Day Six
With Breeding season slowing down for the hamstery I went to a pet store looking for a nice BEC or REC Female to use with Tynan. What I ended up with was a Banded BEC female in need of immediate Rescuing. This poor thing sat in with over 20 other adult Syrian hamsters both male and female so full of pups she looked like she might not make it home before bursting. Loaded with rodent mites the store decided to spray her with a small animal Mite spray before boxing her up, and she was soaking wet in the box very stressed out and scared. I must admit the spray did work and all mites on her literally fell off her and to the bottom of the box quite dead, but the fact was she was not in any condition to have such mean treatment done to her let alone without asking me first, but what was done was done. I turned on the heat before leaving for home.
A quick prayer and a soft talk to her to hold out for the 45 minute drive home and to set up a maternity bin. I kid you not this gal listened and exactly 10 minutes of being introduced to her new home she birthed the first two of 10 pups. Against all odds she nursed and tended all 10 pups even though she didn't even have a chance to build a proper nest or stock up her food pantry or even get a cool drink of water. She never even thought about culling any and very happily raised all 10 pups to weaning age. Having a very large band it was suspected she was homozygous for the band gene and her litter didn't prove that wrong.
Needing a name the one that came to my mind and heart was Angel as she was and Angel with the harsh circumstances of her birthing as under this same situation most Syrians would have never ever calmed down enough to handle the stresses thrown at her. It was also nice that she was of good size and for a female had a beautiful LH coat of fur. Never mind the almost perfect full band, and darker apricot color cream coat. Her temperament was the utt most for friendly.
Miss Angel
and her 10 Cheribim properly named "The Heavenlys"
Girls:
Boys:
The one Mink band boy showed me Angel carried for Cinnamon and by the amount of Sables I would guess Dad was a Sable or Mink but we would never know for sure which.
Though I really didn't need a BEC Band male, one of the boys won my heart as he would always sit so still in my hands when held and never passed an opportunity to lick me on my hands and face. It didn't hurt he had a nice band and his coat was lovely. When you held him in hand like a ball he looked so much like a Tribble from Star Trek I couldn't resist naming him Tribble LOL.
Oh BTW if you haven't connected the dots on him and my Hamstery name the ST's stands for Star Trek
Here is my rolly polly Tribble miester at 5 weeks old.
After a good 3 month rest it was time to breed Tynan to Angel. Having no clue on Angels age I decided to attempt a winter breeding which is not my normal procedure as I like to let the hamsters relax in the cold winter months.
I bred them, but Angel was back in heat when she was tested 4 days later. Being so late in the season I let them breed again. 4 days later Angel was again frozen in the position and I decided to not let them breed again thinking that Angel was just beyond the age of being able to conceive. Angel had been a great mom and I had her lovely son.
I did a full cage clean out and called it a season and figured I'd have to start a new hunt for a BEC mate for Ty in 2011.
Well since the bins are big enough I don't have to do a full clean out for about 3 weeks. So imagine my complete shock at almost binning 4 fully furred Golden Band pups when Angel came out of her igloo like any normal day and didn't even look like she was nursing pups. Again Angels ability to adjust came into play as by the time I had seen the pups which were buried under bedding ,under the igloo I had dumped 90% of the bedding in the bin. I had to grab the 4 pups out of the bin so my scent was on them but good sweet Angel just went over and licked and cleaned each pup and climbed into the now much fresher bedding nest and started nursing. I so wish all Syrians would have this girls attitude of life, and the great trust in humans she had.
Well 4 pups wasn't a great number for figuring out if Tynan was Umbrous but of 4 pups ONE was Umbrous Golden. Thus the testing of Tynan was now done as one Umbrous from a non umbrous mate means Tynan Had to be Umbrous Black. The pups were born Dec 14,2010. Named the Tyngels They were one of the most enjoyable litters I had or have had for tame and super friendly. The umbrous pup was the only female. I kept two of the Males to use with Hadiya in 2011.
Angel and the last photo of all the pups together
Another exciting event for me in 2010 was locating a Breeder in Tennesse who was willing to sell me a pedigreed Female. Named Winterbell's Gia she was an Umbrous Heterozygous Silver Gray Band SH CARRYING RUST, and Black. She was not show quality having a very poor band(only was on one side of her body) But she was unrelated to either Tynan or Christian and had a chance to carry Rex coat.
Here is Gorgeous Gia
Though my Mentor wasn't thrilled with Gia's head at all she liked a lot of the genes behind her.
I was asked to be a foster person on the last leg of a Ham train of several pups from a breeder in Missouri. Not only did I get to enjoy several beautiful pups destined to go to a well known breeder in Pennsylvania, but another in New York. The original plan was for only 4 visitors and 3 for me, and they were to visit for only 1 to 2 weeks at the most.
However they ended up coming and staying for much longer, plus we had a stow-a-way pup which the breeder told me was to go to the Penn. breeder but she said she didn't ask for a Satin Black Band male as she didn't breed Black color hamsters. The same was found with the New York breeder that she too had not purchased 4 pups as she only had space for the 3 she purchased. I contacted the original breeder and discovered Little Stow-A-Way was not supposed to go with me as I had told her(I had a list and photograph with me of each pup to be collected He was not there nor listed as a last minute change as the Breeder had claimed). Having been paid for the gas to drive almost 2 hours to collect the pups I offered to bring the little one back down but would have to be reimbursed for the gas cost. I was told to just keep him and enjoy.
Here is Stow-A-Way the name which stuck to my little-big unplanned new Pedigreed male.
Because of the extra length of stay over of the 4 pups not staying with me the New York breeder asked if I would like to use a rather interesting color Band male to any of my Pedigreed females so I asked my Mentor if he would be good with Hadiya. The mystery color boy looked sorta Chocolate but his ears said he wasn't.
This is Hillcrest's Wintrop
He didn't have as good type as we would have liked but looking at his pedigree my mentor felt we may get some very nice pups. My Mentor felt he would be a nice mate for Hadiya, and suspected his coloring was Homozygous Silver Black, so I took the breeder up on her offer.
On Sept 11th 2010 nine years after The World Trade Center disaster, "The Patriots" came into the world all 11 of them. Hadiya proved and excellent mother and all 11 were weaned and all but TWO were males. My mentor showed their skills in IDing color as Spot On as the whole litter was either Het Silver Gray, or Silver Black. Of course all would also be Rex carriers which would give me a great opportunity for breeding Rex coats in the future.
The Patriot Boys:
The Patriot Girls
I held back Three males and both Females from this litter. Next day will be the start of the 2011 breeding and the path to my first Rex coat and a breeding of Tynan to a lovely Honey Black Band Pup from Hillcrest Hamstery in Missouri that had a very puzzling results.