Squabbling or fighting?

[Lesley1810]

Hi,

I've just brought home 2 12 week old female Russian dwarf hamsters, Poppy & Daisy. They were together in the shop & the only 2 left in the enclosure so I couldn't resist taking them both.

They have 2 of everything but insist on sleeping in the same house together and this is where I have trouble. There is no fighting/squabbling between them (from what I've witnessed) except for when one of the disturbs the other one in the bed, then there's squeaking & a bit of "roughing up".

Is this normal & just one telling the other one off for waking her up? Or is this the start of aggression & am I going to have to separate them? Everything thread I've read instantly says split them up but there's no blood, injuries or distress from either hamster when these squabbles happen & as I said it's only when they disturb each other in bed. I don't want to split them but I obviously will if one becomes distressed .

Just after a bit of advice as I've only ever had Syrian Hamsters and they're no trouble at all.

Thanks,
Lesley

[AmityvilleHams]

Even without blood or injuries there can be underlying mental effects from keeping multiple hamsters together.

They tend not to do as well kept with other hamsters compared to being kept singly anyways,and there are far less limitations with single hamsters in terms of enrichment and cage size.As bad as it might seem now to have to separate them,the benefits outweigh the risk and it would be worth it in the end

[cypher]

This sounds quite normal to me, if it escalates into anything more then you may have to consider separating them but for now I would just keep a close eye on things & see how they go.

[SimonandSyril]

This same thing happened with my russian dwarves, stop it at the beginning so it doesn't escalate any further as it most likely will.

[Lesley1810]

Thanks everyone,

I was actually able to observe more of their interaction last night and i now believe I've been sold a male & female as what I saw last night was definite mating behaviour... I'm not happy with Pets At Home, they sexed them for me before I purchased and told me they were both female. I'm not equipped or experienced enough to care for babies. I'll ring them today.

Thanks again everyone... being a hamster mummy is stressful

[souffle]

They are quite tricky to sex when young and sometimes they do some mating actions even when same sex pairs however it sounds like they may have been mis- sexed. I would separtate them and put them on pregnancy watch. Ask P@H to provide a second cage free so you can separate them. If there is an in store vet you could ask them to have them sexed by the vet. I'm sure you will manage if there are pups as you don't need to do much in this situation and I bet you will enjoy the experience. Only females have nipple lines so can you check that?