Hamster going crazy! Help!

ChaosKilledTheDinosaurs · 05-08-2018, 01:54 PM

Hello! This is my 1st post
So...I may did something wrong...
I have 2 russian dwarf hamsters. About 6 and 5 months old. When I dobn't have time to play with them that much, I switch theitr cages for 30 minutes or less. I have a male and a female.
Before today, this was fine and thweywere curious about the new pce. I don't place them together, just move them to one another's cage.
But today my female hamster, Nosy, went crazy. She sqeaked until I put her back in her cage and when she came back she run like crazy and then hide in her tubes.
What should I do? Should I stop switching thier cages?

souffle · 05-08-2018, 02:33 PM

It's really not a good idea to swap them. That is really very stressful for them as they are very territorial and do not like the scent of another animal in their cages. It is also teasing them to thinking there is a mate around when there isn't. Please don't swap them round and keep them well separate from now on so as not to stress them. They are fine alone and you don't want babies.
Try and give them a little more handling if possible and introduce new things to the cages like maybe cardboard tubes or boxes and chew sticks to keep them busy.

SKB_Hamsters · 05-12-2018, 09:44 AM

You shouldn't switch your hamsters cages around - as hamster often get very stressed when they are placed in a unfamiliar environment especially with another hamsters scent. It best to keep them inside their own cages for now on.

dreamtree1234 · 05-12-2018, 09:56 AM

I ditto what Souffle and SKB said. I hope they settle in well soon.

ChaosKilledTheDinosaurs · 05-13-2018, 09:43 AM

Oh, I see. Thanks, I won't do it anymore.
I tought they would have a different place to explore and they would have fun, but I won't switch their cages anymore.

SKB_Hamsters · 05-13-2018, 09:50 AM

If you want a different place for them to explore you could use a large cardboard box as a playpen with some different toys in - but you will need one for each hamster.

ChaosKilledTheDinosaurs · 05-13-2018, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SKB_Hamsters

If you want a different place for them to explore you could use a large cardboard box as a playpen with some different toys in - but you will need one for each hamster.

Thanks, I will do that instead.

hellobg · 05-13-2018, 10:15 AM

Might I ask what cages you have? Perhaps if you use one large cage and with several newer toys it might do both of them better.
I'm assuming they're both in the cages together, if they're seperate I think you should keep it that way with both of them having larger cages.

ChaosKilledTheDinosaurs · 05-13-2018, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hellobg

Might I ask what cages you have? Perhaps if you use one large cage and with several newer toys it might do both of them better.
I'm assuming they're both in the cages together, if they're seperate I think you should keep it that way with both of them having larger cages.

I have a male and a female so they are in separate cages. They cave both bin cages, that are both 50X80X35(or so)cm, so they are big enough.

hellobg · 05-13-2018, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosKilledTheDinosaurs

I have a male and a female so they are in separate cages. They cave both bin cages, that are both 50X80X35(or so)cm, so they are big enough.

I see, well then I don't think it's problematic but if you kept switching them in each others cage, that's really problematic as it might stress the hamsters as its a different scent for them.