Wheels causing aggression?

[Loretta]

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting on the forum so I hope this is in the right place!

My Robo girls were separated a few weeks ago when I noticed that Coco had a nasty bite on her butt. They lived separately until her wound healed, then in a split-cage with a mesh divider. Last Saturday I put them back in their main cage with only bedding, scattered food, two water bottles and two sand baths.

They were getting along great until I tried putting their wheels back in. Ever since, Kiwi (dominant ham) had been chasing Coco a lot and pushing her off the wheels any time she tried to run on them. They have three wheels so it's not like there aren't enough to go around! They also slept separately for the first time since being reintroduced.

I took the wheels out again yesterday and they've gone back to cuddling up together, sharing food and grooming each other. There's still a little bit of chasing but it's slower, shorter and more playful than aggressive. Kiwi seems a lot calmer and Coco's stopped hiding in the corner.

Has anyone else has problems with this?? I'm really struggling to know what to do...

[becky1412]

I would suggest just separating them and keeping them seperate because if she's showing agression better safe than sorry before some one gets hurt

[Thin Lizzy]

Once you've separated them, they must remain separated.
Keeping them together will end up with them fighting and injured. It must be very stressful for them and for yourself.
Hamsters are happy being on their own, dwarfs will adjust to being by themselves.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Since you've reintroduced them now I'll actually give some different advice... I'd let them live together a little bit longer without adding anything extra to the cage, then very slowly add other toys and bits one at a time. If all goes well and they're behaving nicely give it a few days or a week and then add the wheels and see what happens.
If at any point they do start to show signs of trouble remove whatever you added and wait a while before trying with something else. If blood is drawn you'll need to separate again and after that I'd advise keeping them single this time

[Loretta]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone!

I'm going to go with what kyrilliondaemon said and give them a bit more time before trying to put the wheels back in, as the reintroduction has gone really well apart from the wheel issue. They are in a ZooZone 2 so have enough room to run around in the short term.

Of course I'll separate immediately & permanently if blood gets drawn again, I just wanted to give them a second chance first. I am keeping a really close eye on them - they are in my bedroom and I'm a fairly light sleeper, so any fighting tends to wake me up pretty quickly!