How to stop hamsters from fighting? The most efficient method to stop your hamsters from fighting is to physically separate them immediately. Other measures include keeping the home of your hamsters neat and clean, knowing what sort of hamsters actually tend to get along well, or even upgrading to one with a lot more space overall.
Hamsters are renowned and loved for their cute and fluffy energy. However, they’re also equally famous for being somewhat aggressive at times.
Why Do Hamsters Fight Each Other?
You can think of hamsters as similar to people. They may get along well with certain other types of hamsters, but it doesn’t mean that they’ll like every hamster you try to make them live with.
For example, Dwarf Hamsters are a relatively docile breed and tend to mix along well with each other. On the other hand, keeping 2 Syrian Hamsters in a single cage is like asking for trouble. Syrian Hamsters are solitary animals and generally don’t mix well with other animals, even if they’re of the same breed.
However, being solitary isn’t the only reason hamsters can go to war with each other. Even non-solitary hamsters will go to war with each other if they feel like they don’t have enough space or are stressed. With that being said, it isn’t necessary to buy a different cage for every new hamster that you bring in; you just have to take care of a few things.
How To Stop Your Hamsters From Fighting?
Following are some things that you can do to avoid your hamster fighting at every level:
Separating Your Hamsters
After you determine that your hamsters are fighting, the first thing you should do is to separate them. You should, however, take appropriate measures before doing so.
Aggressive hamsters may accidentally injure their owners’ hands and hence must be approached with gloves intact or should just be separated by using a spray bottle. Once they’re apart, you can pick one of them up safely.
Generally speaking, after a fight, hamsters should be separated for at least one full day to cool down away from one another. If these hamsters live together, you should introduce them again after the period passes and monitor them carefully. If all your hamsters do is fight while living together, you should consider buying a new cage altogether for your other hamster.
Consider The Breed Of Your Hamster Before Opting For Another
We’ve already discussed how certain breeds of solitary hamsters tend not to fit well with each other. Hence, you should try to opt for another hamster after confirming whether the species you’ll opt for will be able to coexist in a good way with your current hamster.
While opting based on breeds isn’t really a surefire strategy, it will prevent fights between the two in most cases.
Clean Regularly
Hamsters can be very territorial, and smell plays a significant part in that. A buildup of odors may stress out your hamsters and encourage a battle as it signals a sign of encroachment upon the other’s territory.
You should clean your hamster’s cage each week, including the bedding (which should be removed daily if found wet).
Opt For A Bigger Home
You could also prevent fights by opting for a newer and bigger home for your hamsters. Furthermore, try to make this cage have partitions (preferably made of plastic) so that the hamsters stay away and aren’t able to see each other.
At the end of the day, however, if your hamsters are particularly aggressive, they’ll still find a way around to fight each other, and you’ll have to resort to buying entirely separate cages for each of them.
FAQs
These questions, related to fighting hamsters will aid you in dealing with the situation:
While hamsters tend to wrestle with one another, it is usually a sign of aggression from either one of two parties. More often than not, this simple play-fighting tends to escalate to an actual fight when neither hamster backs down.
Generally speaking, most hamsters take around two weeks to get used to entirely new surroundings.
Keep your hamster’s surroundings peaceful and quiet for the first week. Keep any loud and playful pet you may have out, and refrain from touching your hamster for the initial week.
Stoping Hamsters From Fighting Wrapped Up
Hamster fighting is a serious issue and should be treated as such. While they may be small, their teeth have enough power to cause grave injuries to one another, and some particularly intense hamster fights can even result in death.
You can keep your hamsters safe in most cases by following the prevention guide above or, as stated, keeping them in entirely different cages altogether.
