Should I separate them ??

[emilyeliza]

Hi I have Had my two robo hamsters around 3 weeks. They are sisters and one of them is much larger than her sister. In the last week the larger one spends all her time chasing the smaller one. At first they weren't making a sound but now they squeak a lot. I haven't seen them box nor have I seen any blood, cuts or patches with missing hair. They are in a large cage with two weels, two water bottles, they are being scatter fed and they now only have a large open nest. They also have one large sand bath and two identical tunnels. That's all that's in there cage I can take pictures of the cage. At night all I can just hear them running up and down squeaking. is it too early to separate them. It's always that smaller one being chased I feel very stressed about it. Please help!

[Pebbles82]

I think the smaller one probably feels stressed about it too, if you do. Although there has been no actual fighting or wounds as yet, the smaller one is being bullied basically, so yes I would separate them. Stress can make them ill.

If you want to try something first, you could try putting two houses in so they don't have to share an open nest and both have a place to retreat to, and maybe take the tunnels out. Even though there are two tunnels one can get territorial in a tunnel and see the other one off.

Scatter feeding sounds good and you have two wheels and water bottles, so adding two houses and taking the tunnels out is all I can think of to try an adjustment. Is there plenty of depth of substrate? Just use a couple of tissue boxes or similar for houses - a box with a hole in for a door.

To be honest though, now the bullying has started it might just be better to separate them as one will always be bigger probably and the other one may always feel stressed with her sister around now.

[cypher]

I would separate now rather than wait for fights, the more submissive one may not retaliate so you may not see fights but the smaller one won't get a chance to thrive & live a happy life if things stay the way they are, the smaller one may not be getting a reasonable share of the food at the moment & will probably do better all round living alone.

[emilyeliza]

Thanks for the quick replys . I have about 15cm of substrate and they have had two houses up until the last few days when I decidd to take them out. I'm going to seperate them tonight asap! Thanks again!

[flowerfairy]

I had the same situation with two litter sisters. I separated them and the one being chased immediately brightened up and started to come out more and often sits relaxing on her wheel. Her sister (Fairy) took a bit longer to accept the situation but was fine within a couple of days.

Flower is in the grosvenor large rat and hamster cage and Fairy is in the alaska cage from zooplus.

Good luck with your two. I expect you will feel a more relaxed once they are separate.

[emilyeliza]

I'm about to seperate them thanks so much for all your advice. I feel much more at east knowing the smaller one won't be terrorised tonight!