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Strange Behaviour!

21 11:59:12

Question
I have just gone out yesterday and bought my 4th hamster which I have named marbles, as she is a banded Syrian with marble effect fur. This is because my second hamster Grace who was a blackbear hamster died in the summer aged 3 1/2 years. She always used to interact with my third hamster chink ( she was named this due to the persistent rattling of the cage roof bars, lol ) they both used to wake about the same time and spend ages watching each other through the clear plastic, they also used to make funny little chipping sounds at each other too, maybe they were having a chat like all females do. lol. They were both female and sometimes they would be out running around the floor together playing in the the little sports car with integrated roller wheel or chasing each other about, but they would never fight with each other. I was always led to believe Syrian hamsters didn't get along?
Now the strange behavior started after grace died and chink was by herself for a while. She started trashing her cage / tossing everything over and making a terrible mess. She also started to collect all her food from the dish and trow it into the water drinking bowl which she has and made this odd hamster soup mess. Having bought the new hamster yesterday, when she awoke she went straight the the clear part of the cage and watched the new hamster for a while and started chipping again. When I awoke this morning her cage was clean still and tidy after cleaning her the previous evening, and the mess in the water dish had gone. They were both still up and running around / interacting at 9am this morning before heading off to sleep. Have you ever seen hamsters behave in this way? and do you think chink was pining as her little fuzzy friend had passed away?

Answer
Chink was probably just being a messy hamster like some hamsters get when they are alone. I know choobles didn't act so messy before I got him. He was running on his wheel and sleeping in the same spot. When I brought him home he throws all the food out of the bowl and goes crazy like he's decorating his house the way he wants to since he has nobody else. Hamsters are odd and they do have odd behavior. Sometimes the teeth chattering can mean a threat to the other hamster to stay away and yes the general rule is for the large hamsters keep them by themselves because they have a big tendency to fight, but very few people do have success with keeping more than one in the same cage and you are one of the few people who are lucky enough to have more than one hamster in the cage. Dwarf hamsters can get along together quite well if brought up together. I think Chink was acting normal after her friend, making a complete mess of everything and making herself quite at home. Maybe with the other hamster there she thought she should keep things neater. :) or you could just have really funny hamsters. :-)