advice please

[ilovemyhammies]

does anyone know of a website that will give a rough idea when mating the syrian parents to be, the colour expectations the babies would be?

when the girl hamster is nearly due to give birth, do you leave her in her own cage or move her to a different cage ?

what syrian colours should,nt be mated together, i know of white bellies and satin to satin, is there any others?

does anyone know any syrain breeders in lancashire?

[ilovemyhammies]

21 views and no advice

[internet_nobody]

If you only know the colours of the parents then it will be a fairly rough idea, a couple of good page about genetics are:
http://www.hometown.aol.com/theriverrd/genotyping.htm
http://www.soehamsterclub.com/hamgene.html
You shouldn't breed two patterned (dom spot, banded) together as that can mask the white belly gene (obviously if you have a pedigree and know they don't carry it then you're OK). Nor two roans, as roan is produced by the white belly gene.

You leave her in her own cage to give birth, minimising stress is important.

[Spuds Mum]

I think a lot of people are probably thinking exactly how to answer Ilove, you are asking a lot of in-depth questions there!

There is an excellent internet site talking about genetics at the river road
http://www.hometown.aol.com/theriverrd/genetics.htm

but it is not as simple as just reading the article to be honest - you also need to know all the different colours/patterns of hamsters to understand how the genetics relate.

Different breeders do different things with regard to moving pregnant Mums - it depends on the cage she is in before getting pregnant - is it still suitable for raising a litter etc.

There are lots of different hamsters I would not breed from, not just colourwise, I would take into account size, age, health, known history and temparement. All of these are important along with colour! It can make it very tricky.

Before even thinking about breeding therefore, its usually a good idea to investigate all the possibilities fully. This can involve talking to breeders, reading books and internet resources of course.

there are some useful articles on this forum, and also some stickies on breeding that may answer some of your questions.

You have some very good breeders in Lancashire - http://www.carringtonhamstercrew.co.uk are very helpful and Manchester based, and is a member of the forum, as is Nooboo who is also based around this area. Others include Yaffle too, and probably many more. I hope that helps.

[ilovemyhammies]

thanks guys
that was very informative, think im going to struggle with them letters referring to the genotype.
is there any other way i can determine what 2 parents will produce, colour wise without all them complicating letters?

[souffle]

Well you can post some pics of them here and we will try and help however if you do not have pedigrees for them we will be unable to tell if they carry any recessive genes which would affect the outcome of the litter colours. Post them anyway and we can give thoughts on it

[ilovemyhammies]

that would be great souffle.
i understand what you mean about pedigree,s as i bred guinea pigs for 5 years and showed them. there are cetain breeds in them you cant breed to other certains breeds.