Hamsters birth defects.

[KimOrbit]

Special genes in Hamsters
When we are talking about breeding hamsters, we should be alarmed of some special genes unless it will become a catastrophic situation, like eye-less hamsters or tooth-less hamsters. A responsible breeder MUST try his/her best to stop making those birth defects.
In Syrians there is a gene named ‘White Belly gene’. As it is showing, it will lead a hamster to have white belly or a special patterned fur. Sometimes I have seen people referring ‘White Belly gene’ with word ‘Roan’, but roan is a pattern type caused by ‘White Belly gene’. In this article we will refer to this gene using letters ‘Wh’.
In Campbell dwarfs there is a gene named ‘Mottle gene’. This gene has two types of ‘Mo’ and ‘Mi’ which were found in UK. Reports show that there is no ‘Mo’ gene in US. ‘Mo’ gene is the non-lethal mottled gene. ‘Mi’ gene is the lethal mottled gene and is referred to as the Ruby-eyed Mottled Gene. I couldn’t find good information about ‘Mo’ gene, so I can only talk about ‘Mi’ gene.
‘Hair Less gene’ is another gene seen in both dwarfs and Syrians. This gene will lead the hamster to lose some furs. As I understand it, the cells in the mammary glands which produce milk and ducts are derived from epidermal cells (the skin layer). The defect in fur deficient animals (hairless) is also an epidermal cell defect. It's the damage in the hair follicles which produces the absent coat. The defect in the mammary glands is evidenced as insufficient or absent lactation. One would think that the severity of one correlates with the severity of the other, but I have seen no research to prove this. We do know that people with hairless hamsters report that the hairless females typically have trouble raising the young. I will refer to this gene using ‘HL’.

[KimOrbit]

How to identify special genes
The easiest gene to find is ‘HL’. It is visible enough to be seen by owners. There is no gene which can mask it, and simply this gene can’t be hided in a hamster.
After that, we have ‘Wh’ gene which is rarely an easy to find gene. But this time there are genes which can mask or simply hide this gene. Another name for this gene is Anopthalmic gene. Totally we say a hamster has the ‘Wh’ gene when it is patterned. But note that the whit belly on the Dominant Spots or Banded Syrians is not due to the White Bellied gene.
This gene can be masked with some other dominant genes. The most common one is the Dark-eared White (DEW) gene. While this gene will produce a pure white hamster then ‘Wh’ gene’s special patterns is no visible. Remember that this includes any color combinations created using the DEW gene such as Flesh-eared White which is genetically DEW plus Cinnamon.
A hamster with DEW gene can be either White bellied or self colored. The only way you can get sure about this is breeding them by yourself. If you are completely sure that DEW’s carrier’s parents were self colored, then they are not white bellied. But if you are not sure then you MUST count them as white bellied hamsters.
If you have created a white hamster using a combination with a ‘Wh’ hamster and a none ‘Wh’ hamster (i.e. the Dominant Spot Gene or the Silver Gray plus Cream), you would face same situation. But this time no one even you can’t tell if they are ‘Wh’ or not and you MUST count them as white bellied hamsters.
Do not cross ‘Wh’ gene into Banded or Dominant Spot. If you do, you will find it almost impossible to identify which of the white bellied babies have the Anopthalmic gene. In this case you MUST count pups as white bellied hamsters too.
About ‘Mottled Gene’ I had no information of my own. I have copied from Linda Price’s article about “Breeding Pairings to Avoid” to my pdf. You can search it in google.

[KimOrbit]

How to care for special genes
If your hamster is carrying any of the special genes discussed above, you should take some steps to stop making sick hamsters. Sometimes violating these rules can be highly dangerous for both mother and litters, and sometimes it can lead to a hamster without a body part like eye.
If your hamster has ‘Hair Less’ gene you should stop breeding from that hamster. Not only the sick hamster, but also all her/his pups, all his/her brothers and sisters and his/her parents. Because they can be carrier of the ‘Hair Less’ gene too and that can cause a catastrophic situation.
Cares used for ‘Mottled’ gene and ‘Wh’ gene is the same. These genes will make one of the most beautiful hamsters of the world, but only if inherited one time. If you pair two hamsters with these genes at least 25% of the litter will be eyeless. (But in talking about ‘Mottled’ gene it will cause toothless and eyeless hamsters.) As far as we can’t set percentage for such things there is a chance that all the pups will come out as eyeless hamsters. The only thing you should do about this is not to pair two hamsters with these genes. You can pair these hamsters with the hamsters without these genes.
In dwarfs, pups will die before weaning, because they have no teeth to eat food. These hamsters are smaller than the hamsters in the same age. Eyeless Syrians can live somehow normally (normal on age) because hamsters don’t use their eyesight much. They will live using hearing and smelling, but that’s a hard life for every creature.

