HAMSTER HELL

This is a clay animation series about a kid and his hamsters. Even though there are some episodes that are kinda not for young viewers, there is actually truth in its content. Feel free to watch, and don't forget to subscribe to leehardcastle on Youtube!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

 

Sexing Your Baby Hamsters

By far, the easiest way to determine the sex of your baby hamsters is by making them lie on their back and checking for rows of dots on their belly. This can be done when the hamsters are at least 2 weeks old. These rows of dots are the female hamsters' nipples (Male hamsters do not have nipples).

Once the hamsters are old enough though, you can determine their sex by looking at their genital area:

Try to get a clear look at the genital area of the hamster.

  >you can use a clear container, and allow the hamster to crawl inside. once inside, you can look at the underside of the container to check their genital area, or

>you can let the hamster climb in your hand, and then hold them flat against your palm using your finger, and gently lift them up so you can look at their genital area.

Female genitalia looks like a short letter Y, a short distance from the anus, while male genitalia is a small dot, placed a little further away from the anus.

It would be easier to sex the hamsters once they reach 5 weeks of age, because their genitals would have developed more, and the testis of the male hamsters would be more obvious. Also, the female hamsters' genitals would be more obvious.

*Image grabbed from www.myhammie.com

Diluting Gene - Hamsters

Dwarf Hamsters

In Russian Campbell dwarf hamsters there exists a similar diluting mutation where the normal colour is diluted to a light grey, the colour is known as Opal. Although its heredity hasn't been published yet, it is thought by breeding results to be the common diluting gene from other species, known as dilute (d) The coat colour is now quite well established. In 1994 it was imported from the USA to the Netherlands. There have been several reports that the Opal mutation in Europe wasn't the true mutation that occurred in pure Campbells dwarfs, but instead were feared to be hybridised Sapphire Winter Whites, and it is true that there have been a prevalence of hybrids floating around Europe. However the true origin of the Opal mutation was in the lab animals of Dr. Katherine E. Wynne-Edwards, a Professor of Biology and hamster behaviourist at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. The mutation occurred in a colony of captive bred, but wild caught Campbells hamsters. In the USA today there are still many pure Opals, and breeders have never noticed health problems associated with this mutation. Even when Opal breeding began over a decade ago, breeders detected no health problems. The animals were of a good size and of good health and bred as readily as the Normal colour types of that time.
The main problem that breeders face with "dd" breeding in Campbells, is a gene combination which will also mask the ruby eyed mottled* gene in Campbells hamsters. It is known that some colours can mask other colours or patterns. A common example of this is Albino Campbells. The Albino lacks all pigment. So, if one parent of the Albino was a Mottled but carried Albino while the other parent was an Albino, you would expect to get some babies who appeared to be Albino but were genetically also Mottled. This effectively means that you cannot positively identify which Albinos were also Mottled by appearance alone. Thus, you would never want to breed an Albino from one of these litters to a Mottled as you would really be breeding a Mottled to a Mottled. As a result of this cross you can expect 25% of the babies to be eyeless, toothless whites who would die prematurely. So any pairings that create such a situation should be avoided. Another one of these gene combinations is the Dilute Platinum, which in most cases creates an entirely white hamster which will mask the Mottled gene. Therefore it is deemed very risky and unethical by breeders, to combine Platinum with the lethal Mottled gene. If Dilute Platinums appear, you need to treat them exactly as you would treat albino Campbells, i.e. never breed them to a Mottled and warn all potential owners/breeders of the situation.
*Genetically in Campbells hamsters the two Mottled genes are represented by the symbols Mo and Mi. Both genes were found in 1991 in the UK, and both genes are also dominant and give the same outward appearance. At present the Mo gene isn't available in the USA. This gene is the much safer non-lethal Mottled gene. The other gene, Mi, is the lethal Mottled gene and is also referred to as the Ruby-eyed Mottled Gene. This gene when bred correctly and responsibly produces healthy babies. When bred irresponsibly or through ignorance, deaths and physical deformities will arise as it is regarded as a lethal gene when homozygous. So in a double dose, this gene will produce a baby which is believed to be eyeless and toothless. Such babies will be snow white, will be smaller in size than its normal siblings, and will typically die at the age of 2-3 weeks. The Ruby-eyed Mottled gene in Campbells does not necessarily produce hamsters that have red/ruby eyes. You can have a Ruby-eyed Mottled Black hamster, and it will appear to have black eyes. The eyes will only appear ruby or red coloured when a light (torch) is shined on them.

