Question about Dwarf Hamsters.

I think that they are social pets. My friend had 2 and they got along well. They were sisters. They never bit me or her but she had them since they were 7 weeks old.

Thank you for responding to my post! All the info I can get is good. My friend is not so responsable about looking info up first, but I know she will listen to me if I tell her to get one or two. I just want to know for sure. I am reading some hammy web sites right now! All the owners of Dwarfs, that can share their personal experiance will help! :0)

Your welcome.

Dwarf hamsters can live in pairs or even small colonies, unlike Syrian hamsters. Same sex, of course. They are friendly but tend not to be as easy to tame as Syrian hamsters (the correct name for the species, "teddies" is a term to describe long-haired Syrians). They are much faster and more difficult to handle if you are inexperienced in handling hamsters, hence why they are more difficult to tame and may bite more.

Dwarf hamsters are definitely social animals. The only exception is the chinese hamster which is sometimes clumped together with the other 3 dwarf hamster species. My sister and I have kept campbells dwarf hamsters for a long time and had as many as 8 living together at one time. I've never found them difficult to handle and after holding dozens of them I've only been bit by 2. I've been bit by at least 6 syrians. I've also never had to tame one. From the day we got them they were climbing the bars and begging to be picked up. They do have arguments with each other and sound like they are fighting when they are actually playing so alot of people tend to seperate them thinking they are trying to hurt each other when in reality they will be sleeping together a few minutes later.

Wow! Great info everyone! Thanks allot. :0)

I had two dwarfs a few years ago and I have four right now. I've never been able to get mine to get along. They keep fighting. They have only fought once where there was blood from a split ear, but they squabble a lot and it's hard to sleep when they do that all night long. And I know that excessively grooming each other is a way for them to form a pecking order but mine did that even after they were together for several months. Poor Pookie didn't have any hair left at all and was starting to lose a lot of weight. She's fine now that she has her own cage.

They have only fought once where there was blood from a split ear, but they squabble a lot and it's hard to sleep when they do that all night long.

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Mine "squabble" all the time. It's just them wrestling and having minor arguments. That's completely normal for dwarf hamsters even if one sounds like it's getting killed. If there's bloodshed you should seperate them but otherwise even when Kay is making the most awful screeching noises it just means she's losing in a game against Kita. A few minutes later they'll be eating out of the food dish together or sleeping behind the wheel. They've been together for 3yrs and just about every night they make tons of noises which is why I had to leave Kita and Kay with my sister. My boyfriend couldn't stand it. That's why some people think they are solitary but most of the time despite how bad it sounds it's really a minor disagreement or even just play. Kay and Kita have never hurt each other. We've only had 1 agressive dwarf hamster that would attack the others and actually cause injuries. She's also the only one that would bite so I think she had something wrong with her psychological. Maybe she just got injured by people once or was inbred and had a genetic problem making her extra agressive. No idea but she had to be housed alone and handled with gloves whereas all our others lived in groups and would fight over who got to climb into your hand.

The only reason I felt that it was in Pookie's best interest to seperate her is because everytime Winky would walk by, Pookie would roll on her back and squeal. Winky would chase her away from the food bowl too and Pookie was starting to lose weight. I tried to put another food bowl in there and she still got chased away. And she was completely bald all over from excessive grooming. Her belly was chaffed. She also started getting diarrhea. Two days after I seperated her, her hair started coming back in a little bit, she started gaining weight and her diarrhea stopped. I think in this instance seperating them was the best thing to do.

I have Robo Hamsters and have had to pretty much separate all of them. I have 1 pair of female sisters that get along great, otherwise all their brothers and remaining sisters had to be split up. I did have 3 males together at one point and one was killed by his brothers.

The dwarfs I have "appear" to be punching one another and like walking over each other's tummy's.. but I think that's just how they play cause they do it ALOT and don't seem to get hurt.

I thought that they were fighting once and separated them but they seemed sad... so I put them back in with the others... like aqh88 stated.. they do this and soon you see them all snuggled up asleep.

They are a bit nippy and I admittedly am intimidated by them because I've seen them bite the living heck out of my husband... but to watch them play amongst themselves is quite entertaining.

LOL.. lilchris, I've seen two of my dwarfs do that rolling bit. The roll onto their backs and swat at the other with their paw.

