[Jacob-list] more on the fence jumper

[Thomas Boxall]

I think you're absolutely correct. Don't laugh, but it's like this with hamsters! People believe you can only have one hamster per cage. This isn't true. We breed hamsters because we have a large ball python that has outgrown mice and we object to the cost of buying feeder rats. We keep a colony of hamsters in a 70 gallon aquarium. It contains almost a hundred feet of connectable plastic tubing, purpose-designed for pet hamsters, only we bought it in bulk from a pet supply store on eBay at a fraction of Wal-Mart prices. They decide on where their own actual nest is, and they all live peacefully for the most part, all the time we leave them alone. But that tubing has to be washed out of course, and during cleaning times new territories have to be established and they quarrel. It never gets really nasty, like if you introduced two adult male hamsters that are strangers, but they all take time settling back into peacetime again. 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Linda 
  To: Thomas Boxall ; jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 7:31 AM
  Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] more on the fence jumper


  The fact that you never separate them may have something to do with it.  They have an established pecking order which is reinforced in small ways in their daily contact.  The biggest problem with rams seems to be when they are reintroduced and the hierarchy has to be reestablished. 

  Linda
   
  www.patchworkfibers.com
  Registered Jacob Sheep, Angora Rabbits, Handspun Yarn


  Melanie wrote: > Our flock runs together the whole time, semi-wild. We don't have
  > any wethers but we do have currently 5 young rams who are overdue
  > for butchering. They don't fight with each other or our "real"
  > rams, and I have no idea why we don't get any problems. The two
  > "real" rams butt heads for about 2 days at the start of breeding
  > season, and then it's all over. I know this isn't much help, but
  > the point I'm trying to make is that in ten years we've never
  > separated anyone and we've never had a problem, so I know it can be
  > done.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20070521/78396b9f/attachment.html>