Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamsterita
You said that "as I understood BEWs couldn't produce pups together". why is that and how did they do it then?
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I've had lots of conversations with the breeder who first found this variation of BEW Chinese that can reliably produce white pups. He informed me that pairing two BEWs resulted in a litter that was resorbed at 14 days gestation (Chinese hamsters have a 21 day gestation). He had had no harm come to the mums through this but no successful litters.
BEW Chinese had occurred sporadically for decades but they were either infertile or their offspring never produced all white pups. Interestingly the first dom spot Chinese came from a BEW in the 1980s but subsequent BEWs from any dom spots were few and far between. Around 2006 a line of Chinese hamsters was discovered to regularly produce whites and it is from this line that the BEWs in the UK have come.
The 'UK dom spots' when mated together would produce smaller litters with 2/3 dom spot and 1/3 normal, and no white. The 'double dom spots' seemed to be resorbed in utero. The 'Dutch dom spots' when mated together, however, produced 50% dom spot, 25% normal and 25% BEW. It seemed that there was something different that allowed the 'double dom spots' to survive - perhaps a gene modifier, perhaps a different dom spot gene.
I tried mating the 'Dutch dom spots' (those from this BEW-producing line) to the 'UK dom spots', and got the 2/3 dom spot and 1/3 normal ratios - no whites. It appeared that two copies of the 'Dutch dom spot' were needed.
The information about the offspring ratios of the Dutch dom spots and BEWs was as I had been informed by the breeder who discovered them so I didn't try pairing two BEWs. I had hoped to for a second litter of a BEW girl (I like to see for myself what I'm told as long as it doesn't harm the hamsters) but had never yet managed to have enough BEWs, the right sexes of BEWs or girls who felt like having pups to do so. I planned it for a 2nd litter as I'd know she was capable of having pups successfully (so it wasn't just a problem for her as an individual hamster to carry pups) and in case something did go wrong with the resorption as I wouldn't want to breed her again after that.
Another UK breeder at the end of last year had a pair of whites who had pups together which was amazingly surprising to us all. All their offspring were white. I bought Adgestone and Merstone as a pair in Houten so thought I'd leave them together as they settled in to see if they managed to have pups, and split them if needed. Adgestone has a single spot on one ear, as does the mum of the other breeder's litter (I know because I bred her!) I'm not sure if this has an impact on their ability to produce a successful litter with another white. Some people query whether the spot means they're genetically a dom spot not a BEW (like normal Chinese with a single white spot on the cheek are thought to potentially be a very poorly marked dom spot), but if they were I'd have expected some dom spots in the BEW to BEW/?DS litters - especially since my BEW to DS litters are usually
all dom spots!
Sorry for the long rambling reply. I hope some of it makes sense! In other words, previously two BEWs haven't been able to carry a litter to term. At the moment there are a couple of pairs who have been able to. It's not clear why but it's going to be interesting to find out! And I have a plan for seeing if the single-spot-on-a-normal's-cheek means they're genetically normal or dom spot which is exciting. Well, exciting for me. I'm a Chinese hamster geek and get really excited by this sort of stuff!