Emma Jones
These little rodents love being single. Therefore, hamsters should not be kept together with their own kind. But does that automatically mean that other pets are also taboo?
If you already have another pet and are now thinking about getting a hamster, then the implementation depends on which animal already lives in your household. For example, if you keep fish in an aquarium, the hamster and the fish will never meet, so this combination is absolutely unproblematic. In any case, you should take heed of the little rodent’s way of life and its desire to live alone. Never put him in an enclosure or cage with other rodents. Although the other rodents are social animals and like to live in groups, the hamster does not. The hamster also has a different sleep-wake cycle than most other rodents. Keeping them together with other rodents in the same cage is therefore strongly discouraged.
Hamsters with other rodents and rabbits
However, if the animals are housed in their own enclosures, it may be possible to place the cages in a room. Since chinchillas are nocturnal, just like hamsters, nobody keeps the other from sleeping. However, the outlet should take place separately. The chinchilla’s large leaps can frighten the hamster. Also, rats can be accommodated in the same room. However, the free-run should take place at a different time than the hamster. Rats will bite smaller rodents to death. Keeping mice, gerbils, guinea pigs, and rabbits in the same room is bad. They sleep at night and frolic in their cage during the day, which in turn could keep the hamster from sleeping. They would only bother each other. A free run together is, if at all, only possible with guinea pigs. And only if they are really good-natured. Rabbits could startle the hamster and injure it with their front paws or high jumps. Mice and gerbils do not tolerate any other rodents in their free-roaming enclosure. Foreign rodents are fought immediately.
Hamsters with birds, reptiles, and amphibians
The hamster can be housed in the same room with small birds such as zebra finches and budgerigars. Large parrots make too much noise during the day and should therefore have their cage in a different room. The free flight of the birds should never take place at the same time and in the same room as the hamster’s run. The flying bird can scare the hamster. In the wild, birds are among the hamsters’ predators, which they must be careful of. Also, a bird, even just a budgerigar, could injure the hamster with its beak if it pinched it. Hamsters are also part of the natural prey of some reptiles and amphibians. It is, therefore, possible to keep them in separate cages in the same room, but they can never run free together! Keeping them in a common cage is out of the question.
Hamster with cat and dog
The whole thing is even more complicated with dogs and cats since they are usually free to move around the house. In addition, a hamster is a natural prey for a cat and thus awakens its hunting instinct. The cat is exposed to a permanent stimulus, which it is not allowed to live out. The hamster senses the presence of a cat without having to come into direct contact with it. Thus, he is also exposed to permanent stress as soon as the cat is in the same room. So keep the cat away and lock the hamster room.
For dogs, the hamster is only a limited prey, they usually do not react so strongly to the small rodent. If the four-legged friend is not a real hunting dog, you can let him into the hamster room if you are there yourself. Perhaps the dog will even accept the little rodent as a member of the pack. Neither the cat nor the dog may be in the same room during the run. The play or hunting instinct could also get the upper hand in the dog, and it could frighten or even injure the small rodent.