[KimOrbit]

Other birth defects
After talking about special genes we will face some cases which should be stopped breeding right after signs get sighted. They are some genetic problems which can be inherited from parents to children.
Hind Leg Paralysis is a genetic deformity affecting male Syrian Hamsters. This deformity will usually show itself when hamster is between age of 6 to 10 months. You should stop breeding from these hamsters and children of him (If he has been bred before) to stop this paralysis. Since now there is no cure for this problem and all the hamsters with this problem are suffering a hard life.
Missing limbs or missing of any other part of body can happen at birth. In this case the problem is a genetic problem and you MUST not breed the hamster anymore. The parents’ line SHOULD be cut too to interrupt making any other hamster without a body part. Sometime missing a body part will occur during a fight (i.e. losing an eye or losing a leg) and the hamster will suffer from bleeding and problems. If you are 100% sure that the missing part has been lost during a fight, you can breed the hamster, But even if you are 99% sure that the missing part has been lost during a fight there is another 1% which yells “THIS HAMSTER HAS A GENETIC PROBLEM”. So you MUST stop breeding from that hamster.
If your hamster is dealing with an illness like diabetes or kidney failure or has suffered from an illness like wet-tail, you MUST stop breeding from that hamster. Such illnesses can be inherited.
Another famous genetic problem in the hamsters is spinal deformities. (Sometimes manifest as kinked or curved tails) This problem is common in dark-grey Syrians, but it can occur in any colored hamster of any specie. Sometimes these hamsters can live a normal life without any problems, and this had made a myth about breeding them. Some breeders think breeding the suffered ones is safe, but it’s not. A spinal deformity is a genetic problem which its damage can vary from a severe problem to a normal problem. Quality of damage is random and no one can calculate is in any way. So breeding these hamsters can sometimes lead to
healthy hamsters. But also it can lead to a litter with sever genetic problems. So a responsible breeder MUST stop breeding from that hamster. Cutting the line of this hamster’s parents and siblings is an optional case due to their health state. Parents and siblings can carry the damaged gene, but it is deactivated in their body and breeding them can produce damaged hamsters.

[KimOrbit]

Other reasons to stop breeding
Sometime your hamster is 100% healthy and the pair you are going to make has no genetic problem. But you shouldn’t make that pair. The reason is not that of above, in this case there is no sick hamster. In this case we will face some hamsters which are not attractive or have behavior problems.
Only in Syrians, mating two satin hamsters will lead to a hamster which has a coat that is generally considered unattractive but reports vary. The coat can be shiny but sparse and patchy. These hamsters are not attractive. They are hard to sell and you should take them all. Are you ready to care for 20 unattractive hamsters??
Mating two sating Dwarf hamsters has no problem. This will lead to a litter with all the babies carrying satin coat. Their satin coat’s quality will be the same with their parents.
Researches show that behaviors can be inherited from parents to children. So if your hamster has any behavioral problem you shouldn’t breed him/her, because it will make litter with those behavioral problems. For example if your hamster is hard or unable to tame you shouldn’t breeder him/her.
There are some behavioral problems in hamsters which Linda Price has explained. I had copied them into my pdf. but again you can search that article in google.

[Willow's mummy!]

Thank you Kim. I did notice some grammatical errors, but think it best not to make comments on those until someone more knowledgeable about breeding has commented. (I do know English is not your first language.)

As I said before, I saw you had posted this to your blog. What audience are you aiming the information at?

[KimOrbit]

well, thank you for checking my texts. at all, grammatical mistakes are my priority number 1 to solve. I am trying hard. But Im sorry because of them here.

Well, as I have explained in my blog, I am uploading all data I have found on the internet or on books there. I am addicted to this work. In this way I can make my mind oriented and I can access the history of my researches any where I go.

So, first audience is me. but Also sometimes I share links to my blogs for others, so they can see my progress too.

PS: I will be glad if you register on my blog. then you can share information about hamsters too. People in my NGO are going to register in this blog too. the short link is: http://hamsters.co.nr/

[kyrilliondaemon]

Firstly I think some of that is wrong. Secondly its really hard to read and sounds like you're talking to novices. Personally I'd keep records like those out of the public eye. If a child read that it might think it could breed its hamsters fine and people breeding without the rest of the proper knowledge is a very bad thing.

Oh and double satin in syrians isn't just unattractive, its unfair to the hams. They can end up without fur and personally I feel intentionally breeding those is cruel. Theres also the fact that you must never breed without guaranteed homes for the pups so someone should be aware they could be stuck with every baby forever before they even breed.

[Vectis Hamstery]

If you are looking for information on breeding and safe pairings then I would recommend the book Hamsterlopaedia over searching google. The authors give correct information about genes with potential problems. The book essentially has already collated the information you are looking for and has been checked for inaccuracies.

[tjherman]

KimOrbit, a few questions come to my mind:

• Who is your audience?
• Why are you writing this piece?
• Do you know enough to be writing on this topic?

While I and others appreciate your enthusiasm to share information about breeding hamsters, you are missing many basics. Your article could convince someone that breeding any two hamsters together is alright. There is more to breeding the hamsters than just the breeding. There is health, cages, nutrition, temperament, type, genetics, raising pups, things that can go wrong, etc. All the cost that goes into a litter, what to do with the pups afterwards, or even why breeding the hamsters in the first place. There's more to identifying "special genes" -- really, there is nothing special about the genes -- especially if you have not had the experience identifying hamsters' phenotype and genotype yourself.

Your audience will determine the style and breadth of information you include. If for novices, you'll need basics and provide resources as you're not a subject matter expert. That said, there's a lot of inaccurate and misleading information.

If you are going to write on this topic, you should learn more about hamster genetics. Read the Hamsterlopaediea for health and medical information; it is the best book available. The medical conditions section makes the whole book worth it. There's numerous sites quoted from members on hamster genetics. Most importantly, cite your sources or just write an annotated bibliography (provide sources and talk about them).

Guess I'm just curious... Why are you writing about this particular topic? You need to learn the basics yourself first. There are many members on this forum who spent months researching and learning, and they're still learning.

As a professional technical writer, I'd recommend holding off on writing articles meant for mainstream yet until you become more knowledgeable about hamster genetics and breeding. Keep researching, keep reading.