[lykame]

Well hello everyone,

I'm not sure anyone will remember me, but my name is Lydia and I was on here a few years ago with my much beloved Winter White Russian Hamster, Artie.

I just don't know how to not write essays, so I'm going to split this up into three sections:
1. What happened with Artie? - it's a bit graphic, please don't read if you don't like sad/slightly graphic things.
2. My new hamster!
3. Questions about my new hamster's colour.

1. What happened with Artie? - again beware it's a bit sad/slightly graphic; skip to the next section if you're concerned this would upset you.

Artie did amazingly, and lived until he was three. Then, sadly, I had to have him put to sleep. It was gutting and I didn't really feel I could even make a post to talk about it. I've just been reading through some of my old posts and it's sad. I loved that little guy so much. I know he had the best possible life and I was lucky to have him; he became so tame and was just such a lovely hamster. And actually he was very well for the majority of his life, which I was very pleased about.

He developed an eye infection when he was at least two and a half, if not older, and although I did not enjoy administering the course of antibiotics to him (it made me feel like I was betraying him), needs must, and it got better.

That Christmas however, he developed another eye infection, and I took him to a vet on Boxing day and started him on another course of antibiotics. I was suspicious though that it was something more sinister as his eye seemed to be slightly pushed out compared to the other. Despite treating him with antibiotics he became more unwell, and developed ataxia. I knew that meant he had some sort of horrible central issue like a tumour or meningitis or something, and I could tell he was in a lot of distress. The vet suggested I could continue the treatment for longer, but I absolutely knew that he wasn't going to get better. He had lost a lot of weight, he was getting worse whilst on treatment, and it wasn't right. I had him put to sleep. It was the right thing to do but losing him was emotionally painful. You know they're going to live only a short period of time but you do become very attached and he gave me great joy.

2. My New Hamster!

So moving away from that pain on to more positive stuff - finally, after a few years of just having his stuff in the garage and not being ready to emotionally invest again, I decided to get a new hamster. I've spent a few months gearing up to it, and finally bit the bullet and have a new hamster - another Russian Dwarf!

So my little guy is still young. I've seen his underside once and I'm relatively sure he's a boy but I will double check in a few days once I start to actually handle him. I did ask for a boy but if he turns out to be a girl that's no problem. You might be able to guess I got him from P@H - I have lots of very mixed feelings about that place (mostly on the negative, although in my local one they do seem to care somewhat) and can't figure out whether I'm rescuing hamsters by buying from there or perpetuating the problem - probably a mixture of both.

He's unnamed! With Artie I did not post on here until I had figured out his name, and it took me like three days to figure it out if not more. But I just couldn't resist so I'm introducing him before he has a name. It'll come to me. Hopefully.

I brought him home yesterday and I'm going to leave him for a good few days before doing anything. With Artie I had absolutely great success with Silver's hamster food so I've ordered that and will wean him off his current rubbish food onto her wonderful food. He'll get a nice range of additional foods to complete his diet.

This website - and more importantly, the wealth of knowledge that you guys have - was just a godsend when I got Artie, and it's so much easier this time around knowing how I want to do everything. I've got him in a small cage currently (the mini duna I seem to remember it's called) and I'll let him settle in that for a while. It has a silent spinner in it and new water bottles and everything. If that set-up seems like it's getting too small (Artie made it very clear to me after a while that it was too small) I will do what I did the last time and put the mini duna into the zoozone2 using ramps. Probably I will do that anyway but these are all big changes for this little fellow so I want to do it all slowly.

I got on really well with Aubiose the last time, so I will continue to use that. The only annoying thing about it is storing it as it comes in such large bags.

3. Questions about his colour.

So my little guy is a Campbell (well a hybrid, but you know what I mean). I cannot figure out his colour, which is in part why he appealed to me in the first place. He is a really unusual colour: he has very red eyes, and he's mottled with white on his belly and scallops on his sides. His dorsal stripe looks grey. In the shop under bright light he looked very pale grey, but there was some sort of interesting hue to the grey in the lilac spectrum perhaps. I wondered initially if he were a red-eyed lilac, but he's not a 'self' colour and I think you can only be a red-eyed lilac if you're a 'self' colour? Correct me if I'm wrong. Also he's probably a bit too pale to be lilac, although there is something slightly lilac-ey about his fur.

In less bright light his grey is somewhere more pink-ish/blue-ish although maybe less 'blue' and more pink. Or dove like. But he's not dark enough to be a dove I don't think. And he's not a Champagne either I don't believe, especially as I know they're hard to breed so I'm not sure a breeder would pass one of those on anyway.

My current thought is that I wonder if he's a blue fawn as they can be mottled and have red eyes. In certain lights there's something blue about him. Having said that when photographed there's something more brown about him, which I'm not really seeing so obviously with my eyes. Maybe it's ginger? But he doesn't have a rim of ginger along the scalloped edges like most pictures of blue fawns seem to have. Although perhaps there is an undertone of brown in him. Or maybe that's the pinkish colour. It seems to depend on the light! I'm so confused.

I have attached three pictures below to obviously show him off - isn't he gorgeous? I can't believe how small he currently is, and I love his eyes, although I would never have said I would like a hamster with red eyes! But also to please get an opinion about his colouring. These are pictures that I have taken using chance as I'm not interacting with him at all currently apart from speaking to him.

There's three pictures - one of him in bright light, which seems to most accurately reflect his colour, and then two from less bright light. None of them are great quality, sorry. It may be impossible to tell what colour he is from them, and there's something more 'brown' (or ginger?) about the pictures than how he is in real life. If you have any idea please enlighten me as his colouring is driving me nuts and I want to use his colouring to help me name him. Although I have enjoyed learning about Campbell genetics whilst trying to figure out his colour!

Thanks so much! - and well done if you made it this far down!

Love, Lydia, and an unnamed little guy.
And Artie - seriously missed.