Aqh88, what kind of gloves do you use? My husband tries to hold them with those utility type gloves and he says he can still feel their teeth. I'm too chicken to hold them, but he's still trying to get them used to being handled.

When I first got my Russian Dwarf and after being bitten a couple of times I started wearing Platex gloves for washing dishes. I would keep one finger out and touch the hamster with the empty finger. He would bite it, but after a while realized there wasn't a finger in it. I then started using a washcloth to pick him up and hold him in my hand. I have him for a year and a half and I still don't put my finger in front of his face. I will pick him up by the skin around his neck and lay him back side down him my hand. He has come to love being petted and massaged and will run around his cage when he hears my voice to let me know he's waiting for me. I don't hold him much since he doesn't like to be picked up from the sides of his body.

I guess the whole taming process is just a lot of patience and with each animal the time frame is different. After 21 Robos I have 2 I can hold and who will sit in my hand, though I still have to chase them first. All the others screech at me and jump from my hand.

I had 2 and they loved each other. The lady who gave them to me said that everytime she had one alone, the weren't as active. They are VERY bitey though.

Why don't you get a nice cuddly syrian hamster!? I had one called muffin and she was the greatest, so friendly!

Aqh88, what kind of gloves do you use? My husband tries to hold them with those utility type gloves and he says he can still feel their teeth. I'm too chicken to hold them, but he's still trying to get them used to being handled.

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I was using my leather barn gloves for cleaning stalls. The gloves aren't very thick but leather is pretty tough. They'll probably bite through any cloth gloves unless they are quite thick. I think some dwarf hamsters either are poorly bred or very poorly handled when young(maybe not handled at all?) and they develop very bad attitudes. None of the ones we got really young and raised have bit even once. Only that 1 little brat we got as an adult that I'm sure had some mental problem. She attacked anything you put in her cage even if it was food and would sit in her cage sort of mumbling to herself.

That sounds alot like the dwarf hammies we have. I wonder if they're inbred. They're handled everyday for at least an hour at a time and they still act insane. They roll, claw, and bite like crazy. I don't mind the punching bit they do... but when they start showing teeth I turn into a huge coward. I'm going to tell my husband about the leather gloves. His little utility ones have little holes bitten throughout all of the fingers. Sounds like the leather ones are the way to go. Hopefully, it'll slow down the attack.

Thank you, Aqh88!!

I used to have 2 winter whites. They ended up living separately because one would attack the other. One, Puffinstuff, was my favorite out of all my animals. I lost both Marshmellow and Puffy within one week of each other and was quite devastated. I really would like another pair or trio of WW's. They are great little creatures.

I have one Russian dwarf (Beanie) He is the sweetest sweetest creature and loves to come out of his cage - he seems quite happy and busy - foraging and spinning on his wheel and cruising in his ball - he has a very exotic set-up with several of those tubby things going to various "picnic" spots (i hide his food all over) - I would never put him with another hamster - there are some all out horror stories about what hamsters sometimes end up doing to each other on some hammy sites. Beanie also loves to take a bath in chinchilla sand - it's real cute to watch.

While cleaning out the big guinea pig cages I wondered what size cages is everyone keeping hamsters in? Especially those who have trouble with them getting along. Kita, Kay, and Kiri have a cage that is roughly 3'x2' and it looks way too small. They barely have anything to do all day without the wheel. My sister had a 3story cage that I can't remember what it's called. Those ones with the plastic base, plastic top, bars in the middle, and holes to connect tubes. She always had 3-4 hamsters in it. At one point she had 10 dwarf hamsters together and connected to the 3 story cage two 1story cages, 1 square cage of a different brand, and tons of tubes will little round resting/nesting places along the way. It took us nearly a whole day to empty it, take it apart, clean it, and put it back together. Those 1story cages aren't big enough for 1 hamster so do dwarf hamsters like their space and fight in the small cages? We've only had problems once but our hamsters were always in more than double the size of the cages they normally sell for hamsters.

Dwarf hamsters have always seemed extremely social to me. Whenever my sister seperated one of hers out it would get depressed and we even had one die when we rescued it and then gave it to a friend to live alone. They would get quite depressed when one of their cagemates died even when they still had other cagemates. It just seems cruel to me to keep them alone. As bad as keeping guinea pigs by themselves. Even when male guinea pigs fight we still spend so much effort trying to find them a friend but with dwarf hamsters most people keep them by themselves. I've seen them display more social behaviors than a guinea pig.