Introducing Rolo

[Holly]

Well, after helping out briefly on the sales table at Rotherham today we have come home with a new baby. He's a LH satin BEC - and the brother of Spud's Mum's new baby!

He's got the Cambridge and seems to be settling in ok - I didn't want to disturb him too much but have sneakily taken a few distant shots - I can't believe how fluffy he is. He seems pretty tame already - Will gave him a cuddle when moving him into his new cage and he seemed pretty happy with it - less jumpy than Caramel was when we got her.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_5239.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_5243.jpg

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http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_5240.jpg

[Basia]

Congratulations Holly, a birthday present for yourself! He is so gorgeous and love his name. :D
Had a feeling your Cambridge wouldn't be empty for long .....

[souffle]

Awwwwwww he is so adorable. He has a lovely coat and you will have to get your brushes on him daily I think!!! He does look nice and settled but Carrington hams are aways well tamed and a credit to their breeder.

[lau200]

gosh he's sooooo fluffy :D he's absolutely gorgeous, you must be made up with thelittle darling :D

[suga]

He's lovely - so fluffy! Congratulations btw - what are you like???

[Holly]

Thanks guys - he is incredibly sweet and appears very good natured already. He was awake after we got home this afternoon so we got him out in the playpen for a few minutes - he doesn't run away when we stroke him and he allows himself to be scooped up and placed on our laps already :)

Sheryl certainly musy handle them a fair bit when they are small - he's only 6 weeks old.

[Jane]

Awww wow he is gorgeous :D

[Spuds Mum]

Awww Holly - he is luverrrly! :lol: He reminds me of someone - can you guess who? I will post pictures of my boy shortly.
Sheryl actually had a really heavy cold for about 10 days so didn't handle the littler as much as she usually does she explained to me. So that just shows what nice tempered hams they are. Dubaku is running about in his Gabber just near my feet as we speak and is trying to make me take notice of him! He's just worked out how to climb out of the lid which is a great start - some of my grown up hamsters can't figure that out :?

[Holly]

I was wondering how Dubaku was doing - interesting that he's learnt to climb already as Rolo has been climbing the walls of his cage and, at six weeks old and on his first time in it, he climbed out of the playpen!!

[Basia]

He sounds lovely Holly, you will be having a lot of fun with him I'm sure. He is such a cute little hamster. Am looking forward to seeing pictures of Dubaku too. (How did he get his name?)

[Spuds Mum]

Dubaku's name - Sheryl names all of her litters with consecutive letters and this litter was D - so we thought we would carry on with a D name. She also has named a lot of her hamsters with African names and so we were browsing through names beginning with D and came across Dubaku, which means 'eleventh child' and as he was our eleventh hamster we thought it would be a good name for him. Will try to post photos tonight plus some of the last of Butterbean and Spud's litter who we have kept - little Chip with the bad eye bless

[Holly]

Dubaku's name - Sheryl names all of her litters with consecutive letters and this litter was D - so we thought we would carry on with a D name. She also has named a lot of her hamsters with African names and so we were browsing through names beginning with D and came across Dubaku, which means 'eleventh child' and as he was our eleventh hamster we thought it would be a good name for him.

Cool name 8)

Ours are just named after our favourite food/drinks/choccy bars :oops:

Here's a couple more of Rolo (who has just given me a heart attack escaping from the playpen ......while I photographed the whole thing :shock: ):

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_5284.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_5274.jpg

[Spuds Mum]

Cool photos Holly - he is more of a poser than Dubaku I think! Is Will happy to have him? My family have said they are convinced that mine is a bald hamster that Sheryl has stuck fake fur onto! They cant believe that it is all real! Hope to get some photos on tonight.

[Holly]

Cool photos Holly - he is more of a poser than Dubaku I think! Is Will happy to have him? My family have said they are convinced that mine is a bald hamster that Sheryl has stuck fake fur onto! They cant believe that it is all real! Hope to get some photos on tonight.

I can't believe how fluffy he is either - I hope I can manage to keep that coat in good condition as he grows. Will is delighted with him :wink:

Looking forward to seeing your pictures of Dubaku - I bet he's beautiful!

[Spuds Mum]

I was trying to work out - if you eventually breed Rolo to caramel and I breed Dubaku to Butterbean - what will the relationship be between the two litters :shock: lol - couldn't work it out without my head exploding!

