Long time no see! And a new hamster! And colour questions! :D

[lykame]

Well hello everyone,

I'm not sure anyone will remember me, but my name is Lydia and I was on here a few years ago with my much beloved Winter White Russian Hamster, Artie.

I just don't know how to not write essays, so I'm going to split this up into three sections:
1. What happened with Artie? - it's a bit graphic, please don't read if you don't like sad/slightly graphic things.
2. My new hamster!
3. Questions about my new hamster's colour.

1. What happened with Artie? - again beware it's a bit sad/slightly graphic; skip to the next section if you're concerned this would upset you.

Artie did amazingly, and lived until he was three. Then, sadly, I had to have him put to sleep. It was gutting and I didn't really feel I could even make a post to talk about it. I've just been reading through some of my old posts and it's sad. I loved that little guy so much. I know he had the best possible life and I was lucky to have him; he became so tame and was just such a lovely hamster. And actually he was very well for the majority of his life, which I was very pleased about.

He developed an eye infection when he was at least two and a half, if not older, and although I did not enjoy administering the course of antibiotics to him (it made me feel like I was betraying him), needs must, and it got better.

That Christmas however, he developed another eye infection, and I took him to a vet on Boxing day and started him on another course of antibiotics. I was suspicious though that it was something more sinister as his eye seemed to be slightly pushed out compared to the other. Despite treating him with antibiotics he became more unwell, and developed ataxia. I knew that meant he had some sort of horrible central issue like a tumour or meningitis or something, and I could tell he was in a lot of distress. The vet suggested I could continue the treatment for longer, but I absolutely knew that he wasn't going to get better. He had lost a lot of weight, he was getting worse whilst on treatment, and it wasn't right. I had him put to sleep. It was the right thing to do but losing him was emotionally painful. You know they're going to live only a short period of time but you do become very attached and he gave me great joy.

2. My New Hamster!

So moving away from that pain on to more positive stuff - finally, after a few years of just having his stuff in the garage and not being ready to emotionally invest again, I decided to get a new hamster. I've spent a few months gearing up to it, and finally bit the bullet and have a new hamster - another Russian Dwarf!

So my little guy is still young. I've seen his underside once and I'm relatively sure he's a boy but I will double check in a few days once I start to actually handle him. I did ask for a boy but if he turns out to be a girl that's no problem. You might be able to guess I got him from P@H - I have lots of very mixed feelings about that place (mostly on the negative, although in my local one they do seem to care somewhat) and can't figure out whether I'm rescuing hamsters by buying from there or perpetuating the problem - probably a mixture of both.

He's unnamed! With Artie I did not post on here until I had figured out his name, and it took me like three days to figure it out if not more. But I just couldn't resist so I'm introducing him before he has a name. It'll come to me. Hopefully.

I brought him home yesterday and I'm going to leave him for a good few days before doing anything. With Artie I had absolutely great success with Silver's hamster food so I've ordered that and will wean him off his current rubbish food onto her wonderful food. He'll get a nice range of additional foods to complete his diet.

This website - and more importantly, the wealth of knowledge that you guys have - was just a godsend when I got Artie, and it's so much easier this time around knowing how I want to do everything. I've got him in a small cage currently (the mini duna I seem to remember it's called) and I'll let him settle in that for a while. It has a silent spinner in it and new water bottles and everything. If that set-up seems like it's getting too small (Artie made it very clear to me after a while that it was too small) I will do what I did the last time and put the mini duna into the zoozone2 using ramps. Probably I will do that anyway but these are all big changes for this little fellow so I want to do it all slowly.

I got on really well with Aubiose the last time, so I will continue to use that. The only annoying thing about it is storing it as it comes in such large bags.

