Stop! Thinking of getting a pet hamster? Please read first.

[njwilde]

Originally Posted by Nikorusama

German hamster forum members would argue against this...they prefer all hamsters to be kept on their own due to fighting. You can't always be there to split them up 24 hours a day. I'd be inclined to listen to their advice as I had two sisters who fought. One almost died from "bullying" they had LOTS of space so I didn't think it would be much of a problem but it was. Plus Germans seem to keep their hamsters in much better environments than we do do over here so I like to follow their advice.

Good point for discussion here as I am really confused with this one. I am German and recently watched a programme from my area where there is a rescue centre specially for dwarfs who ended up there mainly because they have been kept together and started fighting. The bites and other injuries looked awful so the thought of inflicting that on them seems really mean but when I see some of these forum entries there also seem to be a lot of dwarf hammies living happily together. I am considering getting dwarfs (or a dwarf) after the summer so I am unsure what to do. The cages they were showing were of very impressive size (they made hamster heaven look like a toilet roll) so I think they take their hamster care serious. Any advice? I suppose I could get two of the same gender with a spare cage just in case?

[StarlightSerenity]

Originally Posted by njwilde

Good point for discussion here as I am really confused with this one. I am German and recently watched a programme from my area where there is a rescue centre specially for dwarfs who ended up there mainly because they have been kept together and started fighting. The bites and other injuries looked awful so the thought of inflicting that on them seems really mean but when I see some of these forum entries there also seem to be a lot of dwarf hammies living happily together. I am considering getting dwarfs (or a dwarf) after the summer so I am unsure what to do. The cages they were showing were of very impressive size (they made hamster heaven look like a toilet roll) so I think they take their hamster care serious. Any advice? I suppose I could get two of the same gender with a spare cage just in case?

It can be done, but does take a lot of hard work and you really need to know your stuff to be able to notice warning signs etc.

You can only get two of the same gender, unless you want babies and must always have a spare cage available incase they have to be seperated.

Are you new to hamsters? If so, I'd say stick with a single ham. I've been a hamster owner for 16 months or so, been a member here for just a bit longer than that and I've picked up a load of information regarding keeping pairs but I don't feel remotely ready to own a pair or group.

Research obviously needs to be done no matter how many hamsters you get, or what breed they are but keeping a pair means that you need to do extra research on top of that. It's just best to get to know hamsters, on their own, in the flesh before getting a pair. You will then be much more capable of recognising problems between a pair.

It also costs double the amount - even if you only have one cage you still need to buy two of everything (wheel, bottle/bowl etc) and not having the extra cage is asking for trouble.

It can be very stressful as well, ask anyone here with a pair lol!

If you would like to know more about keeping a pair, just post in the Hamster Chat forum, there are a number of people here with pairs (and groups) who will be able to give you more advise than I can.