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An introduction to the different varieties of Syrian
(Golden) Hamsters, Mesocricetus auratus
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This page lists all of the popular genetic varieties of the Syrian (Golden) hamster. A few of the known genes have been excluded where these have been discovered to have harmful effects.
Without going into the details of genetics, which I intend to address at a later date, the simple fact you need to remember when pairing hamsters together, or for working out what the results of a particular litter may be is that when a gene is recessive, you need two of them to produce that variety in a baby, and that when a gene is dominant, you only need one for it to be expressed in a baby.There can be one or two of each type of gene in any individual hamster. If both of a hamster's parents have a particular gene then it may inherit both genes of a particular type. If the parents themselves both have pairs of a particular type of gene then any offspring will be certain to have a pair of the genes.
Simply: recessive genes need to be in pairs to be expressed, (written using a lower case letter), dominant genes can come in pairs, but you only need one of them to have an effect (written using an upper case letter). Whether a particular gene is dominant or reccessive is given in the dominance column of the tables. Semi-dominant genes only need one of the pair to affect the animal's appearance (known as its phenotype), but unlike ordinary dominant gene an animal with two of the genes will look diferent to an animal with one of the genes.
Once you remember these rules, you can use the tables which follow to work out a genetic description of your hamster, as long as you know what type it is in the first place!
| Genetic symbol | Colour name | Dominance |
|---|---|---|
| a | black | R |
| b | rust | R |
| cd | dark-eyed albino | R |
| dg | dark grey | R |
| e | (cream) non-extension of eumalanin | R |
| Lg | (light grey) lethal grey | semi-D |
| p | (cinnamon) pink-eyed | R |
| ru | ruby-eyed | R |
| Sg | silver grey | D |
| To | yellow | semi-D |
A hamster may have any combination of these and the following coat genes.
| Genetic symbol | Coat name | Dominance |
|---|---|---|
| l | long-haired | R |
| rx | rex (curly hair & whiskers) | R |
| Sa | satin (shiny coat) | semi-D |
Equally, it may have some of the following, depending on whether it is a patterned animal or not.
| Genetic symbol | Colour name | Dominance |
|---|---|---|
| Ba | (white) banded | D |
| Ds | (white spots) Dominant spot | semi-D |
| Wh | (white bellied/mixture of white hairs with color) roan | semi-D |
| U | (sooty, ie black tips to fur) umbrous | D |
You can now write a basic genetic description of your hamster, even if you don't have a pedigree animal with details of parentage.
eg. hamster 1, 'Beauty' = black banded long-haired = aa Baba ll
ie, she is black, and since black is a recessive gene, she needs two doses to express the colour, so aa.
She is a banded animal, (that is, with a white band of fur encircling her midriff), so we know from looking at her that she has at least one dose of the dominant gene Ba. We know from her pedigree that she can only have this one dose, and therefore, to show that her _not_ having a second dose of Ba is true, we change the capital letter to a small one.
She is long-haired, so we know she has two doses of the long-haired gene, l, so ll.
Her basic genetic description is aaBaball.
Hamster 2, 'Moose' = sable-chocolate long-haired male = UUeebb ll
ie he is sable-chocolate coloured, which is a combination of the genes U, e, and b. The recessives must have two doses, while the dominant umbrous gene need only be present in one dose, but both of his parents gave him a dose, so we know he has two. He would look identical if he was Uueebb.
Again, he is long-haired, so he has two doses of l, so ll.
Many of the colour varieties are made from combinations of genes. Below is a list of them:
| Color name | Gene pattern |
|---|---|
| Beige | bbdgdg |
| Black eyed blonde | Lglgbb |
| Red eyed blonde | Lglgpp |
| Champagne | UUpp |
| Sable chocolate | UUeebb |
| True chocolate | aabb |
| Red eyed cream | eepp |
| Ruby eyed cream | eeruru |
| Copper | UUeebbpp |
| Dove | aapp |
| Cinnamon fawn | ppruru |
| Honey | ppTo (male) ppToTo (female) |
| Black eyed honey | bbTo (male) bbToTo (female) |
| Black eyed ivory | eeLglg |
| Red eyed ivory | eeLglgpp |
| Lilac | dgdgpp |
| Lilac pearl (Pink pearl) | dgdgppTo (male) dgdgppToTo (female) |
| Mink | UUeepp |
| Blue mink | UUeeppdgdg |
| Sable | UUee |
| Sable roan | UUeeWhwh |
| Smoke pearl | dgdgTo (male) dgdgToTo (female) |
| Black eyed white | eeDsdsBaba |
| Flesh eared white | cdcdpp |
We hope you have fun with these, and please do get back to us if we haven't made anything quite clear!
If you would like us to work out the genetic description of your hamster, you need to email Adrian at Radio Hams Hamstery with as much information as possible, including the following, if you can:
Do you have some of the above details of the parents?
Please note, we can have an informed guess at your hamster with an incomplete list of information, but it will probably be narrowed down to a couple of colour possibilities. If you don't know the name of the colour, then describe it as accurately as possible by comparing it to some common (even in England!, as we haven't the foggiest what a Twinky wrapper looks like!) household object, and we'll do our best!
Regards,
Rachel Cooper & Adrian
Dornford-Smith
Radio Hams Hamstery
Email Adrian