Campbells dwarf hamsters with babies!

[bad-one]

Alright, so I never intended to get dwarf hamsters but thanks my one of my sister's friends I ended up with a 1.1 pair and today the fruit of their dirty lil labor was a litter! There are 8 healthy looking pinks - Mom is black, dad is agouti.

It seems every animal I touch has babies lol

[Rehannon]

Nice looking pair. I'm a hamster (especially Campbell's) freak myself.

Just an FYI, your female isn't black, but an umbrous agouti. They're really common in the US, surprisingly. I've got one. ^_^

Do you know much about keeping Campbell's moms and pups? If you're looking for more info, I strongly recommend hamsterfanaticforum.co.uk. It's the only hamster forum I've found where the members aren't raging idiots or total asshats.

I can also answer any questions from breeding to housing if you've got any as well.

[bad-one]

She's an umbrous? I thought she was and then I was told she was black with a dilute gene lol
So how does the umbrous gene work?


And I've done a lot of research on caring for Bitsy and her lil minions, I know enough to leave the young alone for the first 2 weeks, and I've been supplementing bitsy with hard boiled egg. So far, Bitsy is being a very good mom Thank you for the link, I'll definitely check it out

[Rehannon]

Here's my umbrous boy, Jai:



He's a bit lighter because he has both the umbrous (darkening) gene and the platinum (lightening) gene.

Now that I look at Bitsy on a different monitor, she could be dilute black. She's darker than I first saw. Umbrous is still more common, though. Actually, now that I think about it, an umbrous black and a dilute black would probably look very similar, since umbrous adds a dark gray wash to any color. All colors in Campbell's are pretty light, so the gray wash darkens them, but in black it would lighten it. I've never actually seen an umbrous black, though. There are also some "experts" that don't think "dilute black" exists as a gene, and it's just a poorly-colored black. Umbrous and dilute are both recessive genes; platinum is dominant lethal. Black is also recessive.

You will likely figure out her color for sure as time goes by, though. Black color silvers with age, so if she lightens she's dilute black, if not umbrous. Jai is 20 months old and has not lightened, therefore he's not dilute black. Also, platinum and dilute combined makes an all-white hamster. The coat color of the pups will help tell too. Is your male Bitsy's brother? If he is and they throw some agouti and some [brown] pups, it's most likely umbrous. If they throw agouti, [brown], and black pups, it's most likely dilute black. If he isn't her brother, then probability is very high that all pups will be all agouti, unless he carries black (but not dilute) and then you will get some nice black pups. Then there's the possibility that they both carry some random gene, and then you could end up with, like, an opal pup.

Either way, Bitsy is beautiful! I'm looking forward to updates to see what colors you end up with.

[bad-one]

I really have no clue about their backgrounds, all I know is that they come from two different Petsmarts (but both are in this area) so likely they come from the same supplier. I'll have to watch Bitsy to see if she has lightened, it seems like she has a little (but I've only had her for a little less than a month so its hard to tell). The majority of the dwarfs I've seen in petsmarts are Bitsy's color.

So far 7 of the 8 pups are left, I think she ate one on day 1 after I counted the first time. They have skin pigment now, it's hard to tell if they are all the same color yet. All black eyed though.

I'm so glad I took Twinkle out when I did, keep the lil bugger from catching her in post partum estrus!

[Rehannon]

As fun as it is to keep them together, it really is bad for the female to stay with the male. They breed freaking nonstop. I had a friend go from two to over fourty in just a couple months because he never split his "hamster city" so everyone bred with everyone.

Twinkle stands a good chance of accepting one of his sons as a cagemate if you'd like to give him one, though. Bitsy will also probably do well with one of her daughters, too. Heck, I know of a couple people that kept dad with all sons and mom with all daughters. Just remember the rule of thumb is that if squabbles lead to blood, they have to be separated.

The majority of the Campbell's in Petsmarts here are umbrous too. From what most of us can find out, just about all Petsmarts and Petcos in the US get their hamsters from the same mill, located in California. I'm assuming a large amount of the mill's breeding stock has or carries umbrous. If your pair came from different stores, then they're probably not siblings and only distantly related, which means your pups have a better shot at being good and healthy.

So what are you going to do with The Minions? Rehome, keep, feed, combo?

[bad-one]

Ewwwee hamster city >_<

When the babies are ready to be split by sexes I'm putting the males with dad and leaving the girls with mom. Both are pretty laid back and I'll be sure to introduce the males somewhere nuetral first.

I hope to rehome most if not all of these cute lil hammies. I'm busy enough with my rat colony and reptiles. I think my sister's friend will be taking the pair of adults home after the babies are weaned, so if he does I might pick one baby to raise and keep as my own dwarf hamster

[Rehannon]

Sounds good.

...this friend will be keeping Bitsy and Twinkle in separate cages, right?

[bad-one]

Well, I sure hope he does keep them seperate but if he takes them home all I can do is try to discourage him from doing anything stupid. I think I'll end up giving him one of the make shift plastic tubs I'm using as a cage so he doesn't just stick them back together.

At least I have some time before the babies are weaned so I've got time to cement the plans on whats going to happen

[bad-one]

Update photo of 6 out of 7 babies. It looks like there are 6 umbrous and 1 agouti to me.