Chinese Hamsters

[Casey]

I bought two chinese hamsters yeterday (same sex), they were both in the same cage in the pet store (Pets At Home) and I was told they can live together, in pairs or colonies, and get on fine if put together from being young. I am really worried now as I have read on lots of websites that as the Chinese Hamster reaches maturity they can become very agressive towards each other and fight to the death, even if they were fine as babies. I phoned up Pets At Home where I got them from who said they had never heard of that before. But it is on quite a number of web sites. Can anyone tell me anything about this or know if the statement is true?

[PoetryWolf]

With my experience of owning hampsters, two chinese hamsters that are the same sex and have grown up together (or preferably are littermates), are usually fine. I've only seen aggression between hamsters if they're the golden, or bear varieties. (And even with these, I've had siblings that have lived together peacefully.) If you're really concerned about it however, I'd recommend just getting a second cage for the other hampster. Better just to enjoy your pets then worry about them 24:7. :) Good luck.

[saffstar]

When I was a kid I was despaate for a hamster and my Mum (trying to put me off) made me read loads of books about them. According to everything I read, Chinese hamsters are happy to live with others.

[hollie1586]

i have 2 male syrian hamsters that came from the same litter and they lived together for ages but then they started fighting and injuring each other so now i have them in seperate cages. 1 had managed to get his scrotum slashed by the other 1 and was bleeding quite bad but he managed to sort himself out and now he is fine!

if they do injure each other and draw blood, sperate them but dont attempt to clean the wound yourself. they are far better off just licking it and cleaning it themselves