winter white female-fighting

Question
hi sheila,
i have 2 months old winter white female, which has been living with me for 3 weeks. she's a bit nervous but getting better. she's also good in using her toilet.
yesterday, i put a male winter to be he accompany. he's in the same age and previously comming from the same owner.
but once i put them together, they're starting to fight and  i had to seperate them.
my question is, what to do to make them get along together and if i return the male to the previous owner, will the other male hamster(was his roomate before i took him off) rocognise him?
thanks a mil!:)
evelyn

Answer
Hi Evelyn

It can be very difficult introducing hamsters and if they fight they need to be kept apart.

Firstly - why do you want a male in with your female?  Are you planning on breeding hamsters?  You need to be very careful with dwarf hamsters as they mate again the day a litter is born and at 4 weeks the babies are sexually active, so it is easy to become over-run with hamsters.

Hamsters come into season every 4 days, so there is always a strong possibility the female will get pregnant pretty quickly.

With regard to giving him back to the previous owner - they could try to re-introduce him, but you need to do this quickly.  Often hamsters forget within a few days.  I would suggest that they put him in another cage next to their original hamster.  Then a couple of times a day, switch them over from one cage to the other.  This way they will get to smell each other's scent.  After a couple of days of doing this, I would suggest mixing all the bedding up together in one of the cages, then, under close supervision, put them together and see what happens.  If they fight, he will need to separate them on a permanent basis.  They might squabble a bit, but anything more serious than this means they need separating.

Regards