Introducing father and son

[Rmv1983]

I have had Chinny and his son Kipper in a cage in cage set up since Tuesday my vet said it was okay to separate Kipper from his mom and sisters. He is pretty well developed in his boy parts. I cleaned out dads cage and let them sniff each other out yesterday. I watched them for an hour before putting them back in their own cages. Chinny kept sniffing his son, then pretty much ignored him in favor of eating. Kipper turned on his back and squealed a few times when Chinny went to sniff him. They did not fight or try and attack each other. I switched the cages they were in this morning, Chinny in Kipper's cage and so on. If they were going to fight would it be right away? They are Russian dwarf hamsters. When do you know it is okay to leave them alone together? Thanks so much! I also think Chinny calmed down in the past few weeks. He actually let me pick him up and pet him without biting me!

[kyrilliondaemon]

Given how young Kipper is, you can probably leave them alone very soon.
We've been very lucky with our introductions though, so others with less fortunate experiences will probably be better placed to advise.

It would probably be best to try the split cage method rather than completely unrelated cages though. For that you'd need to clean a cage, then put a divider down the middle and have one hamster living either side, switching which side they were on reguarly, until the two seemed perfectly happy together.

With Whizz and Muffin we put a divider down a box, then let them both out in one side. They were ok so we let them meet and then supervised for over two hours, they convinced us they were happy together, we moved them to a completely clean cage with nothing but bedding, then we supervised that for a few hours.
Then a day later we added wheels, and supervised for hours... So basically, have a completely clean cage at first, and supervise for hours before sleeping or leaving them alone. If there are any signs of disagreements, delay leaving them alone and put a divider between them before leaving them unsupervised.
Even if they're asleep - supervise anyway until the end of your supervision time, since you never know when they'll wake and its best to watch rather than trust "they're asleep, it'll be fine now then"

Basically - You can never know its ok for sure (lets face it - sometimes well established pairs fight anyway) but given how young Kipper is it'll probably be safe to do so pretty soon.
Just watch closely for a few hours before risking it, and if there are signs of fighting separate before you leave the room. I'd trust them after they were ok to spend hours together and sleep together. Until then, I'd not risk it, but thats just me.
Oh and even then I'd keep a close eye for days. I'm still watching Muffin and Whizz closely and plan to for at least another week yet, just to be sure they've settled perfectly... (Am pretty sure they have, but more supervision can't hurt, right?)