Syrian Hamster: Unique dots

T1Mastr · 05-19-2012, 10:57 AM

Hello, i have 10 small syrian babies. They are now 9 days old. Mother is shorthaired yellow and father is shorthaired white. Some of the babies are cream some black with white dots, but three of them are pretty unique, because they actually look like they were cloned

they have totally simmilar 2 white dots on left and right side of the back. Is this unique sign or is it just some kind of typical syrian hamster color type?
Picture removed - babies out the nest without eyes open are not allowed to be shown on the forum.

Do you think that they are going to get golden fur on head and back in next few days to look like this ? -

Or they are going to stay black and white like this?

thank you

souffle · 05-19-2012, 01:27 PM

Hi and welcome.
The dots are the scent glands on the baby hamsters hips.
The babies look to be Golden in colour and the colouration will develop as the get older.
It is really very unwise to have such young babies out the nest. You are risking the mother killing them due to stress.
Please put them back and do not handle them again until their eyes are fully open. Hopefully you will get away with it but you are risking the lives of the babies by handling them so young.

T1Mastr · 05-19-2012, 01:45 PM

Actually, mother is very used to human scent and has absolutely no problem with touching her babies. She is very gentle and cares about them fo 200%, so they are growing pretty fast. When some of her cubs makes a small trip out of the nest, I can take it without any problems and she will come for it and then picks it from my palm and gives it right back into the nest

cathface · 05-19-2012, 03:21 PM

any mother hamster can revert back to instinct and cannibalise their babies when a different smell is on their babies, regardless of how used to human scent they are. the mum hamster may be taking the babies back from you handling it at the moment but you do not know that she won't feel threatened later and reject or even eat them. it is not a risk you should be taking with young. the fact that you don't know this already makes me worry that you did not research enough into breeding before you went ahead with it.

mangoandmimi · 05-19-2012, 03:45 PM

An animal is an animal, when there's a risk you should do all you can to minimize it. They go by instinct, if they feel pressured/scared/nervous/anything like that the mum could turn on the pups and that would be awful..It's best to just play safe.

T1Mastr · 05-20-2012, 02:43 AM

Ok, thanks for your advices, I´m quite syrian beginner. I had few generations of djungarians and i always bred them in couples. And i never had any problems with canibalism. I always started to touch cubs around 9th or 10th day. Thanks for a little knowledge extension. I won´t do it in the future till they eyes are opened. I (of course) breed syrians separatly. But i tried few times to put them together and couple i have right now is quite calm. In neutral enviormet or in males cage they get together well. I wanted to ask is possible to have for example two syrian females in one cage? If they are sisters from one litter.
Here one pic of my female Amalka -

PinkPrincess · 05-20-2012, 02:52 AM

I have to say I find it quite worrying that you are breeding Syrian hamsters when you admit yourself you are a Syrian beginner. Syrian's must not be housed together under any circumstances once they reach maturity - they are solitary animals and will fight to the death regardless if they are siblings or not.

This is basic hamster knowledge and something you really should know already if you have taken the decision to breed. I do hope you will not risk the lives of your hamsters by ignoring the advice you have received on this forum.

Younr017 · 05-20-2012, 02:57 AM

Aren't baby Syrians called pups ?

souffle · 05-20-2012, 03:03 AM

It is not possible to keep two syrians together whether they are siblings or not. As soon as they reach maturity they will start to fight. It is not in their nature and by choice they are solitary animals.
You would be going against nature trying to keep them together and one day they will just have enough and one may kill the other. Remember even in the wild they live alone and the mother will put her pups out to live alone at around 5 weeks.
Dwarfs are quite different and do live in groups though in captivity they also often need separated especially single sex groups which again is not a natural situation.
There is lots of good advice on Syrian breeding here so you would be advised to read it:
Breeding Syrian Hamsters - Advice & Guidance - National Hamster Council

In the UK they are called pups normally but other countries may call them by other names such as cubs. There is no right and wrong here really.

T1Mastr · 05-20-2012, 03:18 AM

Yep i read this everywhere on the internet, but i have friend who breeds syrians just for feeding his snake (i know terrible reason) But he always breeds them in couple in large cage and never had problems with that. He always buys them as small pups and has them together for whole life. He says that they have some little fights when they start being adults, but then they live quite peacefully even in couple. I know that syrians should be bred isolated because of their lonely nature. But there are few people that have positive experiences. Actually total majority has negative experiences...

Anyway I would never put my sirians together if I recognised even a small problems. I was just curious if you know about some other similar cases as my friend´s.