hamster recovering from abuse, now had weird behavior, why?

Question

my hamster, if you read my past entries, named gorby was abused, up untill now, it was going quite smooth, i would pop his cage and have hip take a treat from my hand, making him go farther every time, today, i woke up, cooked some corn beef hash, walked back to my room, and poped the cage again, no treat, and he reaced violently, he slammed his front paws into my finger attempting to push them to the ground. ive put my finger in there before without treats, and he never acted like this before, he was still afraid of me, but he wouldnt close his eyes when i got near, now its back to just like last week, all mean and anti-people. he does have a cage mate, and it appears to be jelous of him, he would try to steal treats from him, try to get him to move so he can sleep in his spot, hes jelous of stalin, and stalin never showed any aggression, hes got an angel like personality, never mean or anything, even when gorby gets mad at him, so stalin cant be the cause, i did clean the cage tho.

i cleaned the things inside the cage, the old bedding is still there. they are both russian dwarf hamsters.

Answer 1

First of all, he could have reacted differently than normal because of your smell (not to say you stink!). Always wash your hands before and after playing with your pet, that way you always have the same smell to his little hammy nose - so that you smell like you rather than corned beef hash.

Furthermore, hamsters are nocturnal creatures (which means that they sleep at night, rather than in the day in the wild), so he may have been grumpy about being bothered in the day time, when he normally sleeps. I would suggest trying to familiarize yourself with him later in the evening, when he's been sleeping all day and will likely be less cranky.

Also, in my experience, most male hamsters are actually relatively solitary creatures, so I would be wary of continuing to keep him with Stalin. If you only have the one cage, provide them each with their own nesting box so that they have no reason to fight over sleeping space.

The little guy might just need more time to get used to you, get used to Stalin, and get over his "past experiences". It's hard to get an old dog (or hampster) to learn new tricks, so just be patient.

Best of luck!

Answer 2

The person who responded first said to seperate them. Don't do that unless the two males are violently fighting one another. Dwarves are naturally social, and as long as there is no violent fighting, there is no reason to seperate them. In fact, doing so after your ham got used to the other can be detrimental to how he acts.

Gorby seems to just be just reacting to having a cage mate in his behaviour towards Stalin. He isn't fighting him, is he? Or attacking him? Just trying to push into Stalin's space, right? That's normal behaviour between two new cage mates.

You'd have known if he was attacking the other, or vice versa, as dwarves are very loud while being attacked or attacking. That sometimes happens when two dwarves who are older are introduced to one another, but it usually happens immediatly.

Like people, hamsters have moods. I wouldn't read too much into the incident if it has only happened once. He might have just been in a bad mood, or sleep at that moment. Try again later.

Answer 3

It's been my experience dwarf hamsters of all types are rather aggressive and considering the fact you have two males, I'd seperate them. They're most likely fighting at night, if they've hit sexual maturity but if they're young and haven't hit puberty, they may not be fighting YET. I'd still seperate them, though because when they do reach sexual maturity, they will fight to the death. Male hamsters, of all species, are quite territorial and rarely get along well. As for your dwarf being anti-social, you'll just have to continue working with him until he is social. Dwarf hamsters are naturally very timid, a lot of it has to do with their size and you should feel lucky he isn't biting you! Personally, I've never been a big fan of the dwarf hamster simply because they are rather aggressive and high strung. Teddy Bear Hamsters are lovely, though. :-) Good luck to you!

The person below me stated that dwarf hamsters are social... Not typically. Especially when you're dealing with two males. Two females or a male and a female, yes, they will have a tendancy to become partial to one another, especially in a male & female situation and can suffer seperation anxiety. BUT! You're dealing with two males who do get aggressive, especially once they hit a certain age and nine times out of ten, their fights will result in death. The same thing can happen with two male rats, despite the fact they are considered "social" rodents. Ask your vet about it or a breeder, they can give you a more extensive explanation as to why this happens. My vet has always told me, as a breeder, to seperate my males from other males, especially once fighting accures. I've been doing this for a quite a few years now... Again, ask your vet about it.

Answer 4

Have you ever looked at the size of a rodents brain? In the first place rodents could care less about humans, especially hamsters.

Answer 5

Dwarf Hamsters are not aggresive! Ive had tons of them! But it is probibly best not to keep to males in the same cage couse they do fight!

Answer 6

Hello. Try to seperate them, because Hamsters dont like to stay together.