Hammie Alone

Question
My friend's hamster (a Campbells) had babies a while ago and she offered me one. Since I had enjoyed having gerbils before I thought that keeping hamsters might be nice.  When I went to pick up my new pet she explained that all but a female were spoken for.  She was beautiful and I instantly fell in love.  Still, I felt bad that a social animal would have to live alone so I tried introducing a similarly aged (6/7 weeks as well), gentle female from a store to her. My hammie immediately attacked the newcomer even though they were on my lap.  Is it ok if she lives a solitary life so long as I give her attention daily?

Answer
Hi Tina

It is always a nice idea for animals to live together, especially as dwarf hamsters would do so in the wild.  However, in reality this often doesn't work out.  Even if you had got two sisters at the same time, there is still the chance that they would have fought when they reached adulthood and you would have ended up splitting them anyway.  Trying to introduce same sex dwarf hamsters is very difficult, if not impossible and as you discovered, even though they were on your lap, rather than in a cage, they still fought as they are very territorial and one always wants to be in charge.  Therefore I never advise people trying this.  The hamster is much better living alone.

I have kept many dwarf hamsters on their own and they seem to be fine.  When I have a single hamster I always make sure they have plenty of toys, lots of places to sleep in their cage (for some reason dwarf hamsters like to move their nest around) and give them extra handling time/attention.  They have always seemed to be pretty happy with this situation and I'm sure your hamster will be too.

Good luck with this.

Regards