Colour

[lisa]

What colour babies will a black mum and grey dad produce?

[souffle]

Ah Lisa you cant say from a simple descripion of the parents like that. It all depends on the actual colour of the parents and the genes they carry in their genetic history. Black is a recessive gene so the grey would need to carry black to get black babies. If neither carried similar recessive genes so that the babies got a pair then all the babies would be Golden.

[lisa]

Oh I see, obviously I'm new to all this lol. I bred the mum myself, her parents were both black banded but beyond that I don't have a clue. The grey I'm borrowing from a friend he was from a pet shop so don't have a clue what his parents looked like, sorry It's just a matter of waiting and seeing The colours are so confusing It would be so much easier to get 2 the same colours! Will see what there are at Willington show as I've got a baby I think she is sable/silver roan, what male would I need to bring the colours out for showing or is that no good either.

[souffle]

The trouble with pet shop hams is that you have no idea what they carry as you have no genetic history. You don't really know what your own bred one has as you only have one generation. As she is banded there is some chance she could carry the white belly gene but you do not know this by looking at her. If mated to another white belly carrier you could get eyeless whites which would not be good. For this reason I would not mate her to any patterned or agouti (lighter tummy and cheek flashes/stripes type hamster as these can all also carry white belly. A straight colour, ideally a black of good type from a known genetic background would be nice for her. A roan hamster ALWAYS carries white belly so she must never be mated to a patterned hamster or another roan. You need a straight colour for her probably a cream. If she is sable roan you will then get sable roans, cream roans, creams and sables. With a pet shop hamster I would always go for a known history male to balance out any faults she may carry unknown to you.
Greys come in several colours, light. dark, silver and some hamsters of mixed genetic type look grey. Light grey and dark grey are not the most robust of hamsters so a grey may not be the best mate for her.
How old is she? I would wait till Willington then talk to some breeders with a view to either getting a good male for her or maybe borrowing a stud male for her.