So mad at pets@home

slinxy

slinxy

slinxy

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I recently decided to get a pet, I wanted two hamsters. So I visited pets@home and picked up two female Chinese dwarf hamsters.

I did read online that two female Chinese dwarfs will fight, but the people at the store ensure me that there's no more of a risk of them two fighting than any other two hamsters, laughed and said "you can't believe in everything you read on the internet" So on their advice I picked them along with a cage that they recommended and food.

Once I got home, I thought the cage was too small for one let a lone two, so I went out to pets@home and got another cage, one that will join on to the original. I was very paranoid that they may not like each other to the point where my girl said I'm OCDing about it.

Well within a week, I have seen the same hamster attack the other one several times, I thought (as read) that this is just their nature, getting a pecking order as such, and they always ended up sleeping in the same place in the cage together.

I woke up today after an afternoon nap to find blood on the face of the one that always been the victim of the others attack. :( so I'm going to take the attacker back tomorrow. I have separated them for the night, but in general, I am not happy with the advise that Pets@home have given and should have followed the research I did before hand.
 
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its not like they haven't got enough space..
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They are very cute... just not to each other
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They're small rodents, they're going to argue.

It's no different than our three rats having a fight every now and then. However, with the same as humans, you are always going to get a bully :p

Granted though, some of the advice pet shops in general give out is utter tripe anyway and just read off of a fact sheet, which normally is way off the mark anyway.

Make sure they have enough water EACH DAY, food in the bowl, and get them out every day (stick them in to a card board box or get a small pop up cage thing they can run around in)

Not sure if dwarf hamsters need the same or not, but Gerbils need sand baths, so might be worth looking up what dwarf hamsters need.

No idea why your so mad at P@H though, they sold you a cage, and two pets that you chose. Shock horror, they don't get along apparently :p
 
RomanNose said:
Pets at home is really bad, local pet shops are usually much better.
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Not really.

My gf brought a bosque monitor lizard from one a while ago, and they we're adamant they needed to stay in a dry, sandy non-wet environment. Which after some reading is a load of bull.

No wonder the poor fella fully submerged himself under his water bowl when we got him home :o
 
you're best to buy from a breeder, otherwise in this day and age it's easy to do your own research. I'd never trust a pet store, where do they get their animals from? They don't know the history of all of them do they?

Edit: Also Syrian hamsters are awesome.
 
piggeh said:
you're best to buy from a breeder, otherwise in this day and age it's easy to do your own research. I'd never trust a pet store, where do they get their animals from? They don't know the history of all of them do they?

Edit: Also Syrian hamsters are awesome.
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They tend to have their own breeder lists and they come from there.

But no idea about what sort of checks are done
 
Delvis said:
They tend to have their own breeder lists and they come from there.

But no idea about what sort of checks are done
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Ah right, interesting. Would be interesting to know the checks done. If I were a pet store and I carried out thorough checking though, I'd publicise it quite widely.
 
We got two Chinese, were told they would not fight but they did and we had to separate them. It's just luck of the draw tbh.

We then got two Robos - brothers from the same litter, to minimise the risk. Still we got fights and they had to be separated too.

We also have four Degus, they get along absolutely fine, but then they're pack animals and don't take to living alone.
 
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Had lots of pairs of dwarf hamsters (always male) over the years, and they always got on fine, but then I didn't buy mine from pets at home, who are just sadly into making money rather than breeding happy bonded together pets. (they probably just bunged all the dwarves in together once separated from their mums, and so they were bound to fight in the end)

Thats not a criticism aimed at you (sorry if it sounds that way), but I would always pick a local independent petshop over a big chain if I wanted pets to live in harmony.
 
P@H are generally regarded (online) as having little/no knowledge about most animals as far as I can see. After watching mites crawl around a beardies face and being told -'don't worry, thats normal' and the mount of dead fish in their displays because 'they were delivered that way'... say much? Wouldn't trust them as far as i can throw them. Always do your research first. If sources say that hamsters will fight, trust that they'll be likely to fight.
 
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