I echo what has been said above and can add more.
A show-hamster breeder I know told me recently she once bought 3 hamsters from the above commercial breeder, to widen her gene pool. One male died suddenly at 3 months; one female proved to be sterile, and the other male died at 7 months.
My local pet shop, where I know the manager, has recently been forced (by upper management) to buy from this place so I gave her a warning. It was very interesting to see that there was a sable Roan hamster in the batch she was sent - which if bred (perhaps by accident, by an inexperienced pet keeper, or would-be breeder) to another hamster carrying the white-bellied gene, would produce babies with no eyes.
Even more interesting was that I'd spotted an identical Roan hamster on sale in the local PAH a few weeks earlier. This gene is not common and I wonder if PAH are getting them from the same place! Wherever they are coming from, I am very concerned that white-bellied gene hamsters should be for sale in pet shops.
Luckily, because I told her about this gene, the manager of my local pet shop made sure she told the buyer of the Roan not to breed from it under any circumstances, but of course PAH don't give advice like that when they sell their animals!
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