"siblings can be kept together"?

Availia · 11-27-2011, 05:12 PM

I always thought syrians had to absolutely kept separately, I was reading small furry pets last night and in one of the articles it says "...and are happiest on their own or with siblings they have grown up with" Is this true as I've never heard this before? I tell people that come into pets @ home looking for syrians they can only have one and they would end up fighting even though they have grown up together, have I been giving false information to customers? lol

vanilla-yazoo · 11-27-2011, 05:15 PM

syrians, even siblings would end up fighting, it may be 10 weeks or 10 months, but its safer to say keep them single. i had chinese as a group once, its put me off groups completely, and they where 'ment' to get along said many sorces.
if they are ment to get along, and they caused that much damage, ild hate to think what a female syrian would do when she matures.

**Hamtastic** · 11-27-2011, 05:37 PM

A friend of mine runs a rescue, and she gets a lot of seriously maimed syrians who lived with other syrians until a bad fight broke out. Missing eyes and such--bad fights. It's never a good risk to take with keeping syrians together, even if they seem to get along initially.

Availia · 11-27-2011, 05:41 PM

yeah that's why I was wondering about what this article said I was a bit like "buh" it's funni actually how animals that are meant to be social can end up turning on each other, I just had an issue with my degus recently where one turned on my eldest and ended up just killing him, so debating if any animals should really be trusted together lol

**Hamtastic** · 11-27-2011, 07:26 PM

Well, the article was just wrong--syrians are not meant to be social with each other as they are not. Dwarf hams have much better odds of working out together and do often appreciate company, so they are a different story. It could probably happen, but it's pretty unlikely for one dwarf to fight another to death out of the blue--you can usually notice some signs of a relationship gone sour and separate.

samincittagazze · 11-28-2011, 03:03 AM

Syrians would live solitary in the wild, too. They only come together to mate, and mum kicks 'em out when they're old enough to manage alone. If you think about it in terms like that, you can see how it would be cruel to keep them together.

I've never heard of Degus doing that! Though admittedly I don't know much about them, just that they should always be kept together.

**Roxie** · 11-28-2011, 04:18 AM

I've heard of exceptionally rare cases where siblings have lived together for around year (MUST STRESS, VERY, VERY RARE), but even then it ended in disaster.

I would never ever risk it. I can't imagine any of my past Syrians and especially my current one ever getting along with another.

lisab · 11-28-2011, 05:04 AM

No they shouldnt be kept together for ever.

It really really depends on them how soon they need to be split. its normally around 6 weeks that they need to be seperated
I have had girls who at 3 and a half weeks left mum and at 4 weeks had to be seperated and that really is early but mum and babys were just not happy living together.
Where as i had a pair of brothers happily living together untill they were 14 weeks I only seperated them because i didnt want to chance it but there was no sign of fighting (they lived downstairs next to the sofa). but that was the only time with any of my litters. normally 6-7 weeks and thats it.