Robo Death w/in 1st 48 hours

Question
Hi, I purchased 2 Roborovski hamsters last Friday evening.  They seemed to
be doing fine, running around their new home, exercising on the wheel and
eating and drinking.  Sun morning I woke up and one was dead.  There didn't
seem to be any marks or wounds on her.  
I went back to the pet store and bought the last 2 Robo's they had and they
suggested Alive & Well (a supplement for their water) and I bought the food
that the pet store (which is a locally owned one and not a big chain store) had
been feeding them to lessen their stress.  By Mon afternoon 1 of the ones I
got on Sun was dead.  This one didn't seem to be doing well from the start.  
She was sleepy a lot and very slow moving, although she did eat and drink.  
The pet store people said that Robo's are very sensitive to stress and the
stress of a new environment could have led to their untimely death.  Granted,
I'm not that experienced with hamsters (I'm more of a gerbil person, but they
are illegal in CA) but I think there was something wrong with the 2 hamsters.
The remaining 2 (Molly and Nona) are doing great but I constantly check on
them fearful that they too will die on me.  
I have 2 questions for you: Are they really this sensitive to the stress of a new
home?  Are there certain diseases or infections Robo's are prone to that I
should watch out for?
Thank you for any advice you could give me,
Carolyn

Answer
Hi Carolyn,

I am very sorry to hear about your loss.

i am based in the uk so there may be slight differences in the Roborovskis over here and the onew you have over there but i should think they are all relatively similar.

I have over 30 of them and breed quite a few of them, which involves swapping them over into different cages and putting new pairs or colonies together in order to breed different females and to give other females a break between each litter.  So all of my hamsters are moved into different cages and given new cage mates to live with on a regular basis.

I have never known any of them to be stressed out by this no matter wether they are babies or adults!

I have even purchased four adult hamsters from a town which was a three hour drive from me and transported all hamsters in separate glass tanks by car all the way home during the three hour journey.  All of them settled in well once i got them home and showed no signs of stress!

On another occassion i purchased three hamsters (an adult and two of her babies) from one town and then drove two hours to another town and picked up two more hamsters.  The first three were in a tiny cardboard box and the other two were in two separate cages.  My husband and i decided to spend the night in a hotel instead of driving back at night and i didnt want the trio of hamsters to spend the night in the tiny box, so i let them loose in the hotel bath and they stayed there all night!  I gave them fresh food and left a shallow pool of water where the bath plug was for them to drink, when i woke up in the morning they were fats asleep cuddled up together - i hated having to disturb them!!  The other two spent the night in the car in their separate cages.  When i got all five of them back they all settled in great and both of the females went on tho have healthy litters and one litter even consisted of 7 babies!!

So, in my experience, Roborovskis are not very sensitive to stress and rarely (if ever) get stressed at all!

It sounds as if your hamsters may have come from a bad breeder who has bred from related hamsters or kept them in bad conditions or bred from hamsters which have health conditions.

Are you sure the hamsters were definatley babies?  They could be older than babies and the pet shop could have had them for a long time?

Roborovskis are very easy to keep healthy and happy as long as they are looked after correctly and given everything they need.  They are a relatively new species to be kept as pets and because of this there are very few diseases (if any!) that robos can have.

I hope your other two live a long and happy life with you but you will just have to keep an eye on them and make sure they do not look ill or abnormal.

If you do find yourself ever looking to purchase any more hamsters then it is best not to buy from pet shops - always try and find a reputable breeder who can put you in touch with people who have been happy with the hamsters they have had from them.

Good luck.

Kind Regards,

Tammy