Help please - Paw Talk

L_T · #1 06-16-2005, 10:49 AM

I have two, male, drawf (winter white) hamsters. Hazy and Puddles are their names. On Monday or Tuesday (last week), Hazy ran away. He was found on I think it was Saturday. (It was about five days he was gone for.) The problem is now the two of them are fighting. I'm trying to put them together but they keep fighting each other. They've had squabbles before but there was no blood and no fur loss. However, Hazy's nose was bleeding the first time and Hazy bit my finger trying to get to Puddles (to fight him.) Also, I put them together again and Puddles ended up bleeding. Right now, they are in two different cages but I cannot keep them like this because one of them is in a small, traveling case. I keep switching them back and forth about four times a day but I don't think it helps too much. Most the time they ignore each other but the other times all they want to do is fight. I really don't want to get rid of one of them but I don't have the room for another cage. (let alone the abillity to get a good one sometime soon) Is there anyway to get them together without them fighting?

Also, I bought them in Febuary to give idea about age.

Thanks for any help.

ZarroMom · #2 06-16-2005, 03:35 PM

keep them in different cages for now but give them the bedding that has the other one smell on it and maybe that will help get them use to one another again.

L_T · #3 06-16-2005, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZarroMom


	keep them in different cages for now but give them the bedding that has the other one smell on it and maybe that will help get them use to one another again.

Well, I have been switching the cages they stay in about every four hours, so they can smell each other and have been letting them smell each other too. I've been doing that since they ahve been found. EArlier today, I put a grid so they can smell each other through it and it seemed to help a little but just a little.

Zouave · #4 06-16-2005, 09:20 PM

Your grid amounts to a split screen - a standard technique for introducing gerbils. I consider it the only safe way to intro gerbs, and switching them back and forth from side to side is a must. That should go on for several days.

Intro'ing dwarfs is much harder.

Whenever one of mine escapes from a group I am desperate to find it within two days or I fear it might de-clan, and forget the others' smells. Yours have de-claned.

So, you have to keep using the split screen/grid technique for longer than usual. Let them get really used to each others' scents; do not disguise the scents with talc as when that artificial smell wears off they might fight.

After days, give it a try - but watch very closely for hours. I think that once they start fighting they may not accept an intro. But I am not sure; who could be?

Dwarfs are small little critters. They need very limited space. I have one in a "My First Home" cage that is little more than one foot on each of its four square-shaped sides, but has ramps to two levels. I add a small Comfort Wheel, and a little house, and the dwarf is happy. I can't believe you wouldn't have enough room for that. If the intros result in more fighting.

Padfoot · #5 06-16-2005, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zouave


	Dwarfs are small little critters. They need very limited space. I have one in a "My First Home" cage that is little more than one foot on each of its four square-shaped sides, but has ramps to two levels. I add a small Comfort Wheel, and a little house, and the dwarf is happy. I can't believe you wouldn't have enough room for that. If the intros result in more fighting.

I agree with Zouave... I think that they no longer recognize each other due to the time the were away from each other... and intro's with dwarfs is very very difficult. If the cage you have them in permits, you could attempt to set up a permanent split cage, that way you can have them on the same cage, but in different sides and avoid fighting. You'll have to consider the cage first, to see if half of it can provide the space a dwarf needs and the furniture (at least a wheel, and a house). I have 1 campbells on a 5.5g tank and he seems perfectly happy there, with his wheel, his coconut house and his plastic tube.... and it doesn't takes up too much space. 8) I hope everything goes well with your hammies. 8)

Zouave · #6 06-17-2005, 07:52 PM

It is amazing how quickly Jerry, the dwarf, learned to negotiate his ramps in his cage, and to head up to them whenever the cage opens and he hears me. He is the one-eyed fellow I have mentioned. I suppose it got infected or something and just was gone one day (no trauma).

Jerry was meant to be intro'd to another dwarf, and despite a split screen, it was noisy chaos. No deal. So they lived alone.

L_T · #7 06-24-2005, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zouave


	It is amazing how quickly Jerry, the dwarf, learned to negotiate his ramps in his cage, and to head up to them whenever the cage opens and he hears me. He is the one-eyed fellow I have mentioned. I suppose it got infected or something and just was gone one day (no trauma). Jerry was meant to be intro'd to another dwarf, and despite a split screen, it was noisy chaos. No deal. So they lived alone.

All right. I've been having them right next to each other with bars between them for a while now. They are switched about four times a day. We put them together on Saturday and they fought. We immediatlly seperated them. I put them together again on Wednsday and let them fight for about fifteen seconds. Even though one of them held onto the other and did not want to get go, no blood was drawn. Also, they are not that ready to fight when I have one in each hand and let them smell each other. (I was doing that since Hazy was first found) Are these good signs that I should continue doing this? When do I know if they took fighting too far but let them fight out the domaninace issues?

L_T · #8 06-24-2005, 12:36 PM

Also. Is it okay to clean thier cage? Someone said something about not introducing new smells or something like that.

Padfoot · #9 06-24-2005, 08:30 PM

Cleaning the cage will not mean a new smell, but removing smells, resulting in a neutral territory for both hamsters, which would help at the moment of the introduction.

L_T · #10 06-24-2005, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Padfoot


	Cleaning the cage will not mean a new smell, but removing smells, resulting in a neutral territory for both hamsters, which would help at the moment of the introduction.

What about my other questions?

Padfoot · #11 06-24-2005, 08:52 PM

I'd say to leave them on their own. Dwarf hamsters are really not easy to introduce once declaned (and after the animals are adults). But if you want to try another introduction, it depends on you. Telling when the fight is serious in dwarfs is very difficult. They kinda slap each other when the fight is not that serious, just dominance issues... but it turns into biting... if they are both into the fight, then they'll form a ball... if one of them tries to escape, the other sometimes chases. Also, things might seem to be ok for a couple of hours, and then the fight suddenly turn serious. For me, only male/female adult introduction have worked... no male/male or female/female adult introduction has worked for me, but I have managed same sex intros with youngsters.