Male hamster pair behaviour

[souffle]

If you can see his testicles then it's fine so no need for a pic. Like I said if they are still cohabiting then it should be OK to leave them together as long as you watch them carefully. Bites would mean they do need separated. Try having another bowl well apart and also hide food in the bedding so they can forage for it. Do his teeth look OK? Have you got two wheels / houses and bowls? It's best to have two of everything however in this case as they are at this difficult age I might hesitate adding new things to the cage in case it tips the balance to fighting. The film is showing a dominance behavior now you have established that they are both boys. Young adult males of this age would be seeking out partners now so obviously living in a single sex group is not a natural situation for them at maturity. Fights can happen very suddenly and without warning. Prime time is around 4 months of age. The lack of weight gain in one is often due to them being constantly excreting adrenalin and being on high alert so even though he is eating he may be using all his energy that way.

[Andyg]

Hi Souffle

Sorry for the delay in replying, but we've been away for the weekend.

We got them at the beginning of November, and they were around 15g each - so we thought they were 2-3 weeks old? This would mean they're getting on for 4 months old.

They do have two wheels, and a spinning disk, but it seems to be Ernie, not Eric, that does most of the exercise. They have a stash of food in the house they share - as I mentioned before, there are two separated sleeping rooms with a room between them where their toilet is. There is a stash of food next to the toilet, under the paper substrate they moved in there. There are a couple of bowls of different food as well as a millet or two hanging around the cage. I hope this is sufficient?

We have a large hamster heaven cage, and that has another area they can sleep in, which is what we call "the boobie" - however, they are usually together in the same room in their three room house. We have modified it by removing the central partition in the centre and adding a way in to that room and blocked off the old entrance so that it has two seperate sleeping areas (which they each seem to use one in particular if they are not together (which is more normal). The toilet bowl is also inside the house. It's one of these

https://picclick.co.uk/Trixie-Leif-S...639319018.html

One of our previous hamsters developed a tooth problem, which we discovered when he lost a lot of weight. At the moment, Eric does seem to still be able to open sunflowers etc. We will monitor him and take him to the vet if necessary (here in Hungary we are fortunate to have vets that charge about £5 a visit, and that's if they charge us. Often they don't). The previous ones were regular visitors what with eye infections and teeth problems. But the good news is we just weighted them and Eric gained 2g to 37.

So, we'll keep an eye on them and we're probably going to pick up another cage just in case (they're on offer at the moment). If we don't have to separate them, the wife will undoubtedly fill the space with another rescue hamster, like our other hamster Frostie (who is the spitting image of your Klaus).

Thanks once again

A