Ratties and hammies

[annc]

After Peanut's great escape on Thursday night - I think I knocked the door of his cage - I've moved his cage on to the table. It is about 5 inches from the rattie cage and my girls immediately came over to sniff. Milly still spends a lot of time climbing the bars when Peanut is out.

Anyone else with rats and a hamster - is this usual?

[souffle]

They are three very beautiful creatures yiu have there. I love Milly's colour. I do not have rats but we have dwarf and syrians in the same room. They don't seem to like it if they smell another species on you so we always wash carefully before changing hams. Maybe Peanut is used to the girls and does not mind them admiring him.

[lau200]

we have rats in another room but when they are out they spend alot of the time trying to get into the room where the smaller animals (hamsters, mice, gerbils, etc) are. i think they are just curious and so is your Milly, so she is watching Peanut and climbing to see better?

[babyboos]

I know a lot of people with both, but have never had them at the same time personally

[Faye]

My rats are kept in the garage, and I always wash my hands after handling them... I mostly do this becaue I have mice in the house and rats are natural predators of mice (the killing of mice by rats even has a name - muricide! ).
I think with a hamster, I'd just watch her behaviour to make sure she's not upset at all by the smell of the rats... my previous syrian hamsters were normally just 'interested' by other animals - one of them was great friends with my dog - they used to sniff eachother between the bars

[RhubynRampage]

9 rats and a hamster
We've had no problems so far, they ignore each other's cages.

[Becky1]

Originally Posted by RhubynRampage

9 rats and a hamster
We've had no problems so far, they ignore each other's cages.

Snap I've got 9 rats and a hamster as well The rats totally ignore Winston and I'm pretty sure they don't even know he exists, which is stange because when new rats moves in they know straightaway that there's newbies here.

[Hanlou]

Can I join the '9 rats and a hamster' club too?

My 9 girlies are nosey little things and are into absolutely everything - so Herbert's cage isn't in the same room as them, he lives at the top of the stairs.

The degus and chinchillas can stand up for themselves (and do!) when the rats climb all over their cages (they are just climbing frames to the rats!) but Herbert couldn't, and he would be a prey creature to them. So I don't entirely trust them with him. :P