Thanks everyone, you're all very sweet. The pups are getting much bigger and we're learning their temperaments and seeing their type a bit better now. Phenotypes are still a little in the air until they're bigger, but I chose keepers last night and named everyone. I don't have all the photos up yet, these are my non-keepers.
When I select for keepers, I base my choices around these factors, in order:
- Temperament when handled. Do they react well to handling? I've never had a pup bite me, but you can absolutely tell when pups are more or less skittish. The two keepers I selected, one for myself and one for Hathor Hamstery, are both very laid back and easy going. They're still jumpy as most pups are, but the best choices.
- Type, specifically head shape. This young it's hard to assess the overall body, but I look for a broad head shape, with wide set ears. In North America, we have particularly bad type, so I've been working as hard as I can to bring in some nice type hamsters. Luckily Cordelia and Cashew both have lovely type.
- Size, though that can be trickier to assess. However, I won't knock a slightly smaller hamster with a nice temperament and type. I've actually done some size reduction on my lines because they got a bit too big.
- Colour & sex, though usually this doesn't matter in my litters, it does with this specific one. I wanted for sure extreme dilutes to perpetuate the lines. I also wanted to eliminate cinnamon best I could from my gene pool. Both keepers have a chance of being cinnamon carriers however.
Once all my photos are up, I'll share the rest of the pups.
