White Bellied Gene.

[KimOrbit]

Hello every one.
I am a little bit confused on roan or white belly gene. I have found it that it is catastrophic to put two hamsters with roan together. It can cause eye-less hamsters.

Now my question is: Can we mate a Hamster which we have no background on it with a Hamster which we know is a normal hamster and has no white belly gene?? (I mean with a normal Hamster)

I think it should be safe, Cause If the unknown hamster is roan, then there is only 1 parent with white belly gene. But not sure if this is true or not.

And another question is that: can we say all the patterned hamsters have the chance to carry white belly gene??

{I have found no good data about these two questions on internet.}

[StarlightSerenity]

Can we mate a Hamster which we have no background on it

NO. Never breed a hamster you don't know the background of. NEVER.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Roan and the white bellied gene are not the same thing

You can breed a self coloured hamster to a banded/dom spot/roan safely but you should never breed hamsters when you don't know their genetic background anyway.

And yes, assume all patterned hams have the white bellied gene. Its safest.

[Charley101]

Originally Posted by StarlightSerenity

Can we mate a Hamster which we have no background on it

NO. Never breed a hamster you don't know the background of. NEVER.

Originally Posted by kyrilliondaemon

Roan and the white bellied gene are not the same thing

You can breed a self coloured hamster to a banded/dom spot/roan safely but you should never breed hamsters when you don't know their genetic background anyway.

And yes, assume all patterned hams have the white bellied gene. Its safest.

Agreed ...

[KimOrbit]

Hmm, Is there any other genetic problems with breeding hamsters which you dont have a background on them??

Cause I have heard aggression will be inherited.

PS: I forgot to ask, What is the meaning of Roan if its not White belly gene?

[kyrilliondaemon]

Are there other problems? Yes.
What are they? Too many to name, but every time you breed hamsters without a genetic background you risk causing them to be born with brain damage, missing limbs, or other horrible problems that will ruin their lives.

Roan is a type of patterning.

[KimOrbit]

Hmm, thank you. I have found Roan in (http://www.hamstercentral.com/wiki/W..._my_Hamster%3F) done by souffle and Pophammy.

Do you know a good source naming each genetic defect??

and As you have seen Kimmy, Which is completely cream (a little like bright golden) a Self colored hamster??
And as Hammy has two colors + White belly can I say he is crying White belly gene??

PS: I forgot to ask. Will eye-less hamsters die early?? or they can live but without eye and tooth??

[Bekki2308]

You may have read conflicting stuff on the roan gene because in some animals roan causes problems ... in guinea pigs a roan x roan mating can cause eyeless white guinea pigs (called lethals) for example.

In hamsters its white bellied gene that causes eyeless whites not roan as far as i am aware

Hope that helps... I dont know hamster genetics but I know some about guinea pig genetics ...

[kyrilliondaemon]

All I can answer for sure out of that is that yes, hamsters with deformaties often die early and eyeless whites almost always die young. Most don't even live long enough to be weaned.

[KimOrbit]

Thank you Bekki
kyrilliondaemon, I have found a website (forum) containing some information about white belly gene. Im not sure if it has some wrong information or not. can you please take a look at it??
Here is the link: The White Bellied Gene

PS: And is knowing information about 3 generation of a Hamster is good?? Can it help to stop genetic problems or we should go further??
I mean Grand parents -> Parents -> Children. If we know all of them can we breed those Children??