Russian Dwarfs - Page 3

Faerydae · 01-05-2012, 05:31 PM

I got my 2 russians from P@H and they got on OK for a while but slowly started falling out more and more until I split them up as precaution, as others have said, a breeder would be best if you want a higher chance of them staying together

KatiePillow · 01-05-2012, 05:35 PM

I'd actually disagree, although the risk of them being lonely is present, I think the risk of them fighting is much larger, and the proportion of campbells which get on seems to be smaller than that of those which don't get on.

You've been very lucky with yours Sam, and I really wanted a pair at some point too - I had to seperate them due to them being mis-sexed, but I don't think that my girl would have put up with her brother past maturity anyway.

It'd obviously be great to have a pair or group of them, all co-habitating, but if you're not going to be around during the day, or want to be able to go away overnight without them, then I think you could miss the warning signs of trouble, and that'd always be in my mind =/

Although everyone is entitled to their opinions, and I totally see where you're coming from, 3 of my hamsters were alone in the adoption area and the other two were mis-sexed so had to be separated, so I've not had the opportunity to have a pair, realistically.

**kyrilliondaemon** · 01-05-2012, 05:42 PM

Oh I know we're absurdly lucky lol
I'd never, ever advise people to get a foursome. We knew from the start we were asking for trouble lol. (Always have a spare cage and two options for temporary caging ready for use if needed, am just hoping we never need any of them.)

And you have good points there, so thanks for bringing them up and pointing them out to me. We aren't around all the time in the day but I had forgotten about the restrictions they impose. We're too used to them I guess. Odd considering it was only a few weeks ago they were making sorting out seeing my partners parents a nightmare, but apparently I forget quickly lol

But yeah, good point. You do need to take the issue about leaving them overnight into consideration, and ours live in our bedroom entirely to make sure we hear all squeaking and wake to interfere if needed. And there is a high risk of fighting - I'll never deny that.
I'm freely open with how much sleep our four have cost us during their silly phases of squabbling lol. If someone isn't ok with the restrictions and high risk of separation then yeah, a single is much better.

I do still think its better to get a single one from the adoption centre than to choose which to separate from its friends though.

riri · 01-05-2012, 05:43 PM

I got my two from P@H but I was told they were from the same litter, whether that's true or not who knows but I'd rather give it a go at pairing and have to separate them then make them live alone
They do get along brilliantly now but obviously I have been warned that can completely 180 in 5 months so that sucks

I'm still pretty new to hammies but I LOVE my russian dwarfies, just to add I got mine from P@H etc and they were COMPLETELY tame. Zorro jumps onto my hand when I put it in the cage and runs up my arm

He's not quite there on cuddles but it's a hell of a head start! Woodhouse/Snoopy (not there on a name yet) is fine with being handled and will clamber onto my hand if I put it in the cage, he's just not as enthusiastic yet. They're both little attention seekers and make it obvious when they want a bit of play time by coming up to the front of the cage, they're a good pair

**kyrilliondaemon** · 01-05-2012, 05:47 PM

Riri - It can be as little as 24 hours if they find a problem with each other unfortunately

The store would claim ours were related too, but I can near guarantee they're not lol
They do have a chance of staying together though, its just up to all of us if its a risk we're ok with or not.
I won't deny that we spent ages discussing before getting a pair of them, and about 8 hours straight discussing if we were ok to up it to a foursome lol

riri · 01-05-2012, 05:50 PM

Yea, I guess I meant more when they reach that maturity stage it's more of just waiting for them to crack

I do love them both though!
The advice you gave me in another thread about sourcing their squabbles will be a great help when they do though

I'd really hate to break them up, they still sleep together and tend to get on quite well at the moment
Did you get yours from P@H in Aberystwyth? (location) I'm not sure I can trust half the information they give me.

**kyrilliondaemon** · 01-05-2012, 05:58 PM

You're kidding me, you're local?
Wow.

And yeah, we got them at P@H in Aberystwyth. I trust the staff there to an extent (some more than others) but most info is best er... not trusted...
I think they gave the correct ages for our lot (other than the adoption robos but they're an exception) but they got sexes wrong, ideas on taming robos wrong, and a load of other stuff wrong too lol

riri · 01-05-2012, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyrilliondaemon

You're kidding me, you're local?
Wow.

And yeah, we got them at P@H in Aberystwyth. I trust the staff there to an extent (some more than others) but most info is best er... not trusted...
I think they gave the correct ages for our lot (other than the adoption robos but they're an exception) but they got sexes wrong, ideas on taming robos wrong, and a load of other stuff wrong too lol

I am, haha

I work in Aber, had to nip in to the P@H today to buy new food and bedding for them, also picked up a nice little woven ball for them to nibble on

So far I've had to replace most of the stuff I got with them, including the food and the bedding

Costly too! They didn't tell me the ages of our two which isn't too fabby! Didn't get any advice other than to "leave them alone for 24 hours" D:

**kyrilliondaemon** · 01-05-2012, 06:05 PM

Wow... You know how rare that is? lol

And you have more advice than we did

We had no advice about any of them (oh other than "you can't ever introduce the robos because they won't want company now they've been alone ages" which is er... not entirely correct lol, we can't introduce them because they're a boy and a girl - not that P@H knew it)

And yeah, I know what you mean about the costs. I ask for hamster ages though, find it useful to have a rough idea so insist on asking before even deciding to buy. They trust me to have sense about them though, so don't usually bother with much advice.
We did learn that one has which sex is which wrong (that was fun) and yeah, have had other things crop up in conversation which were also wrong.

Hopefully yours are related then. I've seen the current litter and think some will be relatives, just others won't be lol

riri · 01-05-2012, 06:27 PM

Is it that rare on here? I figure it was a pretty busy forum so didn't know how often it would happen haha!
I'm loving their new chinchillas in there though, NEVER seen such an active pair! Always up and about when I go in, normally they're just sleeping in all P@H stores, the degus make me want to take a loan and go crazy and buy them too

It's pretty hard to tell with my two anyway as I guess the colouring tends to be a huge giveaway, but one of mine is an albino and the other one's a sort of light brown with the usual black line running down his back!