Hamster Breeders in the UK.

[Shawn]

Hello everyone,



I am so happy that there is a web site that chats about my favourite pet. I am an avid hobbyist turned breeder of Golden hamsters in Trinidad West Indies, but see the need strengthen some of my blood lines (hamsters).



About 9 years ago I purchased a stock of golden hamsters form a UK breeder called "Wrights of Essexs" . I am having great difficulty in locating or acquiring any information about them. Has any one ever heard of this breeding farm?



Any information that can be given to me will be greatly appreciated.



Thanks in advance.



Shawn

[babyboos]

I have not heard anything particularly favourable about them to be honest. They are as you say a breeding farm of both hamsters and other pets. I believe they did supply a lot of pet shops in England, and still do, such as Pets at Home. There is nothing about them on the internet, I have looked in the past. They are also known as The Essex Breeding Centre.



Was it difficult to ship stock to the West Indies from UK? I know a couple of good breeders in Florida, who do sometimes ship if that would be of any help?

[Emma]

I have heard of the Essex Breeding Centre, only as a mass producer of pet stock though, like Babyboos said supplying Pets at Home etc. It's not a quality hobby/show breeder.

[Shawn]

Hey guys thanks for replying to my post,



babyboos and Emma both your posts were very helpful. To be honest The Essex Breeding center was referred to us by a family friend who resided in England and admittedly their quality was much better than the local stock we were exposed to.



To answer your question babyboos, it was not too difficult to bring the stock in from England, mainly because Enland was listed in Trinidad's veternary records as being rabies free. So the hamsters would not have to be quarantined, they would just have to be accompanied by an English vetenary record confirming their health.



Import duties were somewhat high but at least we got the hammies the same night, so they did not undergo much stress.



Once again thanks for your posts, if you have any suggestions of breeders i can consult , by all means let me know.. shawn

[babyboos]

Finding an airline who will transport hamsters now is very difficult, especially from UK. It is something I have looked into from Europe and even friends coming up to shows have been quoted crazy prices such as over one hundred and fifty pounds to fly from London to Edinburgh. You can turn up at the airport all ready to go and then it is still up to the pilot, if he says no you don't fly and they go in the cargor hold in specially designed metal lined wooden crates if they do get to fly. Your best idea would be to consider an American breeder or contact the large Hamster Clubs here in the UK direct. The Hamster Society (http://www.hamsoc.org.uk) have an email contact form on their website and may be able to pass you onto someone who can help.

[Skwee]

:evil: dont EVER use this breeder and i would more than happily let them shut down. :evil:



This is where we got several hamsters from (including Omlette and Dougal) without knowinig who they really were. We then had them DUMP 2 rats and 2 hamsters on us!! simply because the petshop couldnt keep them as they were too big for the cages and essex breeder wouldnt take them back. There are much better breeders in the UK. The best i have found is actually Towy Vale in Wales.



Is a shame, we managed to breed the most amazing golden male, by 5 weeks old the wee thing was as big as my hand! he was huge and had perfect markings.

[Pendragon]

I echo what has been said above and can add more.



A show-hamster breeder I know told me recently she once bought 3 hamsters from the above commercial breeder, to widen her gene pool. One male died suddenly at 3 months; one female proved to be sterile, and the other male died at 7 months.



My local pet shop, where I know the manager, has recently been forced (by upper management) to buy from this place so I gave her a warning. It was very interesting to see that there was a sable Roan hamster in the batch she was sent - which if bred (perhaps by accident, by an inexperienced pet keeper, or would-be breeder) to another hamster carrying the white-bellied gene, would produce babies with no eyes.



Even more interesting was that I'd spotted an identical Roan hamster on sale in the local PAH a few weeks earlier. This gene is not common and I wonder if PAH are getting them from the same place! Wherever they are coming from, I am very concerned that white-bellied gene hamsters should be for sale in pet shops.



Luckily, because I told her about this gene, the manager of my local pet shop made sure she told the buyer of the Roan not to breed from it under any circumstances, but of course PAH don't give advice like that when they sell their animals!

[babyboos]

They supply many branches Pets at Home exclusively now believe it or not by order of their higher management too. Pets at Home are no longer allowed to use local breeders which to me is such a huge step backwards. Essex Breeding Centre not only are breeding Roans for sale in the pet market, but they are also hybridising Campbells and Russian Winter White dwarf hamsters. They are releasing hundreds of semi-feral hamsters onto the pet market, most have never been touched by human hand in their lives before they get to the petstores. I struggle to comprehend why places like this are allowed to exist in this day and age.

[Skwee]

Im assuming they are more of a farm than a breeder then?



I just cant believe i fell sucker to them :? i live so far away!!! hours and hours... and i've known this petshop owner for ages and they were going on about how amazign this last lot of hamsters were and i have to admit, i saw them all and they all looked really good actually. I have heard so much bad stuff about them and had so much trouble with their attitude but i cant fault the hamsters i got :?



I mean.. Dougal.. had him checked over at London Championships and the judges (and Peter Logsdail) and they said for his age hes a pretty good size and very healthy plus i found out he was not a rubbish quality cream :oops: oops but a Blonde!!! and the judges were all impressed and very few of them had ever seen a Blonde :o



Unfortunately i couldnt keep him.. he wasnt a 'nice' hamster and he just refused to accept me and yet he adored little kids and so i sold him to a kid (old enough but a kid to me) their parents loved the hamster etc and i gave them lots of information and a cage etc but was sad loss.



Cant get any information on other hamsters i got from them so we are left with gorgeous hamsters with no backgroundand no way of knowing their colour.