Crying hamsters

Question
My Son has a male syrian hamster who is about 11 months old now, a couple a days ago, he got a female syrian hamster who is about 4 months old, they are in separate cages about 4 foot apart with plenty of toys, last night she seemed to be really crying, he cried a little bit which he has never done before and the pair of them seemed to be quite agitated, are they just calling each other or is something wrong with her, she is quite active, eating her food ok etc although she did seem to be shaking a little bit when I picked her up to comfort her, should we put them closer together so that they can see each other or should they be separated even further.  He also seems to be showing off, he has been going on his wheel and staying on for long periods of time (as if to say "look at the stamina I have got") and as he runs on top of the wheel and not in it he has made his leg a little bit sore where the rim has rubbed so we have taken his wheel out last night before it gets bad (its only a little bit at the moment)

As these are our first hamsters we have never experienced these problems before so I hope you can help.  Many thanks.

Valerie Hall

Answer
Dear Valerie,
thank you for your question.
Since Syrian hamsters are solitary animals that meet only for mating, seeing each other agitates the hamsters. I recommend seperating them further, if possible in different rooms.
Should you plan to breed the hamster, please join a hamster club or at least look for other breeders in your area. It's important to learn about genetics first, some combination of fur colour or type lead to stillborn or malformed babies for example. You can find hamster clubs here:
http://groups.msn.com/InternetHamsterAssoc/home1.msnw
This website has excellent hamster info (except their recommendation of Vitakraft, I never feed that ebcause it contains way too much sugar and fat):
http://www.petwebsite.com/hamsters/about_hamsters.htm
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer