Last night, I decided to see if I could get to the bottom of Bo-Bo's aggression. I got a clean 10 gallon tank with 1 inch of clean substrate and nothing else. I put the boys in with Bo-Bo at the same time, and observed, ready to separate if need be.
They were fine. They sniffed, a few of the boys squeaked defensively, but no one attacked. I left them for a few minutes and observed them. They just dug and shuffled around.
Then I added one simple food item: broken crackers. A few of them nibbled on some, but no one seemed overly concerned about the crackers. I also added an obstacle: a cardboard tube. Still, no one seemed concerned. So, I took them all and put them in a large carrier. I set up the 10 gallon with a large nestbox on one side and another large obstacle on the other.
I added Bo-Bo and the boys again. Again, they were fine. They scurried around and explored, most of them went to hide in the nestbox. I gave them tissues to nest with. Then I added food in a pile on the floor of their cage. THEN Bo-Bo attacked!
Once I added their seed mix, all heck broke loose. He was chasing, lunging, and chattering up a storm. When he seemed satisfied no one was close enough to the food pile, he'd go back to it and continue stuffing his pouches. No blood, but it certainly seemed like it could take a turn for the worse.
Apparently, he wants all the food to himself? Or maybe, a certain smell is triggering something. Like a memory, where he had to defend himself. Who knows. All I know is, Bo-Bo is going to have to be solitary for now, and he can certainly have his own food pile, then.
Alice was out this morning when we came into the sun room for breakfast, and I could hear the babies shuffling around in the nestbox. I decided to take the opportunity to hold them. They are 13 days old today, so I knew they'd have their eyes open.
This litter is a bit more nervous than the last. It wasn't quite as peaceful when I took them out for the first time. There were a few of my children making noise and wanting to see them, and I was taking them out to clean the cage, not to cuddle (unfortunately!). Several of them get fairly vocal sometimes, especially one of the sapphire pearl girls! She is always telling everyone what she thinks. I have often heard her in the nest squeaking loudly - just like a puppy cries! I always wondered who it was.
There is one "new" color, but I'm realizing it's not a new color to me at all. Lou-Lou is a mandarin (pearl, I believe), and Alice is this color (solid). It's lighter than the "normal" mandarin color, with a distinctly orange stripe (the mandarin color has a brown stripe). Since I am unable to find a firm reference anywhere, I'm going to call this color "honey."
It seems this lighter "honey" color is mandarin + sapphire. I learned that the mandarin gene is dominant, but it's also homozygous-lethal, meaning that a hamster can only be heterozygous for the mandarin gene, and a hamster cannot carry the mandarin gene without displaying it. Any pups that are homozygous for this dominant gene (phenotype MeMe) will die in the womb. Any hamster which displays the mandarin color will have the phenotype "Meme". ("Me" is the mandarin gene, and "me" is a non-mandarin gene.) Therefore, mandarin x mandarin = smaller litters.
By the way, while we're on the subject of phenotyping and genetics, I think dwarf hamsters could best be described as
polymorphic, not two separate species (Campbell's and Winter Whites). Just something I've been pondering.
There are four boys and four girls. The solid sapphire is a boy. The three sapphire pearls are girls. The two honey pearls are boys. The mandarin pearl is a girl. The solid mandarin is a boy.
The one my fingers are by is the vocal girl. The solid mandarin boy is buried in the corner.
The two honey pearls with the mandarin pearl underfoot.
Trying to get a mandarin/honey color comparison, and they wouldn't have it. Though, the sapphire pearl with the darkest face was looking.
I apologize for the horrendous quality of photos. The litter was wiggly, wanting to find the nest and cuddle in, so it was hard to get pictures. My own "litter" of kids was also around - and wiggly! (My camera is ancient and broken, to boot...I have a whole laundry list of excuses, don't I?) I cuddled them all in my hand after this. (The baby hamsters, that is.) They seemed to calm considerably after that. <3