Male or female? behaviour..

[PrehistoricGirl]

Hi

So I was at a market yesterday, where the Danish Hamster union (or however you translate it to eniglish), had a booth. They didn't sell hamsters at the market, but were there to provide information and guidance.

I had before buying Peanut researched about hamster care, but hadn't gotten to the bit about hybrids - and I don't like all the possible health issues he might have, therefore (among other reasons) I have decided that my next hamster, should come from a breeder and be purebred(?).

I want to get another hamster now, but as we live in a small apartment, I don't really have the room for another big cage. - but I will get my masters in a year, and will hopefully get a job and be able to buy a house.

So this time I want to make the best decision. At the market I talked to a breeder about the campbell and winterwhite, where she said that generally winter whites are more calm, whereas campbells are more curious, but ofcourse this does not apply to all the hamsters within the species.
Do you agree with this statement?


I think that a more calm hamster is for me, so I think I have decided on a winterwhite, I looked at the breeder webpage, where I could see that you can make reservations for future litters, and that so far 6 females have been reserved. but why females only? - Is this maybe due to behaviour? or what is the difference between getting a male or a female winterwhite, when it is only for a pet?

Sorry for my long post, I'm just trying to get as much information as possible before possible getting on a reservation list

[DrKMcK]

Hello PrehistoricGirl. I think there are calm hammies in every species, and nervy, hyper, hams in every species. You need to meet and handle a hammie to get a sense of how its personality is. There are no guarantees that just because a hammy is a WW that it will be calm and laid back. I also feel the same way about female/male hammies. Doing good research is always a good thing, so no apologies needed.

[Penguin]

As far as I know a lot of people have the misconception that males are smelly. At least that is what I have heard my local petstore tell costumers more than once (so incredibly odd). And for all I know this is NOT true.

Some people say that males tend to be more calm than girls. But generally I would say that depends on the ham (:

[PrehistoricGirl]

I see, so there is no general behavioral difference between campbells and Winter Whites? and neither between the sexes? I have a hybrid male at the moment and I don't think that he smells particularly bad, so if that is the only reason to pick a female, then I really wouldn't care which sex it is going to be - and then if males tend to be more calm, I would maybe even prefer that, also since no one is on the waiting list for a male

[cypher]

I agree that it's as much an individual thing as much as species or sex but having said that out of the four hybrids I've had the three males have been much more laid back & calmer than the one female, if any of them smells at all it's the female too!

[BluerayDarkes]

Generally I find male hamsters to be laid back and lazy, all my male syrians I used to have would curl up on my lap and sleep. Even our hybrid male Lunar is pretty lazy, often times refusing to get up, while female hybrid Cindy and our syrian Yummy are very active.

[PrehistoricGirl]

I will probably try and go for a winter white male then, and also be sure to check the personality before adopting it.