I am feeling a little under the weather today as my two robo hamsters woke me up this morning. I have two robos named Tammy and Tommy, and they both male, brothers, about 3-4 months old. They were the best of friends when I first obtained them, then they started fighting a little until I found out I needed two wheels in the cage (silly me) and then they got along quite well after that. However, as they matured they started fighting a lot more often, more than they had before. It was quite clear that Tammy was very afraid of Tommy and would run away at the sight of him. Despite all the fighting they slept together in the same spot so I thought it would all be okay...but I'm grateful Tammy's squeaks woke me up this morning, as if might have gotten worse if I got there sooner. Poor Tammy had a bleeding rear right leg, and I separated him right away.
For now, I am keeping Tammy in a cardboard Petsmart pet carrier my friend gave me until I get some more proper housing for him later on. It's literally flooding out there because of storms from Hurricane Ike (I live in the US), so I can't go out at the moment. I am watching over him carefully in case he would get out. The wound has stopped bleeding since then and there is now some dried blood on him. The wound doesn't seem to bother him, luckily and he is still running/walking as usual, and doesn't squeak in pain now that he has been separated. I haven't been able to clean the wound though, because he just can't stand still although I thought I had tamed him properly. I have placed some soft, dust-free Carefresh bedding all over the box floor hopefully to aid with the healing and also set it up so it has a cage-sorta feel (exercise wheel, hammy house, water bottle and chewing stick).
I just feel really disappointed that it had to come to this, especially since they're brothers and I thought they would be fine
Tammy was innocent; he never fought back. I'm sure its not the cage setup that upset them, because wherever I put them while I was cleaning the cage they were fighting too.
The problem I have here is that both hamsters seem to be sad of separation, even if they were fighting. They don't seem to be acting normal and are much more quiet and less active now that they don't have each other. Should I try reintroducing them at one point, after Tammy's wound has healed? How should I do it, if I do it? I have tried using a cage separator once, but then they'd both be like Spiderman and climb over it with ease.
Someone also brought up the idea of putting a mirror in both of the cages so the hamster would think there was another hamster in the cage, but somehow I don't think that's a very bright idea, is it?
Since I have found mixed answers on whether or not I should reintroduce hamsters on other websites, I'm going to turn this into a poll to see whether or not people think I should do it, cause I'm really not sure. I found this site via Google today, and I joined it hoping someone here could help me.
Thanks!
Fighting Roborovskis?
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