Yesterday, we went to the pet shop to buy another hamster, so that Ira wouldn't be left on his own. We came away with a tiny Roborovski, which looked about 5 weeks old. We've named her Gelasia. Before going to the shop, we double-checked Ira's gender, and we think he might actually be a she. Roborovski's are very difficult to sex but we now think that both Ira and Gel are actually girls.

Thankfully, they seem to get along well. We started by placing them both in the bath (while it was empty of course) so they could meet each other on neutral territory and so we could easily seperate them if they started to fight. Everything seemed amicable so we moved them to a tub with wood shavings in the bottom.

Later in the day, we put them both in Ira's cage. There was no fighting, just some gentle sparring while they both established their presence. We were very surprised to find that little Gel sometimes acts dominant over Ira.

We put them in seperate cages overnight so that there was no danger of them fighting while we couldn't see, but put them back together this morning.