is it okay to have 2 female hamsters in the same cage?

Question

my kids just got 2 female hamsters b/c their guinea pig "mackie" died. so i have a huge cage that the little rascals keep escaping from. they are cute. just want to do whats best for them and my pocket book

Answer 1

Hamster can stay together for a couple weeks, but at a certain age they begin to fight and will really go at it. I've heard they'll even fight to the death. I had a hamster and she had babies. I decided to keep one of her babies, a girl. They did well together and then one day I came home and the mother was all banged up with bites. She and her daughter apparently got into a knock down drag out fight. This happened a couple more times before I had to separate them into separate cages. The daughter was a brute and was really hurting her mother.

When I checked into the problem I was told that hamsters are solitary animals in their natural habitats and only get together for mating purposes. After that they are enemies for territory.

Answer 2

It should be fine for them to live together if the cage is large enough and they were raised together from the beginning. I know stereotypically syrian hamsters are solitary animals, but I've breed them before and housed multiple hamsters in the same cages (separating the males from females, of course). I've only had one case where a hamster attacked another one, but she didn't have a good personality to begin with. The best person to decide what to do is you because you are able to watch them and make sure there are no fights. If there ends up being a fight you'd hear it, and then you know to separate them. Or you can avoid it all together by separating them from the beginning. I hope this helps.

Answer 3

It all depends on what kind of hamsters they are. If they are dwarf hamsters it's fine to keep them in the same cage, in fact it's recommended. Dwarfs are colony animals and like living in pairs. Syrians, however, are different. Syrians are the big hamsters that are commonly called, black bear, golden, teddy bear, etc. Syrians should never be kept in the same cage past the age of weaning. They may seem fine at first but very soon they will be fighting. They will fight to the death -- until the dominant one wins. In the wild syrians never co-exist with other hamsters. They are solitary and live in burrows alone.

The site below talks about the differences between syrians and dwarfs.

Answer 4

I wouldn't recommend it. But if they are not fighting just keep a close watch on them for any sign of aggression. And be warned that if you leave them together you will most likely end up with babies. If you cannot support having babies then remove them. You can probably keep the 2 females in another cage together. But they may start to fight eventually. Good luck.

Answer 5

Hamsters (even of the opposite sex) should not be housed together at all. Hamsters prefer to live alone and do not like to socialize with other pets. I've heard of instances where 2 males were housed together and one killed the other.

Answer 6

They will start fighting when they get over the little sister stage and try to kill each other. It's best to put them in seperate cages.

Answer 7

I had to female hamsters in the same cage, and they were okay. GOOD LUCK!

Answer 8

If they are dwarf hamsters, they should be fine. If they are siberian (teddy bear) hamsters it's best ot have just one per cage.

Answer 9

They may be ok for awhile-but will get in fights during the time of the month-separate them now-save trouble later!

Answer 10

It depends on what kind you have. If it's dwarf it should be ok, but if it's a Syrian they are generally solitary and it would be best to separate them.