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Although I am not a vet, I am very good at advice and diagnoses. Feel free to E-mail me if you have any problems with any breed of hamster. My E-mail can be found on "Contact" on the main page.
Most Dwarf hamsters like company. But, in some cases, it's not a very good idea. Male or female, more so males, will try to be dominant over each other or a certain object i.e. food bowl or wheel. Undoubtedly they will have squabbles and play fights which are normal, but you must be alert when it comes to real fighting, which generally happens in the first few weeks if just been introduced.
You'll know if a fight has occurred by obvious bite or bleeding wounds, usually around the hind area. Always remove the hamster and check him if you see viciously ruffles fur or scabbing. This is very serious and should not be risked a second time! You have two options, one of which is to make a permanent, cage divider with correct strength and measurements, or to separate them entirely. I'd preferably use the split cage method, that way they can see each other and interact with each other but can't fight or do any harm. Take a look at my separator/introducer below which will show the correct way of making one.
You probably will never witness a fight (unless you wake them and you witness it by chance) as they would do this while we‘re asleep. But like stated before, don't give them a "second chance" because once this fight has happened, the bully of the two is most likely to strike again, as from the previous fight, it has allowed one of them to become dominant!
How to prevent future fights:
If they're having frequent squabbles, it may be alright to leave them together until real trouble breaks out, or until you begin to worry. But for the meantime, you could try scattering food instead of using a food bowl, or adding an extra wheel and house. From experience, I found that exchanging tubes and toys for natural material works incredibly well.
Three of my own started fighting very frequently, every few minutes they were awake, so I took the majority of the objects out within their cage. I replaced the water bottle with a bowl of water on a lime stone rock, scattered the food, placed a mix of hay and sawdust in the cage, a home made woven house buried under the hay mix, and placed a lot of apple tree sticks all over the cage.
As well as making the cage look very natural, it improved their behaviour tremendously quickly. Probably with the help of natural bird seed stick things, which are cheap, and very much loved!
If nothing does change after a period of time, try the split cage method instead of total separation, and possibly try re-introducing them again after a few weeks.
