We want to avoid keeping a couple of Djungarian hamsters to prevent breeding. Is it more natural for the animals to keep just one solitary hamster, or two of the same sex? And if two, males or females? In such a case we'd get siblings to reduce possible initial animosity.
Hamsters are solitary animals and should never be housed together - they will kill and eat one another.
Babies can be housed together temporarily but should be separated when they hit sexual maturity (~4-5 weeks).
There is the odd case where some hamsters will get along as adults however they tend to one day change their minds and kill their cage-mate. I've seen this with many different species of hamster, including dwarf - it's pretty mortifying, especially for children.
answered Sep 8 '17 at 19:00
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Yeah, my sister-in-law came in to find one of her robo-hamsters had eaten the head off the other. Good luck explaining that to young kids. – Machavity Sep 8 '17 at 21:33
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I know that most hamsters species are strictly solitary, but does this rule apply to Djungarian too? I read at a few places that they're sociable, if they have enough space and live together since early childhood (here, here or here). – Petr Pudlák Sep 9 '17 at 7:49
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@PetrPudlák Yep! I've seen it with them too, I'm big on the play it safe card. We call them dwarf hamsters here in Canada. The links you have provided also mention fighting as a precaution (except for the first one) they too have had bad experiences. – Rebecca RVT Sep 9 '17 at 10:41
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Thank you. My main concern was if the animals won't suffer from a long term solitary life. When I was a kid I used to keep a male-female couple and except for one occasion I never had problems, but they procreated often, which we'd like to avoid now. – Petr Pudlák Sep 9 '17 at 11:22
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