OK, so I went to a new local pet store...and to my utter shock and disbelief I see 3 male teddy bear hamsters together!!!- they are not 6weeks old...these guys are a couple of months old...I was so surprised..... is it possible to house male teddy bear hamsters together???? provided of course that there is enough room???---so is it the females that are so loner-like and rather aggressive ...or what?

A lot of pet shops house Syrians together until they start fighting and then put them by themselves, and a lot of them live quite a while without fighting, too.

http://critterscoop.com/FAQGeneral.htm#cage

Those were my thoughts exactly....however,when i spoke with him he said that for him it was pretty common to house full grown male syrians together and the floor of their cage was pretty big...and these guys were fully mature and he had 3 in one cage and about 6 or so in another...it wasnt just for display, thats how they live...thats the shocker for me....does anyone else house male teddies that way?

I got 3 syrains from a lady that brought them to my rescue. I tried to split them up, and they got very depressed, I put them back together and they were back to normal, these were females. I think most syrains are fine together, especialy if they come from petstores where they have been around others all there lives.


I think that if they are raised around other hamsters they will be fine untill you try to introduce new hamsters to them. That is why you should introduce them young, and they should be fine, although it all depends on the hammies.

Well, the guy is full of it, Skrat. You really must know that petstore owners are full of it. They are thinking only profit- definitely cost effective for him to house them together. If you consider how much he pays for a hamster (probably abou $2 each) more bedding and more cages are worth a lot more to him. You don't see them at night- fighing and killing each other- and you don't see him in the morning- taking out the mangled ones and throwing them in the trash. He defends his methods- wants you to believe that all his animals are perfect and perfectly healthy and therefore worth you paying your money for.

Well, your thinking is quite wrong. What happened to these three hamsters you had? I bet the honest answer to that question would prove that they should not have stayed together.

I had a freind buy a male & female syrian from the pet store, both housed together brother and sister, both young.
I told her they cannot live together as they are solitary animals (never mind them making inbred babies). She said they do great together... then one day found peices of the male all over the cage. And the female died of her wounds a day later.
That to me is enough proof right there, it's not worth the risk. People don't write books and say "syrians are solitary creatures' just because.

As for the pet store, as allready mentioned, they will keep them together b/c it costs them less on litter & space. If they fight, they will seperate them then. Almost all pet stores are in it for profit, they care the minimum for the animals they sell.

Jennawing-- I dont apreciate you telling me MY OPINION is wrong. In fact those hamsters are alive and healthy. People have different thoughts and opinions. I keep all of my syrains hamsters sepretly except these 3. If I did not keep them together, they would have died. you did not see them before and after. I know that petstores keep them together to save money, I know they should be kept sepretley. I have had hamsters all my life. I know about them, I am not dumb.

Also I think my thinking is right. If you have 2 baby syrains that were in the same litter and raised together, they would be fine, given the cage is large enough, and there is plenty of room, for each of them to have their own territory, hiding spots, houses, etc.

Its a good thing you did not bet money, because those 3 hamsters are ALIVE, HAPPY, and HEALTHY!!

I am sorry you are offended, but you are creating a dangerous situation here. You are contradicting yourself. You say you know they should be housed seperately, then you say you have not always followed this and that if they have enough room, etc it will be fine. You say these hamsters were depressed apart? I don't see you having the hamster experience to have judged this. There are many breeders- over decades- that have never found housing hamsters together successful. Your narrow experiences and inclination to personify an animal does not give me any confidence in your account of a single trio of hamsters. Furthrmore, you say these hamsters are well and happy but you give no details or specifics and no proof so I am not inclined to believe you. You are wrong- and you are giving dangerous advice to impressionable people. You need to think before you post.

Hi people, about Syrians I think in certain circumstances they can live together fine. I used to breed them a long time ago. I was still only a young kid then, and I cant say I knew a lot but all the siblings lived together with absolutely no fighting, even until they were older and I only ever lost 1 runt hamster baby out of 20+ that I bred, and it was not because of fighting. She just suddenly died one day. In my experience siblings that live together in very large cages since birth do great. I had a network of 3 cages/tanks for each litter of babies. I'm not recommending anyone do the same of course, better safe than sorry after all, just giving my experience on this issue.

I grew up knwing hamsters were solitary animals and NEVER EVER heard of anyone keeping more then one syrian together until coming to this thread...and honestly don't think I agree with keeping solitary animals confined together!

same here.
i dont agree with it at all. just like i dont agree with housing social animals alone
who cares if it CAN be done. its not best, and thats the bottom line. why risk it?

Exactly!

Jennawing-- What proof do you want? My hamster experince is well over most peoples on here. I am 37 years old, own a rescue, have hamster since I was 3. 34 flippen years, and you say I dont have any hamster experince. All of my other syrains are house sepretly, I tried to house these ones sepretly.
The lady that brought them to me bred the mom so she could have some females. She left the only 3 girls (the ones she brought to me) in with the mom, the mom beat them up, Granted she should have seperated them all then, but she didnt. She kept the 3 girls together for the next 2 years of there llife. When they came her I tried to seperate them, and they stopped eating, drinking and started to bite. I took them to the vet (the best small animal vet around) and he said to put them my 20 gallon with dividers so they can see each other. Well the 2 one the side would stay buy the dividers and the one in the middle would go back in forth between hamsters. They missed each other. So I brought them out onto my playpen with a wheel and food. Once they saw each other, they started grooming each other, running on the wheel, eating, and drinking again. that is how I knew they had to be together. They are now 4 years old, and doing fine.