Hoping to become a breeder/shower of Syrians West Mids UK

[JayneAlison]

Hi all, I live in the West Midlands and I am planning to begin showing/breeding Syrians.
I intend joining my regional club, and hopefully someone will be able to help me to get some nice quality hamsters to get me started.
I have kept hamsters on and off since my teenage years and have previously raised a pet litter, but this will be my first foray into showing.
Nice to meet you all, any advice/information/suggestions welcome :)

[Fluffagrams]

Hi all, I live in the West Midlands and I am planning to begin showing/breeding Syrians.
I intend joining my regional club, and hopefully someone will be able to help me to get some nice quality hamsters to get me started.
I have kept hamsters on and off since my teenage years and have previously raised a pet litter, but this will be my first foray into showing.
Nice to meet you all, any advice/information/suggestions welcome :)

Hi there and welcome,

The best advice that I have is to come along to a show to see what it is all about. It's also a great opportunity to talk to some of the other breeder/exhibitors to get to know them and to get some tips on where to start in breeding hamsters that are to the show standards. Although you'll find nice hamsters with pedigrees from the sales table at shows, it is better to speak to a breeder directly as you'll have a better chance of getting the most suitable hamsters for breeding and showing. You may have to go on a waiting list but believe me, the wait is worth it!

When you join the club you will receive the NHC Handbook which explains all about the Codes of Conduct that we are expected to follow in relation to the care of mothers and pups and also the show standards, which is what you'll be aiming to breed towards. Have a look at this and when you're at shows have a look at the hamsters on the bench to see if you can see what some of these criteria look like in person. I also found that it is helpful to steward at shows so that you are able to see close-up what the standards look like and are able to hear directly from the judge the kind of things they'll be looking at.

Your local club will be the Midland Hamster Club and their first show for 2018 is in a couple of weeks in Willington, Derbyshire. There's no show schedule available yet but these will appear on both the Midland Hamster Club's website and the National Hamster Council's website as well as the event page on Facebook.

Here are some links you might find handy:

Midland Hamster Club: Midland Hamster Club – Affiliated to the National Hamster Council (http://www.midlandhamsterclub.co.uk/)
National Hamster Council: https://hamsters-uk.org

[JayneAlison]

Thanks for your reply.
I have joined the Midlands club and will be going to the show in Derby.
Will you be at the show?
Hopefully I'll soon be on my way to showing my own hamsters, can't wait :)