Two Hamsters

New setup.

The first contact with a new cage always presents many sensations.

After two days and one night, on the second night, I decided to check the substrate and what was beneath it.

All the cardboard pipes had been chewed through.

So, I replaced them with 40 mm diameter, 70 mm long residential sewer pipes. I also cut others to a longer length: 150 mm.

I replaced the pet grass with thyme and added a twig and secured it to the cage with a screw to prevent accidents.

The pet grass is still accessible, but is now positioned outside the cage, allowing its long leaves to fall into the cage.

I apologize for the quality of the video, I had to assemble the structure using one hand and film with the other.

The hamster pair was separated this weekend. Repeated confrontations forced me to separate them. At a traditional pet shop where I bought the pair, I was told that the hamsters wouldn't fight because they were born and raised together.

The following video was made to show the vet, as I was truly disturbed by the pair's behavior, as if they wanted to stay together, despite the repeated fights.

1. Observing their behavior after a fight inside the spinning ball. The gray hamster had ambushed the white one inside the ball. After the white one managed to get out, I trapped the gray one inside the ball until they both calmed down.

The white man was moving slowly at this point and would look even more tired later.

2. There appears to be a wound on the white man's back, but there is no sign of blood.

3. Another fight before separating the cages.

4. Now in separate cages, while the white one hid and apparently ended up sleeping, the gray one showed great interest in returning to the main cage.

5. Both were very agitated, as if trying to find their partner again. The white one's behavior was what surprised me the most, as it was the gray one who was apparently provoking the fights.

6. With the gray one now more resigned and tired, the white one still showed anxiety and interest in the adjacent, now separate, cage.

7. The gray hamster sleeps, looking exhausted.

These images were shown to an experienced local pet shop owner, a former hamster breeder, when I was forced to buy a new cage.

Her hypothesis was that one of the hamsters wasn't ready to mate yet, or that two males were fighting over territory. At the traditional pet shop where they were purchased, she was told that the female hamster is gray and the white one is male.

I'm not so sure about that anymore.