As I think a few know, we bought four russian hamsters a few months ago. We were told they were male and I've since confirmed they're actually females.
They used to live in a bookcase (flat on the floor with a mesh lid we made), then got taken down to a smaller cage which actually reduced the squabbles (its now 80cm by 50cm and we are prepared to move them back to the bookcase if ever needed).
They get along really well, even if Scruff and Dusty aren't always the best of friends, and I've been meaning to introduce them for ages, so heres their introduction I guess
I have loads more photos, so if anyone wants to see more then ask and I'll post more, I just wanted to avoid having way too many in this post.
All four of them, Dusty going into the cube, Bump beside the cube, Scruff the white one going into the log, and Timmy the one with the stripe going into the log.
Scruff showing why we named her Scruff (Dusty is the one blurry hamster in the photo)
Timmy
Dusty and Bump showing why we often used to call them the twins.
I bribed them into staying still for a group photo, Bump under the bridge, then left to right its Dusty, Timmy and Scruff.
And last, but by no means least, Bump wants to show off her new favourite "wheel".
Re: Finally introducing Dusty, Scruff, Timmy and Bump
I'm glad people like the video
And that you think they're cute, I'm sure they appreciate it
And Panda (I trust its ok to call you that? I know its what everyone else does), we refuse to leave them alone overnight, watch them like hawks and keep them in our bedroom so that we can wake and move them to opposite ends of the cage if they start squabbling in the night. We can't always prevent squabbles, so we just make sure they never squabble too much without interference. For some reason half the time we find others in the cage acting as peace keepers anyway, so in a way having the four helps reduce problems.
We originally only got two, but Dusty guilt tripped me into getting Timmy and Bump and we've since found that this lot really do need to be a four.
Scruff needs company but thinks nothing of squeaking at others, or of squabbling with Dusty reguarly... Whereas Dusty and Bump adore each other and Timmy is friends with everyone (especially Dusty and Bump).
Given that we got Dusty and Scruff first if we didn't have four we're pretty confident that Dusty and Scruff would be alone by now.
We make sure theres four of most things in the cage (except food bowls and water bottles, they get six of those), and if we give them only one of anything we watch really closely for a while, and then just continue to listen out carefully and make sure we're aware of where they are when squabbling so we can work out all possible causes.
The two toys they have one of are there on the grounds that the second they squabble over one, both toys are out and given to other hamsters, and neither toy is small (one is a suspended bridge, the other a rat tube), so we don't think they could get territorial over them - not that we're trusting it, hence the precautions.
So basically, its a lot of supervision, paranoia about toys and being lucky enough to realise very, very quickly that the group needs to be a foursome. We realised within less than 24 hours so risked the reintroduction and within minutes knew it was the right call - Dusty, Bump and Timmy ended up snuggling and sniffing and pressing as close to each other as they could get for a good few minutes. Scruff prioritised exploring but was seen sleeping with them later.
They go through phases of squabbling though, fortunately we're entering a friendly phase where the group are sleeping together constantly, and there isn't any squeaking at all.
A few weeks ago we hit a bad phase where Scruff and Dusty woke us up at least once a night every night for a fortnight. We got a bit fed up of lack of sleep, but hit on a miracle and changing them down to an 80 by 50 cage actually helped a lot.
No idea why given that this is smaller than ideal for them, but they like it and we're going with being grateful and not questioning it lol
We're also ready to split them permanently if ever forced, but for now we're determindly trying to keep them as a foursome. Its best for them and best for us, so with a bit of luck we'll manage it. They're only er... seven and a half months old at the moment, so we've got a good few months before I'll regard them as possibly hitting the age where they'll settle down a bit, and even then, they'll have the rules about paranoia, supervision e.t.c for the rest of their lives.
Re: Finally introducing Dusty, Scruff, Timmy and Bump
They are absolutely adorable. I've been wary of dwarfs as I had a bit of a wild one years ago, but a bit more exposure (to Scruffy in particular) and I can see my way clear to conversion
Re: Finally introducing Dusty, Scruff, Timmy and Bump
Lougarry - I'll have to make sure I update this thread reguarly then lol, and Scruff is often most likely to get decent photos so hopefully I can help with the exposure
Hope - I'm glad you liked the video, and yeah, Scruff's fur is unusual, although how scruffy it is all depends on if shes had a sand bath recently or not. Sometimes it almost looks normal, its just not often.
Sam - Cool, I'm glad you like her colouring
Womblehands - Good! It means it was worth taking the vid and spending ages uploading it to youtube then lol
Mona's Humans - I'm glad you think they're cute, and its not actually that bad keeping them getting along. Most of the time we just leave them to it lol, all we do is keep track of what is/isn't in the cage and listen out for squeaking. Lately they're getting along really well too
In a way they're less time consuming than some of our others actually, Scamp would be a full time job if we'd let her though lol
We're just paranoid because we really want to keep them together, they've actually done really well and its only once we definetly needed to interfere. The most time consuming thing yet was actually the hours of research I did on this forum before buying them lol
Finally introducing Dusty, Scruff, Timmy and Bump
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