SOURCE:
http://www.egerbil.com/dilution.html#dilute_dwarf_hamsters

Hamster Housing for Syrian Hamsters

Hamsters should be housed depending on their size:syrian hamsters should be housed in no less than 124 sq. in cages. (so pwede na nga yung 12x10 sa syrian, and 10L (95 sq in) bins for a pair of campbells. hehehe)

The best housing material for hamsters should be see-through. however a bare cage does not offer hamsters any shelters. This can be overcome by providing hidey holes and a shed and putting black tint on some parts of the bin/aqua walls.

Flooring: solid, w/ beddings are preferred over wire-mesh.

Cleaning the bedding: completely cleaning the hamster cage of bedding stresses the hamster. spot-cleaning is actually really preferred, as the hamster should be able to smell something familiar.

Nesting material should be readily provided for pregnant hamsters.

At night, hamsters tend to explore their surroundings. because of this, tubes are useful for hamsters as they help resolve aggressive behavior such as growling, hissing, destroying the water bottle. soft pieces of wood should be provided so that the hamster will not have overgrown teeth, and satisfy their need for gnawing.
 
SOURCE: http://labanimals.awionline.org/pubs/cq02/Cq-hamst.html

Summarized by: MasterHamster

CAMPBELL HAMSTER COLORS

Hamster Colors that are only Available in BE (Black Eye):

1. Black
2. Blue
3. Lilac Fawn
4. Agouti
5. Opal
6. Chocolate

Hamster Colors that are only Available in RE (Red Eye):

1. Albino
2. Blue Fawn
3. Beige
4. Dark Beige
5. Champagne
6. Dove
7. Blue Beige

Hamster Colors that are available in both RE and BE:

1. Argente
2. Lilac
3. Dilute Platinum

AGOUTI COLORS (Hamster Colors that have arches (side markings)
1. Agouti
2. Opal
3. Argente (BE & RE)
4. Blue Fawn
5. Lilac Fawn
6. Beige
7. Blue Beige

SOLID COLORS (Hamster Self Colors)
1. Black
2. Blue
3. Lilac (BE & RE)
4. Dark Beige
5. Champagne
6. Chocolate
7. Dove
8. Albino
9. DP (Dilute Platinum)

HAMSTER BREEDING CAUTION

Do Not Breed:

Ruby Eye Mottled to Ruby Eye Mottled hamsters
Ruby Eye Mottled (w/ Albino parent) to Albinos
Ruby Eye Mottled to Albino (w/ REM parent)

Why?

Because REM x REM = 25% Eyeless Toothless White hamsters, and
REM (with Albino parent) x Albino = a percentage of REM masked by Albino
REM x Albino (with REM parent) = a chance of 25% ETW offspring

Also, do not breed hamsters that have deformities, for all the obvious reasons.

CAMPBELL HAMSTER GENETICS

First of all, please notice the following genetic codes for each hamster color:

WILD COLOR (Dominant):
Agouti - A

SINGLE GENE COLORS (Recessive):
Black - aa
Black Eyed Argente - bb
Albino - cc
Opal - dd
Argente - pp

TWO-GENE COLORS (Recessive):
Blue - aa dd (Black + Opal)
Dove - aa pp (Black + Argente)
Blue Fawn - dd pp (Opal + Argente)
Beige - bb pp (BEA + Argente)
Lilac Fawn - bb dd (BEA + Opal)
Chocolate - aa bb (Black + BEA)

THREE-GENE COLORS (Recessive):
Red Eye Lilac - aa dd pp (Black + Opal + Argente)
Black Eye Lilac - aa bb dd (Black + BEA + Opal)
Dark Beige - aa bb pp (Black + BEA + Argente)
Blue Beige - bb dd pp (BEA + Opal + Argente)

Disregarding the pattern genes for now, let us try to guess the genes of the parents using the litter produced.

For example, Hamster A is a blue female and Hamster B is a blue fawn male. Bred together, they produced 8 pups. 4 opals, 2 blues, and 2 blue fawns.

If Hamster A is a pure blue female (aa dd), and Hamster B is a pure blue fawn male (dd pp), they are supposed to produce 8 opals [dd], 2 of which will have unpaired black genes [a_] and two will have unpaired argente genes [p_]).

[Why? Because for every pair of genes the parents have, each offspring will inherit one. if a hamster has aa dd, he/she can only give one a, and one d. The other parent having dd pp can only give one d, and one p.]

However, in the scenario given, since they produced 2 blues and 2 blue fawns instead, the closest guess we can have of their parents' genes is the following:

Hamster A = aa dd p_
the color blue appears because the argente gene is unpaired.

Hamster B = dd pp a_
the color blue fawn appears because the black gene is unpaired.

PS: This is only an example.

-MasterHamster