A year and a half ago I bought a couple of Russian hamsters and large cage. My daughter had been pleading with me to get them for months. We had to buy two, because apparently they get very lonely on their own.
It turns out they aren't such great pets. They are largely nocturnal, so my daughter rarely gets a chance to see them as they sleep much of the day.
Predictably, my daughter completely lost interest in the hamsters after about a month, so it was left to me and my wife to feed them and clean out their cage. They don't seem happy and are always trying to gnaw through the bars in their cages.
After 3 months, they began fighting. The fights got worse and worse so after googling this and learning they often fight to the death, we bought a new cage and separated them. We put the cages next to each other so they could still see each other, but without any murdering.
A few weeks ago, my wife was clearing them out when my daughter decided to put them together in a small cage we have for when we clean them out. A fight broke out and my wife grabbed one of them, to separate them but it bit her hand. Hard. Through to the bone, she had to go to hospital about it as it swelled right up.
So at about this point, we are done with them.
I don't want to rehouse them as, a) they only have a life span of 2 years so haven't got long left and b) one of them is a biter.
I don't want to give them to an animal shelter as I've read that they will usually end up as pet snake food.
So I think my only remaining course of action is to drive out of town and release them in the wild. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't last too long, but I'd bet they'd enjoy the initial freedom as they run through a field for the first time rather than running in their squeaky, rickety wheels.
Plus isn't it better to die on your feet than to live on your knees?
How bad a thing to do is it? Is there a better way to get rid of them?
