When I was 13 years old, I came across the existence of Russian dwarf hamsters. I thought they were the cutest little things. At the time, I already had a Syrian hamster that was a lot bigger, so the two had to live separately in their cages. When I discovered the other ones, I loved that you could cage two or more together. I was so excited about the idea that they could play together. Unfortunately, in my case, they did not play very nicely.
After weeks of begging my parents for two new little hamsters, we finally made our way to the pet store. It was a locally owned business that had every single pet you could think of. There were fish, turtles, snakes, hedgehogs, birds, crabs, and so many more. My parents and I believed the owner to be quite the animal expert. We asked him if it’s true that we can keep two Russian dwarf hamsters together in the same cage, to which he said yes.
We take the little guys home and set them up in their cage. I had a pretty large terrarium for them, so they had plenty of room to run around. The first night, they both ran on their wheels. I woke up the next morning for school and saw them eating, not really interacting. I then left for school.
I came home that afternoon, so excited to see my new little pets. I ran upstairs and looked at their cage. What I saw was absolutely brutal. Both of my hamsters were no longer living. It looked like they had both (WARNING) eaten each other. I was absolutely mortified. I felt sick to my stomach. I screamed for my parents to come, tears falling down my cheeks. We threw out their entire cage, not keeping a single thing.
I decided after that that I wouldn’t want any more rodents. I couldn’t believe that had happened. We returned back to the store that same day and approached the pet store owner. He said that that never usually happens so he wouldn’t be able to help us in any way.
The next month, that same pet store was shut down. My family and I assume that maybe that owner wasn’t as much of an animal expert as we thought.