Well, I visited a hamster show for the first time yesterday and thought I'd post a little bit about it
It was a SOEHC (South of England Hamster Club) show, which is affiliated to the NHC (National Hamster Council). I learnt a bit about all the UK hamster fancy politics (whew it is complicated - who is affiliated to who!). I met some completely loopy, but lovely people who were all more than willing to spend hours chatting with me about hamsters - breeding, colours, genetics, showing, vets, diabetes, polyoma virus and whatever else. I met Peter and Chris Logsdail who I have seen on UK mailing lists, and read their book. It was lovely to meet them and they were so friendly and helpful. I'm hoping to visit their hamstery in Llandovery soon.
The show itself was pretty much laid out as I expected, but the hamsters - wow! I am not used to such good quality animals. Both dwarves and Syrians were about twice the size of the pet shop hamsters I'm used to. They were also all incredibly handlable, showing how well they were kept. The variety of colours was very interesting and several experienced breeders were kind enough to take some time to point out different colours and patterns to me. I watched a bit of the judging too to try and understand a bit about what they were looking for.
The sales table was quite small as this was only a club show, but I really had to be hard on myself to not take something home that wasn't *exactly* what I was looking for (actually had to ring my boyfriend to tell him what I was thinking so he could stop me).
It was a lovely day and I plan to go to more hamster shows when they are near me. It completely whetted my appetite for breeding Syrians but I have to sit on my hands and wait a while for that!