What species is my hamster ?

[jleham]

I got Bella about 9 months ago. I've always seen her as a dwarf but i am aware that there are species under that. I narrowed that she is perhaps a winter white or campbell. Are those the same ? Here are pictures of her from Dec (around the winter) and another of her two weeks ago (summer).
As you can see her coat fur has completely changed, and now she's completely white. It's summer so i'm not quite sure why this is happening?

[Jeir]

She's a dwarf, and unless you got her from a breeder and have her pedigree, she's a hybrid. There are five hamster species commonly kept as a pet - Syrian, Chinese, Roborovski, Winter White, and Campbell's. Hybrids are a cross between Winter White and Campbell's - no matter where in the ancestry the cross occurred (i.e. if a 'Campbell's' hamster has just one Winter White ancestor, it is a hybrid, no matter how long ago those non-Campbell's genes were introduced into the line.)

Winter White and Campbell's hamsters are similar enough that they can breed and have viable offspring, but they are still separate species that would not naturally meet in the wild. Season-dependent colour change is a feature of WWs and some hybrids.

[cypher]

She is lovely but almost certainly a Russian hybrid, if you don't know & didn't get her from a breeder with a pedigree then you can be sure she won't be a pure bred WW or Campbells.

WW hamsters do change colour in winter but hybrids will often change colour as they age, sometimes you see the typical WW change with the shorter winter days but most often a hybrid will just change gradually over time & not change back to the original colour in summer as a pure WW would.