do syrians change colour?

[delbert]

phew, thought I was going crazy or that something was wrong with bisto.
Thanks for your replies x

[Knotty]

Pepsi's once rich sabley bum is now a bit lighter, I wondered this too. Glad that it's normal!!

[The Hamster's family]

Mignon is probably like 5-6 months max right now and he's still full of fur !! You should see his skirt !!! He's just so... fluffy !! And it's very long and furnished also ! I spoil him crazy ! He drives me nuts !! LOL ! He lays on his belly and crosses his little paws under his chin and listens to me telling him about my day and how much I love him and how wonderfull he is...!! Call me nutcase...! ;P'''''''''''''

[shiny]

Yes, my sabled-banded Syrian Teddy is now a sabled-banded with ginger bum Syrian too he's about 7 or 8 months old.

The colour change with climate thing is linked to a gene controlling an enzyme that works on colour in the hair & is activated by temperature such as seen in Siamese point-restricted cats where the extremeties such as ears can change colour depending on temperature / season. They have darker fur on cooler regions - ears, end of tail etc. Not heard of this in hamsters so far...

[cathface]

I'm not sure climate really bears that much importance on pet hamsters, unless your house changes temperatures pretty drastically! I don't think there is much of a colour change issue in the wild either - aren't all wild Syrian hamsters the standard golden all year round? there is no colour mutation in wild Syrians I don't think, in the sense that colour mutations probably don't survive because they're more easily spotted. the only hamster I can think of that does go through a colour change with the seasons is the Winter White, but otherwise I'm pretty sure other species of hamsters' colour changes aren't climate-based.

[The Hamster's family]

Originally Posted by cathface

I'm not sure climate really bears that much importance on pet hamsters, unless your house changes temperatures pretty drastically! I don't think there is much of a colour change issue in the wild either - aren't all wild Syrian hamsters the standard golden all year round? there is no colour mutation in wild Syrians I don't think, in the sense that colour mutations probably don't survive because they're more easily spotted. the only hamster I can think of that does go through a colour change with the seasons is the Winter White, but otherwise I'm pretty sure other species of hamsters' colour changes aren't climate-based.

Then WHY oh why !!! He really did change colour !

[shiny]

As others have said, they just seem to change colour as they get a bit older - nothing to worry about

[AddyMC19]

So happy to have found this thread! I noticed my black and gray syrian now had patches of dark brown and I was wondering what was happening! I can't wait to see how Buster's coat changes