Quote Originally Posted by Traceur View Post
Ah, I both read and heard it somewhere a long damn time ago. Hamsters have strange genes. It just runs in their species, like its part of their DNA. That's why it's common to hear hamsters getting tumors as they grow older. I personally go against breeding, but regardless of inbreeding or not, it's still in their DNA.
I think it's likely due to inbreeding, and there's multiple breeds, they aren't all the same. The original pet hamsters were Syrians, and yes, ALL the captive-bred
Syrian hamsters came from a single pair of them that were originally-captured from the wild...so it's inevitable for genetic problems to become established.
But I still suspect it's an over-statement to say "they all are predisposed to forming tumors" any more than all other aging mammals are. The only hamsters
that I worked with were Russian dwarfs...I really like them because they're more social (with each other).