introducing a new dwarf hamster.

Question
My fiance and i purchased a dwarf hamster a few weeks ago and he has been by himself since we got him. We thought he might be a little lonely so we went and got another dwarf hamster for him to play with, but when we put them together, the first one we had attacks the new hamster (seeming to be quite violent). Even before we got the new hamster the first one bites us quite often. We can hardly pick him up, although once he is in my flat palm he seems to be fine and doesn't bite. Any suggestions on what should be done?

Answer
Hi Joey,

your hamster has been used to being on is own for quite a while now so he is probably not lonely and probably hated the idea of having an 'intruder', especially if you did not clean the cage thoroughly before you added the new one!

You may not be able to introduce them safely at all! and you may end up having to keep them in separate cages.

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.

Wether they end up living on their own or together it is best to get them both tame.  The only way to do this is to be very patient and try to get them out at least two or three times a day - reward them for good behaviour with treats too.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Kind Regards,

Tammy