3. Questions about his colour.

So my little guy is a Campbell (well a hybrid, but you know what I mean). I cannot figure out his colour, which is in part why he appealed to me in the first place. He is a really unusual colour: he has very red eyes, and he's mottled with white on his belly and scallops on his sides. His dorsal stripe looks grey. In the shop under bright light he looked very pale grey, but there was some sort of interesting hue to the grey in the lilac spectrum perhaps. I wondered initially if he were a red-eyed lilac, but he's not a 'self' colour and I think you can only be a red-eyed lilac if you're a 'self' colour? Correct me if I'm wrong. Also he's probably a bit too pale to be lilac, although there is something slightly lilac-ey about his fur.

In less bright light his grey is somewhere more pink-ish/blue-ish although maybe less 'blue' and more pink. Or dove like. But he's not dark enough to be a dove I don't think. And he's not a Champagne either I don't believe, especially as I know they're hard to breed so I'm not sure a breeder would pass one of those on anyway.

My current thought is that I wonder if he's a blue fawn as they can be mottled and have red eyes. In certain lights there's something blue about him. Having said that when photographed there's something more brown about him, which I'm not really seeing so obviously with my eyes. Maybe it's ginger? But he doesn't have a rim of ginger along the scalloped edges like most pictures of blue fawns seem to have. Although perhaps there is an undertone of brown in him. Or maybe that's the pinkish colour. It seems to depend on the light! I'm so confused.

I have attached three pictures below to obviously show him off - isn't he gorgeous? I can't believe how small he currently is, and I love his eyes, although I would never have said I would like a hamster with red eyes! But also to please get an opinion about his colouring. These are pictures that I have taken using chance as I'm not interacting with him at all currently apart from speaking to him.

There's three pictures - one of him in bright light, which seems to most accurately reflect his colour, and then two from less bright light. None of them are great quality, sorry. It may be impossible to tell what colour he is from them, and there's something more 'brown' (or ginger?) about the pictures than how he is in real life. If you have any idea please enlighten me as his colouring is driving me nuts and I want to use his colouring to help me name him. Although I have enjoyed learning about Campbell genetics whilst trying to figure out his colour!

Thanks so much! - and well done if you made it this far down!

Love, Lydia, and an unnamed little guy.
And Artie - seriously missed.

[cypher]

Welcome back!
So sorry to hear about Artie, he lived to an really great age but it's still always very hard to lose them.
Congrats on your new little boy, he looks really sweet.
I'm not sure about his colour tbh, I see more & more variations in hybrid colours all the time & they can't always . be classified in the way that Campbell's or WW can.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Welcome Back to HC!
I am so deeply sorry to hear about Artie, Its so hard when you have to make that very difficult decision but it sounded like he had an amazing life and lived to a very impressive age.
Congrats on your new hamster - he is adorable and is very fortunate to have a wonderful home with you. I'm looking forward to hearing more about him.

[lykame]

Originally Posted by cypher

Welcome back!
So sorry to hear about Artie, he lived to an really great age but it's still always very hard to lose them.
Congrats on your new little boy, he looks really sweet.
I'm not sure about his colour tbh, I see more & more variations in hybrid colours all the time & they can't always . be classified in the way that Campbell's or WW can.

Thanks Cypher! Yeah Artie lived an amazingly long time, I was so lucky. It got to the point where I was rather scared about just finding him gone - I didn't like that he became unwell but I also appreciated not suddenly finding him dead. You can't win eh, they become so special.

Yes my new little one - he's sooo tiny! I remember Artie being that tiny and then becoming huge - or well, as huge as Dwarf hamsters get. This one is still dinky, and so cute. And still unnamed! Argh. Currently my main name is Ember, although my partner thinks that sounds like a female name. I don't think so personally but I'm still thinking about it.

I know what you mean about the colours, but I thought they still all had to fall within a certain category of colour pools because of the intermingled genetics? Or is that not really the case anymore? He seems like a taupe/pinkish/greyish colour. Or Dove-taupe would be the most accurate colour description. He was lovely to me last night and was out and about whilst I chatted to and watched him. I can't get over how stunning his eyes are.

