Random colour out of dark grey line

[Thames Valley Rodents]

... and Kat's stumped!

Ok... her parents are both very nice yellows there is cinnamon and dark grey in the line both sides as well as black on the males side.
There is no Umbrous genes present anywhere.
So why have we produced something that looks like this:




Now before you all start crying "its a mink you lemon!" it's very much not...
Remember the lack of umbrous influence, no cream in the line (or ghost yellows that could have once upon a time been spoiled by Cream)
The animal doesnt have a pale under coat, no eye rings to speak of and it has ticking... now she's only a baby so the ticking isn't heavy yet but it's definatly getting darker by the day.
the eyes are claret red so there's clearly some cinnamon in the somewhere. Given the ticking I'd hazard a guess that there is definately some dark grey in the too...

Here is a picture of one of her yellow sisters for comparison (and to show off)


So what could she be?
There are lilacs, smoke pearls and DG's in the line so there's quite a large dark grey influence. I know my genetics as well as the next person but neither myself or Gemma have ever seen anything like this hamster.
Any ideas?

Kat

[Emma1978]

very pretty whatever she is!

[arikata]

Originally Posted by Emma1978

very pretty whatever she is!

Took the words right out of my mouth!

[souffle]

Could she be some sort of cinnamon tort? Maybe very little tort showing? Not sure about the feasibility of this though Or the ticking for that matter. She looks like a cinnamon yellow!!

[Bourne Valley Hams]

Is there any undercolour at all or is the hair the same colour to the root (apart from ticking)?
It is saying honey black (also known as melanistic honey) to me, especially if the ticking is becoming more pronounced.
Here is a honey black of mine for comparison:

Her parents were yellow and gold tort - but the cinny must have been hiding there somewhere!

[Emma1978]

Originally Posted by Bourne Valley Hams

Is there any undercolour at all or is the hair the same colour to the root (apart from ticking)?
It is saying honey black (also known as melanistic honey) to me, especially if the ticking is becoming more pronounced.
Here is a honey black of mine for comparison:

Her parents were yellow and gold tort - but the cinny must have been hiding there somewhere!

yeah I thought of that eventually!, knew she looked vaguely familiar and I used to have Honey Black babies in nearly every litter a few years ago when had my dynasty of Dove Tortoiseshell girls but they looked a bit different being Longhaired anyway...

[Moosley]

Well, initially me and Gem assumed honey black as it was the obvious response but her fur is the same colour to the roots... no undercoat, just that mysterious ticking. The pics don't quite show her colour (they never do though, do they?)

She is very definatly not a very tort cinnie tort, I've bred torts before that were more yellow than colour (the wierdest of which was a satin dove tort that only had a dove head!) and this lass is nothing like them.

Think of her as being exactly the colour as a caramel mink only with out the base coat or the eye rings and with random ticking, and vague cheek flashes. (to be fair the flashes only show under the right lighting and in photos).

I really am stumped on this one, she's a bit of a random. I'd say "oh she's a mongrel" but in my opinion there is no such thing in hamster terms. It's either a straight colour or a patterned, umbrous or rubbish example of something that already exists...

We'll take her to the London champs this year if we can go just to see if any one can place what she is.

Kat

[ami_j]

did you ever find out what she is?