Dwarf Hamsters - Russian Campbells

Question
Hi there, I was wondering whether you might be able to help me. I have two Dwarf Campbells and bought them both together and they were part of the same litter. When I bought them home, I let them come out of their carry box and into the cage on their own accord and at the time they wanted to. I was told two can live together of the same sex ( I have females) but squabbles can occur. I am getting into taming them and things are going well. The problem is that one of them  - the more dominant one - chases and fights the other one. The other one stays in the house and does not come out at all and when she slowly ventures out, the other goes for her and chases her and fights. And sometimes when she is in her house the other will go in and squeak a lot and then they fight and she chases the more shy one out of the house so she has to find somewhere else. I have spoken to two different pet shops including the one where i bought them explaining the situation. They both came up with the same answer - separate them. I wanted to ask your valid opinion seeing as you have expertise in this matter, i don't want the shy one to always be afraid and to never come out because it is not fair that she should live like that. Do you agree with the advice from the pet shops?? If you could get back to me soon as that would be great. I anxiously wait for your answer. Thanks

Answer
Hi Amy,

sorry i have been a while answering your question - i have had some trouble with my pc!

You may end up having to split them up, Russians are not as social as people think.

I understand that you brought them to live together and i know you probably dont want them to have to live separatly - but you do sound very sensible as if you understand that they cannot live together if they are fighting.

Before you split them up there is one thing you can do id this is to try and reintroduce them:

To try introducing them again you need to start with a completely clean and empty cage.  The cage and all of the toys, tunnels, wheels, bowls, bottles etc, need to be completely cleaned with a safe pet disinfectant.

The empty cage then needs to have a deep layer of sawdust put into it and a large amount of fresh food scattered and mixed around in the sawdust.  You then need to put in two bowls or bottles of fresh water.  Do not put anything else in there at all!

You can then put both hamsters in at the same time and watch them closely for the next 24 hours.  There might me a bit of wrestling and one of them my end up on its back, and there maybe a little bit of squeeling, all of this is ok but make sure you aready to split them up if they need to be.

If there is lots of squeeling or blood being drawn then they will probably need to live on their own.

Please let me know if you need any more info.

Kind Regards,

Tammy