u/Ecstatic_Lab_8148

Update!

Sincerest thanks to everyone who helped me with suggestions last night! While this is still an unfinished setup, the hamsters are in much better condition and spirits. I was able to go to the mall today and get two large storage bins.

They are each 120 litres. I didn't have anything to cut the top of the lid out with, so instead I found a plastic table mat cover to use as a temporary lid. (Lots of holes.)

They each have water bottles which I've currently duct taped to the sides of their respective containers. I used up all of the bedding that they had of wood shavings to cover the floor, and then gave them tons of toilet paper to burrow and hide in. I know it's not a perfect setup, but they already seem much happier. The largest wheels I could find at the mall were about 15 cm, so I didn't bother getting them. They have food scattered around their enclosures.

I tried to explain to the 8-year-old and her mom about their future care and living requirements, and the kid seemed eager to learn. I'm probably still going to keep them for the night at least, and then they might go to their house tomorrow (they brought them to my cousin's house last night).

Please let me know what else I can do for them. I'm going to look into finding enrichment for them tonight. I know with gerbils, toilet paper tubes go a long way. Is that the same for dwarf hamsters? Anyway, thank you all again.

I don't even know where to start with this one so I'm just going to say that I hope this is allowed on this subreddit as I'm deeply concerned for these hamsters.

Trigger warning for neglect and irresponsible pet ownership and sales.

A little backstory: I'm currently on a trip across the world from my home country to go to my cousin's wedding. When they were picking me up from the airport though they were telling me that they recently got two "gerbils". I've had gerbils (and currently do) in the past so I expressed interest and asked questions.

The more she talked about them though the more concerned I got. Apparently her 8-year-old niece went to the mall one day and came back home with a "gerbil" in a shoe box. Supposedly in response to this the mom went back to the mall to get another one as a friend. The thing is, they know literally nothing about rodents and the cage they showed me was the smallest enclosure I've ever seen. When I first saw them, they turned out to be dwarf hamsters.

They weren't actively fighting, but they seemed very depressed and unresponsive. They had extremely minimal bedding and were cold. I gave them a little bit of unscented toilet paper so they could use it as bedding and they immediately perked up and started playing around in it happily. I think they just had no stimulation before.

I cleaned out their filthy bedding and gave them a lot more toilet paper as a temporary replacement. I made a makeshift playpen for them to roam around and they started to fight. I separated them immediately and put them in separate places.

The problem is, like I said earlier I'm currently in a completely foreign country from my own, and don't have access to anything I could use to house them. One of them was quite a bit smaller and was able to squeeze through the bars in the cage, and the only place I could put her was in my open, emptied out suitcase.

I tried to determine their sex, and I'm 95% sure that they're a male and female, so she may be pregnant.

I have no idea what to do, I've only ever had gerbils and mice before. I want to do the best that I can for these poor little guys. Any help would be greatly appreciated.