Horrific death of a robo

charliebuddah · 05-20-2018, 08:53 AM

Hi all, I have come across this site whilst trying to make sense of the horrific scene my 17 yr old daughter found this morning. She had 3 hamsters; one syrian in one cage & 2 robos (male siblings) in another. We ensured the robo cage was large, plenty of separate sleeping areas and space. For about 4 months they have never once fought. In fact they sleep together in a little hut most of the time, together. My daughter had them out yesterday afternoon and went to check on them this morning. To her horror one (the smaller of the two) was decapitated in the sleeping area. The whole top half was missing. There is no evidence of the remains & I find it hard to think the other can kill & eat half it's brother! I am quite shocked, especially as we were aware they could fight & were alert to it. It has really upset my daughter & she is very angry. I have read that this is rare, especially from males of the same colony. It makes no sense.

souffle · 05-20-2018, 10:22 AM

I'm sorry to hear this. It's not that rare and they are the prime age for this to happen. When their hormones kick in they can become very territorial and start fighting. Unfortunately the signs were already there with one being smaller as the larger one was likely bullying and taking all the food.
Two same sex is never a natural situation and they often fall out and fight and sometimes will fight to the death. Try and not dwell on the partial remains because this is a normal response to a dead cagemate or a dead pup in a litter. The other hamster will try and get rid of the body as a dead body will attract predators. It is normal and a correct behaviour which still exists even in out pet creatures.
Try and remember they are not little people in skins and they don't think or behave like we would. They don't know they are siblings - they just think they are rivals for mates / food / territory.
There is nothing you could have done as it happens even with the most experienced of breeders and carers. It's not nice to see but it is nature.
Keep the remaining little one alone now and give him plenty attention. He is likely to become much more people friendly now and make a lovely little pet. Tell your daughter this and let her understand and try and open her heart to her hammy again. He may be slightly confused and be a little reclusive for up to 10 days as he adjusts to being alone.
Good luck with him. I'd check him well for any injuries and also do a full cage clean to get his scent only in the cage.

BubbyandHamper · 05-20-2018, 10:48 AM

I'm so sorry for your loss. I've never experienced a hamster death but the death of other family members besides pet hamsters has always been heartbreaking. I've seen heartbreaking threads and I understand that losing your smallest, cutest family member is more heartbreaking than a broken relationship. (Those are really heartbreaking!)

Pebbles82 · 05-20-2018, 11:22 AM

I am so sorry - such a horrible shock for you and your daughter. You have done nothing wrong - but this can be very common with pairs. It's sad you had no warning to know to separate them. If they had started bickering or fighting you'd have known or taken advice and separated them. But it happened suddenly. As Souffle says, probably the only indication was one being bigger than the other.

Please try not to blame or disike the surviving hamster. There would have been a fight and it would have been over quickly and the one who died has now gone to the rainbow bridge and is playing free there.

Mother hamsters sometimes bite off the heads of pups if there is something wrong with them genetically (instinct) or if someone has been handling the pups and she feels threatened by it. So the decapitation will maybe have just been a natural instinct to remove something dead in the cage.

Do have a little ceremony and bury the remains of the one who died - it helps to say goodbye. Our last Syrian is in a little flower bed in the garden with a bird table over. Some people use large pots and plant a plant in it over them.

And do have a full cage clean as mentioned above. The cage and anything plastic or ceramic can just be washed with washing up liquid water and rinsed. And then all new substrate. I would discard anything wood as it's very hard to get rid of the scent, but you can make nice little houses and tunnels out of cardboard.

If you or your daughter feel traumatized still in a week or two, the Blue Cross have a very good pet bereavement line and will respond to emails.

All I would say is - all hamsters die some day - whether peacefully in their sleep or traumatically from injury (which is common) or having to be put to sleep because they are suffering. And whichever way they go, the important thing is they had a loving owner and a loving home and are now at peace.

Keeping pairs is very difficult as hamsters can get territorial very easily. Sometimes if one is out of the cage longer than the other one it's enough time for the one in the cage to start getting territorial. It's often when they get to the four month stage as well, as Souffle says, when their hormones kick in and they want to fight for the territory.