[lykame]

Originally Posted by SKB_Hamsters

Welcome Back to HC!
I am so deeply sorry to hear about Artie, Its so hard when you have to make that very difficult decision but it sounded like he had an amazing life and lived to a very impressive age.
Congrats on your new hamster - he is adorable and is very fortunate to have a wonderful home with you. I'm looking forward to hearing more about him.

Thank you! Yes it was really difficult but luckily Artie made it really clear that enough was enough. There wasn't any doubt in my mind and that really really helped. I like to think I'm a scientific person and that also really helped me. But I do miss him and feel I was right to wait before getting a new hamster - even getting this little guy so long later is making me think of Artie a lot.

Totally agree this little guy is adorable. He was in a cage with another little guy and it was difficult to not get both. However I don't wish to have two in the same space as I don't really think I would manage to get it perfect enough for them to not fight. I don't know how they stop them fighting in the shop, really. Perhaps because they're still so young? Anyway if two did fight they would both need the same amount of space and I just don't have the space for two zoozone2s!!!

The behaviour of them both was quite different. The other one was quite brave, and went onto my hand in the shop. He also set his teeth into my palm in a few places but not in a bad way, just in a 'what are you?' kind of way. He was nice. My little guy was more flighty, didn't bite when picked up but jumped! I felt he had been handled less, perhaps. I went for him as I suspected the other one to be easier to tame just from his initial behaviour and I hope I can offer this one the patience and space to tame him, although I'm by no means an expert. Fingers crossed though. Hopefully I made the correct decision. I would love to tame him but if he is never tamable that's okay too. It was interesting because if he were a dog I would have gone for the other one - but he's not a dog.

[cypher]

Many hybrids do show the standard colours but not all, I think the mix of genes can produce quite a lot of variation that aren't really standard colours, the mandarin is an example of a new colour that (as far as I know anyway!) hadn't been seen before, there do seem to be quite a lot that are close to standard but somehow don't seem to quite fit.
Someone with more experience might be able to place his colour or it might become a bit more apparent as he gets that little bit older & more mature.
I like the name Ember
They are tiny aren't they, each time I've got a new baby I realise I'd forgotten just how small they are!

[CMB]

Sorry to hear about Artie. He had a long happy life.

Your new hamster is so cute. I haven’t seen one that colour before.

[lykame]

Cypher, yeah, I think the colours are very complicated, and I know that those with black in their genepool seem to demonstrate silvering and that complicates things further. I get that it's very complicated and that my little guy is probably genetically rather... complicated. I'm okay with that so long as he's healthy and hopefully doesn't develop diabetes.

Yeah I like the name Ember, but my partner is still expressing concern about how female it is. I can kind of see his point. Maybe I should just tell him to call him Bertie.

I like names that are significant. Ember is like the smouldering remains of a fire, and I liked that because of his eyes. Another name I thought about - Lucien (light) - seems a bit grand for a hamster. Although I would call him Luci and I think Luci is an awesome name for a boy.

But he doesn't look like a Luci[en].

The other interesting name I found was Siamak - he could be Mak. It also means light (silver light, which seemed to be a mix of his fur and his eyes).

I have sort of decided his colour is a very pale taupe, so I might try and figure out a name based on that theme.

This is difficult. I spent a long time looking for Artie's name but in the end I just knew Artie was right, so I'm hoping that will happen with this little guy too.

[lykame]

Originally Posted by CMB

Sorry to hear about Artie. He had a long happy life.

Your new hamster is so cute. I haven’t seen one that colour before.

The guy in the shop said he had worked there for years and also said he hadn't seen one quite this one's colour, too. Do I believe that? Possibly. It is a very interesting colour. His eyes are also amazing - they're more like a brilliant dark pink rather than red. They're striking.

[cypher]

I'm sure you'll find the right name soon enough! It often takes me a little while to but then something just pops into my head that suits them perfectly, I always think they just tell you their right name if you just wait & watch