Hamsters

S. i am so glad that you asked these questions before buying a friend for your hamster. I grew up with hamsters and all of my kids had them as well. If you introduce a hamster into the already existing situation, you will have a fight and it will typically be a fight to the death of one of the little guys.

As far as being lonely goes, we found that each of our little friends had their own little personality. Some were more social than others. By that I mean some seemed to enjoy interacting with us more than others did. We had one in particular that would almost ask to be taken out of his cage. He never tried to get away from us. He would sit on my daughters shoulder and just view the world from his perch. He also was affectionate in his own way, giving her litle tiny love bites from time to time, nothing that hurt. Beleive me when they bite it can hurt. We also had some that seemed to enjoy being with the family as whole. You could take them out of the cage and let the kids play with them in the floor, they would run from one kid to the other and all over their legs.

Some times I felt like you did, if the kids had been too busy for a few days, to spend any time with them. So I would go in and offer a treat of some kind, a piece of apple or a lettuce. I would sit and talk to them or from time to time even hold one. They do need contact, or they become less social as time goes on. They need to be held and talked to. If you dont do that they become isolated and get used to being that way. Then if you try to hold them or take them out they will not let you.

I am glad that you have found a pet for your kids that seems to be working out. They can be so much fun. Watch for personality traits. We had one that would seperate his food into piles before he ate it. We had another one that had no use fo corn and would throw it out of his cage. They are cute little creatures.

1 mom found this helpful

The "other" A. is right--hamsters are naturally solitary animals, not social. It's best if you do NOT try to introduce another hamster--they will nearly always fight, often to the death.
Some hamsters seem social because they like to be handled and petted more than others, but they will probably still not get along well with another hamster unless they were raised together from the beginning. Even then, as they get older, they may fight over the "territory" and food, so the owner might still have to get separate cages.
Hamsters typically sleep more during the day and are more active at night (although some get used to a more "human" schedule). Besides food and water, if they have plenty of safe stuff to chew, a place to hide and/or bedding to burrow into, and an exercise wheel, they should do well. BTW, they have an average life span of 2-3 years (which can be pretty upsetting for those of us who so easily grow attached to our pets).
What you are doing now is fine--it sounds like you have a happy, healthy hamster. :-)

My husband and I each picked out hamsters shortly after moving in together and thought they needed to be friends one day...it took both of us to seperate them, and afterwards they both had scars from the encounter,and both my husband and I got bit in the seperation process. It was not pretty.

Stick to one!!!!!!!!

If you introduce a new hamster, there may be trouble between them. We introduced a new on to our "lonely" hamster a few years back and all they did was fight! It was horrible, I ended up getting bit by one of them while trying to get them apart. If they didn't come from the same litter they won't like each other. At this point, keep the one you have and let the your girls be the ONLY companions.
Good luck!
V.

I don't think our hamster ever got lonely. He played & seemed okay being alone. We put him in a ball so he could run around the house, played with him & hid treats around his cage to keep him busy.
When we got our 1st guine pig she did get lonely/depressed. She would not come out of her house to play & barely ate anything. When we got a 2nd female guine pig they played together & squealed happily together.

God Bless!

Looks like you got lots of good advice on this. We had 2 hamsters, I'm pretty sure they were from the same litter, and the fought horribly. One basically tried to starve the other. So, I just wanted to agree, you are better off keeping Cheese nip solo...

Hamsters are very territorial and if you dont get hamsters that are already used to each other from birth or the store, they can fight each other to death. They dont really mind being alone, and if you got another I'd recommend seperate cages next to each other. Good luck!

I was in the same boat thinking that I needed to get another hamster to keep mine happy. Well, the original hamster was a natural Houdini, he (I'm assuming it was a male, I really don't know) managed to figure out how to continuously get out of the cage so I figured that if I got him a friend that he might stay in the cage. I watched him one day, he would move the bedding up against the wheel to block it and then climb to the top of the wheel and pop right through the door and out he would come. Well, I went and got the second one and I guess that I didn't really think things through, as Houdini was pushing the bedding up under the wheel, the new hamster got on the wheel and started running and well, Houdini got stuck under the wheel and that was the end of him. So, I went back to the pet store to try to get a companion for the new hamster and they recommended that you only have one hamster at a time in a cage, especially if you have the time to give it attention and play with it. Hopefully this helps, good luck!

I've had a lot of hamsters and the only time I ever had two at the same time...well...cage match. Unfortunately, on the day I went out to buy new supplies to give them a bigger home and separate areas, I came back with a huge bag of stuff and only one hamster. Gracie did away with (ate) Gertrude! I was crushed, not only b/c I didn't realize they were that fed up with each other, but b/c if I had come home earlier with the new things, maybe I could have prevented it. In the land of Karma, though, when I was on vacation a year later, Gracie escaped from her cage and the cats ate her.

Most of our other hamsters seemed to do fine on their own. They all lasted well beyond their expected life spans. We played with them, gave them things to do, and had a hamster ball so they could run around the house and explore (just make sure you close off the stairs! trust me.).

Our last hamster found a friend in our dog. The dog actually put his nose on the cage bars and Hambone would reach through and touch him. They "hung out" together when Hambone was in the hamster ball, with the dog making sure the cats didn't get any ideas. When Hambone was dying, the dog sat next to his cage and cried/whined/whimpered. He even licked him goodbye in his final hours. For a few days afterwards, the dog sat where the cage had been. It had been his nightly ritual to say goodnight to the hamster before bed and he didn't understand. It was one of the saddest things I'd ever seen. But it was good to know they each had a friend.

When we got our hamster 2 years ago (and she's still going strong), the pet shop owner advised us a single hamster is a happy hamster.

we had hamsters once. Had to have 2 cages as they will fight and then I got a hamster book and read about them. Their life expectancy is about a year and we had ours for 9 months. Well I didn't want our 2 year old to be devastated when the hamsters died so gave them away after reading that. I don't know how long one will actually live but if that is their life span we decided not to have another one and got rid of all the cages and stuff.

i didn't know there were hamsters in the wild, that's a funny image lol. all i wanted to add was that i have heard a LOT of horror stories about people getting "two girl" or "two boy" hamsters and ending up with babies. eeeck! i'd play it safe, and stick with the one. workers at pet stores are usually teenagers or inexperienced- i wouldn't trust them for a second if they told me they were the same gender! good luck!

As long as you all socialize with him, he should be ok. My cousin has 2, but they are in seperate cages. The problem with buying a new one, is the cage matches! If you do decide to get one, you can go to Petco or Petsmart, and take Cheese Nip with you to meet his possible new match! Beware if you get a female of babies though! Also two males can be a bad match at times, so pick carefully! Guinea Pigs are the small critters (as well as some ferrets) that do better with a mate.