[Basia]

They will be full cousins on their father's side and half-cousins on their mothers side. Closely related however you look at it. :wink:

[Holly]

I was trying to work out - if you eventually breed Rolo to caramel and I breed Dubaku to Butterbean - what will the relationship be between the two litters :shock: lol - couldn't work it out without my head exploding!

I think, if all goes well this time and we get a normal coated LH or SH, we are more likely to mate him to the female baby we keep - unless Caramel is an unbelievably fantastic mother, that is! But, tis early days yet and I don't want to tempt fate too much (wonder if Basia can work out That relationship :wink: ).

I was wondering, last night, about how many hamsters on the show bench are actually related....I suppose, if we are assuming that virtually all domestic hamsters are descended from those first few, then they all must be! I was thinking about close, traceable relationships though.

[Spuds Mum]

Thanks Basia, for doing helping me stop the 'cogs whirring' in my brain! :shock:
I guess that lots of show hamsters are fairly closely related. It is only natural that breeders will want to breed from a really good example, and thinking about it I guess that this is something to be borne in mind when looking at hamsters for breeding.

[babyboos]

we do try not to interbreed too closely, although some breeders are not adverse to this I don't see any great benefit from the hamster's point of view, only possible problems - you just never know what close relatives bred together will throw up, and if using more distant relatives takes you longer to get the same result it is fine by me.

Inbreeding is most commonly used to "fix" a particularly desirable trait such as head or nose shape etc. in proper hands, in others it is done purely for convenience and merely because one is male, the other female, with no real beneficial purpose.

[souffle]

Luckily Paws is not related in anyway to Caramel and carries from some lines who are no longer breeding which should make a nice mix into the more closely bred lines. Heres hoping we get to find out after Paws and Caramels wedding the other night. :oops:

[pophammy]

Aww, he is beautiful! Such a sweet face!

[Holly]

I have finally managed to get some better pictures of Rolo - I've been trying to get them for his page on our website :wink:

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_5398.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_5396.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_5391.jpg

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http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_5342.jpg

[Spuds Mum]

Fantastic photos Holly :x What beautiful boys we have!

[Jessalina]

*wants*

[pophammy]

He is gorgeous! The last pic really shows how fluffy he is!

[Holly]

Thanks for your kind comments - we think he's beautiful :P

He is gorgeous! The last pic really shows how fluffy he is!

It does - and his colour, though not as dark as that last picture makes him, is definitely darker than the others make him look.

He is so friendly and a real character, we are so chuffed with him!

[souffle]

He is gorgeous. Wonder if he is related to Bailey and then Paws through satin Carrington lines. We'll have to compare pedigrees to see if they have anyone in commen. :lol:

[Basia]

He is so gorgeous Holly, love the last picture especially. :D

[babyboos]

my goodness I know my monitor helps as it was rather expensive but those pictures are amazing quality, such clarity and focus.
I could almost reach out and storke Rolo

[babyboos]

erm stroke him...

if the stork wants to bring him to my house though by all means :lol:

[Spuds Mum]

ohhh stroke him babyboos! :x I thought you meant stalk him :lol: I thought he might be the first hamster to have a stalker :shock: and was going to warn you that I think there are laws against that :P

[Holly]

He is gorgeous. Wonder if he is related to Bailey and then Paws through satin Carrington lines. We'll have to compare pedigrees to see if they have anyone in commen. :lol:

That would have been interesting - but looking at his pedigree he's from Bourne Valley on his mum's side and Hedgehog/Towy Vale on his Dad's.

Looking at his relationship to Caramel they only have one relative in common - Zimbali is Caramel's dad and Rolo's grandad so they have an awful lot of unrelated relatives as well! So - as long as they don't both carry the same faults - it should be ok to mate him to one of our "Carapaws" (if we get any Carapaws, if they are all healthy and good enough to breed from.....and if we decide we want any more litters - a lot of if's then!).

[babyboos]

was going to say clap but think that is a bit of Scottish-ism
meaning pat or stroke

[Minicooper]

He is Lovely :D

Is it just me or do males seem less jumpy than females?

[Holly]

He is Lovely :D

Is it just me or do males seem less jumpy than females?

Well I've only experienced one female hamster (Caramel) as opposed to all our boys and we definitely had to work harder with Caramel - despite her coming from a breeder rather than shop - in that she seems to have her own ideas about what she wants and doesn't want - much more than our boys who are very relaxed. Treacle, Custard and Mocha are coming up to their first birthdays and they are all very laid back and will sit on our hands/laps for a while without going AWOL :wink: