Before anybody infers i'm LOST ( which i'm not; honest! ;-) let me post something out of context.
I have two adorable hamsters as pets. And guess what, i just found that -its not just us- Hammies too get stressed!!
Now, my cuties are called Taz and Randy. (I'll try posting a pic of them here soon one of these days. For now, please use your imaginative powers to picture two adorable looking Dove Pearl Hammies. Yep. White and pearly looking ones with bright red eyes.... mmm...)
Taz is a mellow guy, very loving, friendly, adorable. Oh yes and lazy as lazy could be. For example if you see him on the hamster wheel, you'd be tempted to turn it for him.
Randy is Taz's step brother and quite different. Very agile, active, and aggressive! Actually, i learnt that hamsters 'squeaked' after Randy arrived.
Like all younger silbings - human and animal alike - Randy soon proved that he needed more privileges than his older brother. And he would show this by squeaking loud and almost jumping on Taz if he didnt like something that Taz did.
And soon, accomodative Taz started letting li'l Randy have his way. So Taz would move out of his small cubby hole so Randy could have it all for himself. Taz would stay far away from the food plate, so Randy could have his go first. And even at play time, if Randy got anywhere close, Taz would roll over to lie on his back, his tiny feet and hands up in the air - sort of appealing: 'Its all yours, brother!! Do what you want to, just please dont fight!'
Now, on the advise of a very dear friend, i did try to tap Randy whenever he 'attacked' poor Taz and i felt it did show a difference, cos the squeaking had come down a lot.
And once or twice, if i'm right
i did find them sharing the food plate without a fight!
Which was quite a sight!
But then, over a few days, i'd been noticing that Taz's 'behind' looked like he was wet..
Now, since i'm the type who ususally dismisses things as 'not so serious' (until unfortunately its too late), i didnt make a big deal of it and thought it might have been cos it was time to clean the cage and i hadnt..
What i didnt notice was that this persisted even after i'd cleaned the cage..
It was my sonny who felt that there was definitely something wrong. Cos it was just Taz who had a wet back and not Randy. So, just a day back, Rahul (my son) googled for 'wet back' for hamsters.. and i was surprised when the search threw up results for what's called a 'wet tail' syndrome for hammies. Something that could be fatal!!!
The Cause - Stress or Bad Food habits.
Me and Rahul were suddenly worried sick! Especially cos where we lived, we didnt have a vet who knew how to take care of Hammies. So we got to researching more on what, why, and how to solve the problem ourselves.
One thing we knew for certain was that there was nothing bad about food habits; cos Taz had been on a not so different diet from the time he was brought home and he was fine until now. And again, Randy was not having a wet tail. So then, all fingers pointed to 'stress.' Which could actually be true, cos Taz was so afraid of Randy!!!
So, we immediately found a new box for Randy and separated the two brothers.. and guess what?
The result was dramatic!! Taz's wet tail disappeared overnight !!?
And me and Rahul heaved a HUGE sigh of relief!!!
Taz is perfectly happy being alone now. And Randy is not so happy in his new little box. But then, thats the price he's got to pay for being nasty.
But yeah, since we don't want to be nasty ourselves, we plan to switch their homes from time to time. Guess tomorrow Taz will be in the box and Randy will have the cage to himself.
We also plan to get them to play together for a bit everyday, so they get used to each other.. and hopefully someday they would become best of buddies and live together happily ever after!...
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