Tortoiseshell Breeding?

[Murmur]

Hello all!

My tortoiseshell hamster (Bailey) has reached an appropriate age and temperament that I think she would make a great mother! She's never had a litter before, but I'm confident that she is comfortable and feels safe enough in her enclosure that she will not be stressed into culling her babies.

I've bred Syrians before, but my knowledge on tortoiseshells is just a tad bit lacking. The only other litters I've produced have been with a variety of banded patterns.

I was curious what would be a good male coloring/ pattern to breed my tortoiseshell girl to? I'm hoping to produce either some tortoiseshells or calicos (aka: tortoiseshell and white) babies. I've heard that it would be a good idea to breed her to a banded male to introduce some white to the babies' patterns? If so, what color banded male?

Thanks all in advance for any input!

[souffle]

What colour is your female? Is she a Golden tort, black? Grey, Cinnamon? It very much depends on what you base colour is which male would be suitable. You also need a pedigree to establish what recessives she might carry.You would need to have a patterned male to get the tricolours though so either a banded or a dominant spot male.

[Murmur]

Oops! I forgot to mention that.

Bailey is a black tortoiseshell. Her mother was also a black tortoiseshell. (Bailey is basically a mini-me of her.) The father was a yellow male. Bailey was the only tortoiseshell produced, the other babies were all male yellows.

I was theoretically planning on breeding her to a banded male, I considered a dominant spot... but I'm just not too big of a fan of that pattern.

[souffle]

You would need a black banded male to get the black tort and whites then. It would also depend if the banded male was Baba or BaBa how many your would get. With the black tort female to a black banded male you would potentially get Black tort and white females, black tort females, black banded males, melanistic yellow banded males, black males and melanistic yellow males assuming the male has only the one Ba gene. It also depend what is carried in the background!