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EmmaAndChester · 03-26-2019, 04:39 AM

I think we'll have to agree to disagree; I'm not convinced that lumping all campbells and winter whites into one category as "russian dwarfs" is of any significant (or even minor) helping to a pet owner. For breeding, yes; it's important to know the animals lineage, for obvious reasons. Pet purposes?... eh, I'm not convinced. I honestly think it's lazy haha. Someone - who has literally no intention of breeding their hamster - posts either a WW or RCD and asks what species it is, and 99% of the response are "russian dwarf" - when most of these hamsters have very clear physical attributes of one species in particular. To be perfectly honest, when I see a hamster who is either very clearly at least mostly winter white or campbells (appearance wise) labelled as a "russian dwarf" by someone... I'm going to assume that that person can't tell the two species apart, and is taking the lazy way out of identifying them.

Just to be perfectly clear; I am not denying that it's important to inform folk of health issues that are often associated with pet store purchased/Back yard bred individuals; i am not against that at all, for nor any of the dwarf species nor syrians. What I am against is spreading of information for which there is no evidence to support; such as the suggestion that hybrids are "100%, without a doubt" more prone to health issues than than any other average, pet store hamster when (again, to my knowledge at least) there is no study done supporting this. To further complicate things; breeders in europe often label WW and RCD lines are pure after x number of generations; so many "purebred" winter whites and campbells often do have some degree of hybrid blood. This is why, personally anyways, I think folk are getting too excited over the term hybrid and see absolutely nothing wrong with labelling a hamster as x or y (or z, if it's neither obviously one or the other), depending on physical features.

I have nothing against purebred or hybridised animals. I've had 10 (assumed) hybrid dwarfs over the years, and similarly have 3, lovely purebred rabbits; so i'm not trying to make it seem like hybrids or better than purebreds or vice versa haha. I'm just saying that, in my opinion, the term hybrid is... overused?... for lack of a better word, and has a lot of fear-mongering attached, in the hamster world at least - when there's no proof to say that hybridised individuals are any more unhealthy than the average hamster.

I know it's not really relevant to this topic or whatever, but since it's been brought up; Chinese hamsters are dwarf hamsters. It's a very misconception that theyre not. Unless things have changed in the last 1-2 years, they are true dwarf hamsters.

03-26-2019, 04:39 AM
EmmaAndChester Hamster Pup Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Dublin City, Ireland Posts: 162	Re: Winter White? I think we'll have to agree to disagree; I'm not convinced that lumping all campbells and winter whites into one category as "russian dwarfs" is of any significant (or even minor) helping to a pet owner. For breeding, yes; it's important to know the animals lineage, for obvious reasons. Pet purposes?... eh, I'm not convinced. I honestly think it's lazy haha. Someone - who has literally no intention of breeding their hamster - posts either a WW or RCD and asks what species it is, and 99% of the response are "russian dwarf" - when most of these hamsters have very clear physical attributes of one species in particular. To be perfectly honest, when I see a hamster who is either very clearly at least mostly winter white or campbells (appearance wise) labelled as a "russian dwarf" by someone... I'm going to assume that that person can't tell the two species apart, and is taking the lazy way out of identifying them. Just to be perfectly clear; I am not denying that it's important to inform folk of health issues that are often associated with pet store purchased/Back yard bred individuals; i am not against that at all, for nor any of the dwarf species nor syrians. What I am against is spreading of information for which there is no evidence to support; such as the suggestion that hybrids are "100%, without a doubt" more prone to health issues than than any other average, pet store hamster when (again, to my knowledge at least) there is no study done supporting this. To further complicate things; breeders in europe often label WW and RCD lines are pure after x number of generations; so many "purebred" winter whites and campbells often do have some degree of hybrid blood. This is why, personally anyways, I think folk are getting too excited over the term hybrid and see absolutely nothing wrong with labelling a hamster as x or y (or z, if it's neither obviously one or the other), depending on physical features. I have nothing against purebred or hybridised animals. I've had 10 (assumed) hybrid dwarfs over the years, and similarly have 3, lovely purebred rabbits; so i'm not trying to make it seem like hybrids or better than purebreds or vice versa haha. I'm just saying that, in my opinion, the term hybrid is... overused?... for lack of a better word, and has a lot of fear-mongering attached, in the hamster world at least - when there's no proof to say that hybridised individuals are any more unhealthy than the average hamster. I know it's not really relevant to this topic or whatever, but since it's been brought up; Chinese hamsters are dwarf hamsters. It's a very misconception that theyre not. Unless things have changed in the last 1-2 years, they are true dwarf hamsters.