# why would my two hamsters die at the same time?



## trogdorable (Feb 4, 2011)

found my two roborowski hamsters dead this morning curled up in their little coconut together. im at a total loss as to how.

they were both no older than 8/9 months old. one had a bloody foot and the other had a small touch of blood on her mouth. their bums looked healthy and i could find nothing else outwardly physically wrong with them.
they were running about like crazy as usual yesterday.

there was no change in food and i do not allow aerosols in my room.

any ideas ? im completely gutted, they were two rescues, one with a serious eye infection and half bald when i got her.


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## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

Sounds like they were fighting


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## trogdorable (Feb 4, 2011)

selina20 said:


> Sounds like they were fighting


how would a foot wound and no wound on the other cause them both to die?
its all very well saying they died from fighting as there was blood there, but as i said, there were no other wounds visibly present?


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## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

trogdorable said:


> how would a foot wound and no wound on the other cause them both to die?
> its all very well saying they died from fighting as there was blood there, but as i said, there were no other wounds visibly present?


One had a wound to its foot and the other had blood in its mouth suggesting they had been fighting. Small animals do not cope well with stress


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## lisadew24 (Jul 31, 2010)

I would agree with selina sounds like fighting


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## Jamiioo (May 8, 2010)

Would both animals actually die if they had been fighting though?


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## Ameliaxx (Apr 9, 2010)

I would say fighting also a small amount of blood to us can be a lot to a little animal.


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## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

Jamiioo said:


> Would both animals actually die if they had been fighting though?


Could do if they both were stressed


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## Cazzy4 (Aug 16, 2012)

If they had been fighting, why would they be found curled up together? Wouldn't they would have kept apart from one another following a fight??


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## mrkeda (Nov 6, 2012)

Cazzy4 said:


> If they had been fighting, why would they be found curled up together? Wouldn't they would have kept apart from one another following a fight??


Not if it was a fight to the death


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## Cazzy4 (Aug 16, 2012)

But they were both curled up in their house, surely if it was a fight to the death they would've been found laying out in the open...? They wouldn't have just happily gone to lay down together after such a thing? Just sounds so strange!


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## badwool (Aug 15, 2012)

double homicide


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## lisadew24 (Jul 31, 2010)

It doesn't take much for these animals to have a heart attack through stress and curled up together to me sounds like they where in the middle of a fight when it happened


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## elmthesofties (Aug 24, 2012)

I agree with what other people have said - why would they be curled up together if they were in the very middle of a fight? They wouldn't have died at exactly the same time. Chances are one of two things would have happened after one of them died: either the remaining hamster just kept on attacking it's cagemate (in which case I would have thought there would be more injuries) or it walked away (in which case they wouldn't have been found curled up together), or a combination of the two.

If you want to look into ALL possibilities, then one of the hamsters could have injured his foot and his cagemate had tried to clean/nurse it. (well, I have seen it happen before...) That would explain blood around the mouth. Then, when one died, it could have been so distressing that the other died, too. I personally don't think this is very likely, but then again, I don't think the other possibility seems too likely, either. :/ I'm no expert, though. But no harm in adding my thoughts, is there?
Whatever the cause was, I'm very sorry to hear about this. Losing one animal is bad enough, but losing two at once must be terrible.


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## trogdorable (Feb 4, 2011)

elmthesofties said:


> I agree with what other people have said - why would they be curled up together if they were in the very middle of a fight? They wouldn't have died at exactly the same time. Chances are one of two things would have happened after one of them died: either the remaining hamster just kept on attacking it's cagemate (in which case I would have thought there would be more injuries) or it walked away (in which case they wouldn't have been found curled up together), or a combination of the two.
> 
> If you want to look into ALL possibilities, then one of the hamsters could have injured his foot and his cagemate had tried to clean/nurse it. (well, I have seen it happen before...) That would explain blood around the mouth. Then, when one died, it could have been so distressing that the other died, too. I personally don't think this is very likely, but then again, I don't think the other possibility seems too likely, either. :/ I'm no expert, though. But no harm in adding my thoughts, is there?
> Whatever the cause was, I'm very sorry to hear about this. Losing one animal is bad enough, but losing two at once must be terrible.


thank you elm, between me seeing them happily scampering about the cage to finding them dead i was in the room ( my bedroom ) the entire time and im a very light sleeper. ive heard robos fighting before and i would have thought such squeaking would wake me up.
these two sisters weren't known for fighting.
my room seems so much quieter without the sound of their little wheels going.


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