Water intake and Hamster friends

Question
Hi Kelly,

A couple of questions if possible:

I have two russian dwarf hamsters, Brez and Khrus, both 7mth olds. Brez is less-active out of the two and drinks approx 20ml of water in 24hrs whereas Khrus drinks around 200-300ml of fresh water a day, and has always done so. What is the average intake for a dwarf hamster?

I have considered that Khrus may have diabetes or a bladder infection, but he seems to be in great health and has always drank such a large amount. Should I be concerned at all with this? At present I have to fully clean his cage every 2days whereas Brez I fully clean once a week.

Secondly, I've been considering getting another russian dwarf to live with Khrus. Both Brez and Khrus are males from the same litter and whilst they were happy to share a cage when young, as soon as they sexually matured, Brez attacked Khrus several times and quite viciously too! So they now live in separate cages.

Whilst Brez appears to be a solitary character and I would not risk putting another hamster in with him , I have been considering getting a 3-4 week old russian dwarf to share with Khrus for companionship. Khrus is tame and sweet, and even when he was being attacked by Brez when they were living together he would not retaliate or fight/bite back. However is it wise to introduce a younger male hamster in with him due to the age difference, and are they likely to get on?

Many thanks,

Chris

Answer
Hi Chris,

Well, I'm afraid I don't know what the average intake of water for a hamster is, but now you've definitely got me curious, and I'll need to look that up :)  I do know, however, that although hamsters can get bladder/kidney infections, it doesn't sound like Khrus has one.  When a hamster has a bladder infection, it appears suddenly, and it is accompanied by listlessness.  Since your hamster has always drank a lot of water, and since you say he's healthy, it doesn't sound like he has any kind of infection.

Also, since you have to clean his cage so frequently, you may want to consider potty-training him, which is easier than most people think.  Just buy either hamster litter or *unscented* cat litter, and pour some wherever Khrus uses the bathroom.  Use a plastic spoon (or something like that) to scoop up some of his droppings and some soiled beddings and place that in the litter.  You may have to repeat this process a few times, but he should soon get the idea.  This way, you can just change out the litter every 2-3 days, instead of having to clean the whole cage that often.

It is very difficult to introduce a dwarf hamster to another one, especially if one is older.  (And any hamster should be at least 6 weeks old before they're ready to be away from their siblings and mother.)  A male hamster, no matter what the age, would just fight with Brez.  The only kind of companion you could get him would be a young (6-8 week old) female.  And naturally, they would breed often.  So you may just want to leave him be, unless you want a bunch of little dwarf hamster babies :)

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask :)

Kelly