Two Roborovski Sisters who Don't Get on...

[hidinginlight]

I've got two roborovski sisters who have been together since birth, and I've looked after them since they were roughly 3 weeks old. They've been with me for at least a few months. To begin with, they got on fine together - I neither saw nor heard any kind of fighting between them. Then, around a month and a half ago, they began to fight.

Originally they had no wheel at all, because the wheel that came with my cage (Habitrail Ovo) had slits running along it, so I was concerned about them catching their feet. Then, I was given another cage which contained a solid wheel. I was able to place this into the HabiTrail cage and they would both use it with no arguments. That wheel ended up breaking (where it slotted into the cage, as it wasn't intended for the fixing). I ended up wedging three strips of cardboard into the Habitrail wheel, which removed the possibility of them getting caught and put it back in for them.

Now, a little while after this they began fighting. After reading some of the advice on here, I thought it might be because they were having to share, so I managed to join together the two cages securely, and bought another wheel. So now, they had almost twice the original space, and a wheel to themselves. This worked for a while but they began fighting again. It seems like they fight over my 'pimped' Habitrail wheel.

I went through a few weeks of breaking apart the cages to separate them, and then trying to reintroduce them in their 'play box' whilst I cleaned the cages. It seemed they would get on okay for a day or so once I'd put them back in the joined cages, but then fall out again. I've now got them separated (for the last four or five days).

It just seems very sad that they are living separately when I've always read that they are social hamsters. I've got a few questions for those of you more experienced with this problem - do you think that it's unlikely they will ever be able to live together again? Would it be harmful to try reintroducing them? If they can't live together, is it beneficial to put them in the 'play box' together?

Any suggestions welcome (and thank you for reading such a long post...)

[jayne]

Hi there,

I haven't got any experience in robos i'm afraid but i know East London Chick and Tammy are a few on here who are very experienced and would answer you more confidently with this.

From any other times when dwarves have had to be separated, i think its just been best to keep them that way. But as i say, i'm no expert with robos :?

[BatKat]

Once separated the chances of them going back together is remote. They obviously have matured and are fighting to be "Top Hamster". Best bet is to keep them apart. If you put the cages side by side they will still be able to smell the other one so won't be completely alone. Many dwarfs fall out and have to be kept apart, they can still lead a full and happy life on their own :D

[internet_nobody]

Part of the problem is probably keeping them in modular cages, this allows them each to choose a bit to be "their" territory, and then attack the other one for invading.

As they're still youngish (from the sounds of it under 6 months old), it may be possibe to re-introduce them to live in a large open plan type cage, however if they have injured each other (sorry if you said, but I couldn't spot anything describing how serious the fighting was) then its best to keep them seperate. I normally find robo intros work well, no matter how old the hamster, but if there's ever been any biting it only ever seems to get worse.

I totally agree with I_N. If blood has been drawn, there's no point trying to re-introduce them as things will only get worse. But, if the fighting has been more squabbling and chasing, a re-introduction could work BUT....you need to sort out their living environment first or it won't work.

Its quite common for robos to start fighting from age 4+ months but depending on the severity, you may be able to re-introduce them successfully. :)

Unfortunately, modular cages tend to encourage fighting amongst dwarfies as they get territorial. So by introducing the extra cage, you may have unwittingly made things worse rather than better. But you do need a large-ish cage for them (an Ovo is too small - I'm not sure what the other cage is that you have)...robos may be little but they need as much space as any other hamster, possibly more as they like to run around so much. Its also important that each dwarf has their own wheel. They may choose to share a wheel but you need to provide the option of one each or again, its highly likely that they will fight over the one wheel - I'd actually recommend that they have identical wheels to be on the safe side.

To give you some hope though, I have 30+ robos and not one of them lives alone. There's been all sorts of squabbles but after various introductions, they're all (currently at least!) living happily in various groupings. I have almost lost track of who's living with who though after changing everyone around so much until they found robos they got on with! :roll:

[hidinginlight]

Thanks for all your advice. It's a shame that I didn't find this website/forum before I actually bought my cage and first took on the hamsters - all the other information I looked at wasn't this specific and (I now realise, rather stupidly) I relied on the good people at Pets at Home to help me with choosing the correct cage!

Maude and Doris are under 6 months old, and as far as I can tell, no blood has been drawn in their fights. Unfortunately I am going away for a month and leaving them in the care of a friend, so I don't think I have the time to arrange a more appropriate cage for them to share.

I did, however, read another posting on here about re-introducing two robo's into a tank-style cage - nothing but the substrate/shavings with scattered food for a day, and then adding toys etc. - so will give it a go on my return.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

[arikata]

I started off with an Ovo as well. My robos pretty much destroyed it! I was gutted after spending so much money on all of the extra bits and bobs, now it's just sat in my cupboard covered in sellotape where I have tried to fix it.

[babyboos]

sadly another example of a cage designed for the owner rather than the hamster

good luck with the reintro on your return

[arikata]

sadly another example of a cage designed for the owner rather than the hamster

Neither me nor the hammies liked it. It was a pain in the bum to take apart to clean and the water bottle would leak and the fattie robo Twix would dominate one of the tubes and wouldn't let anyone else pass. It was more for asthetic purposes I supose :?

[PinkEmily]

Hi there,
My robo girls used to fight alot, blood was drawn at one point but somehow they calmed themselves down, And they havent fought since. Its very distressing seeing them fight because you really dont want to split them up. The cage set up i have for my girls at the minute is a Huge bin cage from B&Q, the box plus vents etc to modify it cost £20. In their set up they have two silent spinners (one is used more than the other) and a flying saucer which is marvelous! I highly suggest buying one. They also have lots of other bits and pieces to climb and run under. All i can say is you know your hamsters best, if you feel that its getting too much then split them, if not you may find that they sort themselves out. Mine now know how to respect each others privacy, it was usually Minni running up to Belle and annoying her something silly and Belle snapping and chasing Minni off.