but they can cause wounds which can cause death - and yes, once a hamster is dead, the others will try to dispose of the body to prevent predators from being drawn - that is just a natural instinct

So usually, there are signs which you must watch out for with any hamsters who are living together - squeaks, boxing, bullying, individuals being prevented from eating or drinking, wounds (slight at first and then more serious) etc. If you catch these warning signs early you can sometimes prevent serious fights or wounds.

i hope this helps you for in the future

Tammy x

[Bunsey]

i thought i'd give my experience with this, as it's almost happened to me twice - i've managed to separate a pair on 2 occasions when one was nearly killing the other and clearly would have done had i not walked in on them by pure chance. On both occasions there were no other signs of fighting perviously. I've no idea why it happened on either occasion, but obviously it just does happen sometimes and it's not the owner's fault. The best way is obviously prevention, by finding out abotu the best cages and set-ups etc. Often it's the set-up that's to blame (e.g. modular cage, one wheel)