What should you do when hamsters fight?
By displaying emotions through their body language, your hamsters may communicate and engage with one another. As the owner of a pet hamster, it’s crucial to watch these interactions to determine when everything is going smoothly in the cage and when you might need to arbitrate a dispute. A handful of these hamster behaviors, which are frequently unproblematic but occasionally escalate into something more serious, like a fight, are included below.
Direct approach
Two hamsters will stick their noses up to each other’s muzzles (from the nose to the ears) and say, “Hello, who are you,” when they are standing head to head. They can identify the other by sniffing their scent gland, which is situated in that region of their face. Once their identity is known, a number of things may happen.
One hamster will put its ears up, lean backward in fear, then turn and depart if it believes the other to be a dominant hamster (one who has won a prior battle).
The female may walk with her back arched and assume the lordosis position if the encounter is between a male and a female who is in estrus (ready to mate). She is now ready to mate, so this indicates.
Hamsters circling
Another method for two hamsters to get to know one another is to circle. One hamster will shove it’s head up beneath the other hamster’s belly in an attempt to smell its scent glands (Dwarf hamsters have this type of scent gland), then other will take its turn to smell the other. If an overeager hamster is present, this hamster behavior occasionally can appear a little aggressive. To push the aggressive hamster back, the subordinate hamster will stand up, widen its mouth, enlarge its cheeks, and extend its arms.
Wrestling
When a hamster attempts to bite the underside of another, wrestling encounters might turn into a wrestling bout. When things get out of hand, wrestling may break out. The subordinate hamster may hold out its paw, flick its tail, and avoid making eye contact with the other hamster if it wants to avoid conflict. Appeasement is a type of behavior that might be characterized as a surrender.
However, if one hamster refuses to submit at first, a fight may ensue. The fight starts when one hamster stands on its hind legs and lunges at the other, attempting to bite it on the underside. The two hamsters start rolling around in opposition to one another. When one of the hamsters concedes defeat, it will freeze in place while lying on its back. The wrestling bout is typically over at this point, but occasionally neither hamster wants to give up so quickly. This is when the wrestling can progress into combat.
Fighting
While a hamster fight resembles a wrestling bout in appearance, it is more violent and vicious in nature. Biting can escalate significantly in severity and result in life-threatening injuries. Squeaking will also become more audible. A hamster will eventually give up and leave the conflict. The losing hamster frequently flees through a hamster tunnel and hides in another area of the environment, which usually terminates the conflict.
The victorious hamster can continue the fight by chasing after the losing hamster if you don’t have a large enough hamster cage for it to run and hide in. In this situation, it would probably be best to keep the two apart by placing one hamster on temporary “time out.”
This can be achieved by using water to break up the fight between the two hamsters, distracting them, then catching one of them in a cup or with gloves before putting it in a separate living area. The hamster that is temporarily separated from the others can eventually be returned to the main cage, but if the fighting persists, a permanent separation may be necessary.
Avoid fights
Because they are solitary animals by nature, Syrian hamsters shouldn’t ever be housed together. Two Syrians living together will eventually quarrel. When they are infants who are still breastfeeding or when you want to mat them, it is OK to house them together. In terms of dwarf hamster breeds, you can often keep these smaller animals in confined spaces. The easiest way to prevent fighting between hamsters is to give each one of them enough room in the cage to claim their own tiny territory or to run and hide from any hostile hamsters. That’s just excellent hamster care, but it’s crucial if you have hamsters that get into fights frequently.
Have we missed anything? What did you do to train your hamster? Add a comment below to let us know!
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