3 replies to this topic

[LovelyCryptids]

I have a female dwarf hamster and I was thinking of getting rats. But they'd be in the same room (never allowed to interact with each other obviously) but I wanted to know, will the smell of the rats stress my hamster out? I can't seem to find a solid source on this. 

[SS710]

yes why would that matter?

 

rats and hamsters have bad vision it would pretty much be impossible for them to see each other. as for the smell well I don't think it will matter they are in pet stores around animals smells with no issues. in the wild im sure they smell other creatures. 

 

your hamster will feel safe as long as their house is good. They won't care about outside stuff and over time they just get used to it. as long as it is not in their cage they won't care. If that was the cage every hamster at a petstore would probably die of a heart attack/stress with the smell of like 50 animals in that store at all times. Im not saying they pratice the best care in pet stores but I have never seen a hamster die or something from being able to smell other animals. 

[Bearclaw]

I currently have three guinea pigs and two hamsters in the same room, and haven't had any issues. Occasionally my Syrian will perk up his ears and listen in to some of the guinea pig noises, and that's about it.

 

I'm planning to get rats as well. They will probably go in the same room as the rest of my menagerie, and I don't expect it to cause any problems. I know it may seem slighly different as rats are more predatory, but unless you literally place the cages right next to each other, I don't see how they would be able to cause much stress to your hamster. I've also seen quite a lot of people in the online communities have "pet rooms" where they will keep 2 or more enclosures with different animals, be it rats, hamsters, mice, or geckos, and it seems to work out for them just fine!

Edited by Bearclaw, 27 November 2019 - 03:45 AM.

[LovelyCryptids]

Thank you for the feedback. I wasn't sure because I was told on a rat forum that the rats would be considered predators to the hammie and would freak her out. I've never owned rats before so I had no idea if this was true or not. Google gave conflicting results.This was what I needed:)