Mushroom and Mandarin Winter Whites

[Emma]

I popped into the Cheltenham SHC show on my way home yesterday, and was chatting to a breeder who had bought along some new colours of winter whites she had. The Mushrooms (coloured like mushrooms!) had appeared in some Sapphires she had, it seems to perhaps be a diluting gene but not quite sure how it works yet. The gene also gives a Brown colour when put with the normal WW - not like Pearl.



The other colour she had was Mandarin, which she obtained from a Dutch breeder (it sounded like they might have been bought over illegaly without quarantining or licences, but I didn't delve too deeply there). The Mandarins are a gorgeous yellow colour. Having done some Googling when I got home Mandarins seem to be quite widespread in Singapore, if you go to this Singapore hobby breeder's site http://h4hamster.sgpets.org/hamster_faq_species.htm and look at "colours and patterns available" under WWs, they have Mandarins there, also known as Puddings. The Mandarins I met really were gorgeous, I wish I'd had a camera.



All very interesting! I wish I was able to breed hamsters already - bring on graduation!



Edit to add: here's some more pictures from another Singapore breeder of Mandarins and Mandarin Pearls http://www.geocities.com/zerlings/new.html