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Old 06-26-2017, 05:14 PM  
Mooboo
Newborn Pup
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 4
Default Confused about Max's sex

Hi, Newbie poster here.
I purchased two Hamsters from P@H in the UK back at the beginning of April. I opted for two 'Russian Dwarf Hamsters' so that my two autistic kids could become familiar with small animals in the home (but not to handle). The store assistant told me that they were both Males from the same litter and that they would never 'knowingly' sell a customer mixed sexes. Anyway, after reading advice from this forum, I got around to sexing the hammies about 2 weeks later, after giving them time to settle in to their new surroundings. (I had them both in a large P@H cage). Following the sexing guide I discovered that they were actually both Females. From originally naming them 'Max and Paddy', I now had 'Maxine and Patrice'. We opted to stick with the original names.
After a few more weeks I started to notice that Max was about half the size of Paddy and hence I'm assuming Max was the runt of their litter. I'm not totally up to speed with the colourings of the Russian Hamsters, but Paddy is fawn/grey with a stripe down her back with a white underbelly and thick crescent shaped borderlines down her flanks, which if I'm right is consistent with a Winter White coat? Paddy on the other hand is Black, with a white bib and belly.
They slept together in a little house in the cage, but after a while I started to witness Paddy attacking Max. Max would squeak loudly and run away from Paddy and hide. Paddy would often give chase. Consequently they began sleeping apart. So I separated them in to a new bin cage each, where they have both been happy hammies.
I was told I they were ten weeks old when I got them, so they should be about 22 weeks (5+ months) old now. It's clear that Paddy is a female as her genitalia are easy to spot and indentify her as female, but last night I had another look at Max and now I'm confused. The hole which should be her vagina seems a little further from her anus than before and I can't locate nipples along her belly. So now I'm starting to wonder if Max is actually a Male and that Paddy was fighting with her/him because she didn't want to mate due to the size difference. I guess that they are both Hybrids because they come from the store with no breeders certificates, but is it likely that a female will reject a male if he is the runt of the litter.
I should point out that Max is only 37g whilst Paddy is 53g and could be getting bigger. Max will run for hours on the saucer whilst Paddy is less active. Max is more wedge shaped, whilst Paddy is the Potato shape.
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