The unexpecteds

[Nancy's Hamsters]

Well it sure didn't take long for little rescue WW Hybrid Amissa to have her pups. This girl is so laid back and knows how to be a Awesome Mom. She had 5 pups but sadly one was deformed and born dead. She would not take care of the dead body so I had to take a spoon and remove it. Remaining pups are big and very well fed with round little milk filled tummies.

How tame is this WW Hybrid? When I went to check on her tonight to make sure all was fine she actually jumped IN my hand demanding a quick cuddle then went back to business tending her new family, which she has in a wide open nest even though she has more then enough bedding to bury them deep deep down.

It was funny what the store claimed as we were paying for her. After sticker shock at her price the cashier said " Yes it is higher then most stores but they only sell Non biting Dwarf hamsters. I hope she gives you lots of babies"
I do have to admit I have not once found a biter dwarf at this store and the WW's always look the colors and type of WW's I've not once seen any Russian Campbell Hybrids nor the many colors they tend to come in like never see Mottled or White in there. Erins boy is the only beyond a doubt hybrid from there being a Mandarin catchy named Sunfire(Sapphire WW X Argente RC)

Updates as pups grow and pictures when eyes open.

[BrainGirl]

Wow, she didn't wait around! Congratulations Guess she knew she was in a safe place x

[cypher]

You saved her just in time then! Good to hear she & the remaining pups are doing well.
Can't wait to see photos!

[Piebald]

Wonderful! She was waiting for you to pop the pups.

[Pebbles82]

Looking forward to seeing the photos when ready!

[fluffybumolivia]

Aww can't wait to see the pics!!

[Shannonmcn]

Good girl Amissa! She sounds gorgeous Nancy, maybe very grateful to be rescued

[Hekomi]

Interestingly, I've been doing a bit of research on the Mandarin Colour (Mama). It doesn't seem to be a hybrid colour, but exists in Winter Whites. However, it seems the animals who displayed this gene were soon crossed into hybrid lines, so studying it further is lost. This seems to be the same for Mushroom possibly, but it's hard to say. There is a red eyed Mandarin (which is probably what the little guy is, which *is* a hybrid colour - Mamapp) so Mandarin + argente from Campbells.

It's interesting, and I wish there was more information on it.

www.Dwerghamster.nl - Mandarins (English)
Sean's Mandarin/Pudding Blog: FAQ about Mandarin/Pudding Winter Whites
Mandarin NOT a hybrid gene? (another hypothesizing article - I think it's been generally more accepted perhaps, but the general consensus is it's mixed now, and unless one pops up in a pure line - unlikely with a dominant gene - it will be hard to solidify this information)

It's a shame we don't have more information.

I hope her litter goes well, and they all find happy homes once they're big enough.

[Thin Lizzy]

Congratulations Amissa on your babies.
Nancy, good on you for rescuing her.

[Nancy's Hamsters]

The biggest problem I have with that article is this fact. Once you cross breed a Pure Campbell Russian Dwarf with a Pure Winter White Dwarf, even if you then breed the resulting pups back to a documented purebred Winter White then take a pup from this litter that would be 3/4 Winter White and 1/4 Campbell. You still have a hybrid hamster. Take this 3/4 WW and breed it back to a Purebred Winter White and you still will have a Hamster who is not of pure WW blood but one who is now 7/8 WW.

Without a blood test they are only going by they BELIEVE their WW line is 100% WW genes. You can see how once hybrid always hybrid works in the Arabian Horse. A long time ago it was forbidden to cross a Purebred Arabian to any other Purebred breed of horse. BUT the Bedouins found more stamina in a line called Crabbet Arabians. Also found in the Crabbet lines were Painted foals and Roans which are even this day disqualified from being registered as Purebred in the Arabian Horse Association. When a Crabbet Arabian horse was crossed to a Quarter Horse it still looked like a Crabbet Arabian. Rumor has it the Crabbet Arabian resulted from a Painted Mustang Stallion named Hidalgo(yes like the Movie Hidalgo) who actually raced against the highest caliber Arabian horses in a cross country race and WON being allowed by one Shiek who admired the little painted horse from America to breed a few of his mares.
One will never know But to this day the Arabian Horse Association has a HALF Arabian branch and requires ALL registered foals to be blood tested to confirm the resulting foal is indeed Purebred Arabian and if the results confirm even a 1% genes not Arabian the foal must be registered in the Half Arabian branch of the Association.

The article writer believes the false belief that if you breed a hybrid back to a purebred WW that 50% will end up Purebred WW and the other 50% hybrid. However think of this fact That Hybrid's genetic chromasomes are ALL half Chromosomes of the Campbell parent and half the Chromasomes of the WW Parent, and there is no way possible for those whole Chromemasomes to split up and only give the WW half to the whole chromasome of the pure WW parent. The hybrid will ALWAYS donate it's hybrid chromasomes be they the sperm cell or the Egg cell their all Hybridized and there for Can not donate an all WW sperm or Egg. Of course the resulting pup will have more matching genes of the Purebred WW parent BUT there will still be hybrid matched genes as well. So again like the Half Arabian you will eventually bury that hybrid gene deep deep in the gene pool and that results in a Offspring that looks so purebred none will doubt it is Purebred. That is until you get a match up of the Mandarin genes and Voila you THINK because it came from two Thought to be Purebred parents that that color is indeed purebred when in fact it is a hybrid.

Shew one last thing to ponder about. In this article did you notice they always bred back into the very line that produced that Mandarin color and how the litters ALWAYS produced wild and Mandarin colors? All they did was breed back in the Hybrid genes stronger until they got a whole litter of Mandarin pups. They focused on the Mandarin color but they forgot about the possibility of it being caused by the Hybrid gene which ever lurks in the chromasomes just waiting to find it's genetic match to be able to appear Phenotypically.

Unless this writer can prove beyond any doubt whatsoever (would mean creating a blood test to determine if any Russian Campbell Dwarf chromasomes were present) I would have to believe the Mandarin color is a result of a tiny drop of Russian Campbell dwarf genes lurking deep, deep, deep in the genetic make up of the what they think is Purebred Winter White Hamsters.

Not sure if you saw the thread on Momma's arrival here but she is a normal agouti not Mandarin. Erin's rescue boy has very much Red eyes and was the only one there at the time that color. They had placed him in with the Syrians because he was bullying the newest and much younger then him WW Hybrids(this is the store's disgusting way to not have beat up WW Hybrids in the WW Hybrid cage).