Quote:
Originally Posted by Hekomi
Thanks! It's not my perfect, ideal pair. Ideally, I'd have a solid ED male for her. I had to make due, especially given we are the only breeder working with ED ethically in Canada, and one of like, three? in North America. Kinda stinks.
The dangers of pattern to pattern lie in the ability of bands (and all patterns) to hide a gene called white belly. White belly does as you think - make the belly white. On a banded hamster, where the belly is already white, it's impossible to know if the hamster has it.
Of course, a pedigree eliminates this possibility, one of the very important reasons to breed with one! Luckily, we have several generations on each side of their pedigrees, so we know they're white belly free. Even still, it's not ideal since any banded pups in the litter could then be either single banded, or double banded.
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That sounds like a frustrating predicament! It's terribly sad how few breeders there are in NA, the only I've really heard much of outside of you guys is Zika Hamstery which is right near me. The UK is lucky to have so many breeders so readily available, in fact I think I know twice as many UK breeders as I do breeders from my own country! Not too familiar with the white belly gene, but I've heard it being discussed on other forums before, thank you for explaining it more
