Concerned for Shelter's Hamsters! And a bit mad.

[kyrilliondaemon]

I'm really sorry to see a shelter saying things like that

[Esmy]

See, we have the same situation at our local animal control.

"Prince is a typical teddy bear hamster that enjoys exploring. He is handleable if you are gentle picking him up and don't startle him. He loves having his brother as company and would need to be adopted together. He loves running in his exercise wheel, having outside cage time & treats. If you are interested in meeting Prince and King to possibly adopt please contact his foster mom at.."

The description claims they are 1yr 7mo old. That's pretty old in hamsters years and having lived together that long though. ?

[RigelFrank04]

Acutally,I do know of some male hamsters that were raised together and got along fine during their lives-in fact they did everything together,like sleeping,eating from the same bowl,and running on the wheel together. Perhaps unheard of,but it's possible.

[Esmy]

Rigel, I think the two boys could be like that too, but I separated them because I already have a female. I can't predict what they'd do if they smelled her and got territorial. But they seemed great together when I saw them.

[Colby and the Dwarfs]

Originally Posted by RigelFrank04

Acutally,I do know of some male hamsters that were raised together and got along fine during their lives-in fact they did everything together,like sleeping,eating from the same bowl,and running on the wheel together. Perhaps unheard of,but it's possible.

All it takes is one battle in the middle of the night to lose a hamster

[jemmalg]

Originally Posted by Colby and the Dwarfs

All it takes is one battle in the middle of the night to lose a hamster

Agreed - or even both. From my understanding, if dwarfs fight, one will usually back down. Syrians won't. What would be a scrap between a pair of dwarfs would be a fight to the death between a pair of Syrians.

I've heard of two Syrians living together - belonged to a friend of a friend. Apparently they were very happy together but I was mortified when I heard about it, it's so risky. They - and from your other post, Esmy, yours too - were in a very small cage. In this case I think they almost don't have enough to fight over, so don't. I can't imagine it's a very comfortable living situation though. "Not fighting" is not the same as "happy".

[kyrilliondaemon]

*nods*
I've heard of syrians living together peacefully but there's such a high risk... Why keep things together when they'll be completely content alone and could well turn on each other really nastily with no warning? I kinda prefer single syrians to seriously injured or murdered syrians really.

I think jemmalg has a point about the cage size too - most species seem to benefit from limits with cage size if you want to keep them together. There's no guarantee at all these hamsters wouldn't really injure each other if given a bigger cage and given a choice between company and a big cage it seems daft to go for company with a solitary species.

[RigelFrank04]

I know people just want to keep their hamsters safe,and I'm all for that,but I guess I'm an oddball in this case: I don't believe it's good to keep Syrians totally isolated from eachother-I read an article about Syrians who were given social contact (interacting with eachother though a wire mesh) and they were much less aggressive than those who were given none. It's been proven that they are less aggressive toward humans if given that. Even "solitary" species in the wild aren't isolated from one another. I think hamsters could benefit from safe(thorugh a wire mesh or something of the kind) interaction with others. I know a lot of you are thinking I'm out of my mind,and that that's a stupid idea. I'm sorry,but it's what I believe.

[Esmy]

I have the brothers home now that grew up together and lived together for the 1yr 7mo. They are in separate cages, but I'm going to let them have supervised play together unless they don't seem to care one another is there. Their cages are going to be side by side so they can visit.

[RigelFrank04]

Esmy, I think that's a great idea.