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An Alphabet of Hamster Facts (A)

Albino

There is no albino Syrian at present. The hamster normally seen on the show bench is a combination of dark-eared albino (c^dc^d) and cinnamon (pp) with the cinnamon diluting the dark ear colour of the dark-eared albino to flesh-coloured. It also removes the black pigment near the vent and in the eyes. Mating a dark-eared albino to a pale-eared albino will produce all dark-eared albino offspring. Mating a pale-eared albino to a cinnamon will produce all cinnamon offspring.

Producing a pale-eared albino from a dark-eared albino and a cinnamon is not simply a case of mating the two together. When a dark-eared albino and a cinnamon are crossed, the resultant offspring will all be golden, carrying dark-eared albino and cinnamon. Mating two of the golden offspring will produce the following proportions of young:

9 golden: 3 dark-eared albino: 3 cinnamon: 1 pale-eared albino

Genetically, the golden offspring are all C^dc^d Pp

Parental genes	CdP	Cdp	cdP	cdp
CdP	CdCdPP Golden	CdCdPp Golden	CdcdPP Golden	CdcdPp Golden
Cdp	CdCdPp Golden	CdCdpp Cinnamon	CdcdPp Golden	Cdcdpp Cinnamon
cdP	CdcdPP Golden	CdcdPp Golden	cdcdPP Dark-eared albino	cdcdPp Dark-eared albino
cdp	CdcdPp Golden	Cdcdpp Cinnamon	cdcdPp Dark-eared albino	cdcdpp Pale-eared albino

Anophthalmic White

Anophthalmic (or eyeless) white hamsters are produced when two white-bellied hamsters are crossed. The white-bellied gene, Wh, is an incomplete dominant and is expressed in the single dose (heterozygous) form as white belly fur on agouti-type colours, and produces a roan effect on most self colours. In the double dose (homozygous) form, the gene is fully expressed and approximately 25% of the offspring of a white-bellied to white-bellied mating are born with absent or vestigial eyes and are white in colour. These offspring will survive and if mated to a normal hamster will produce 100% white-bellied offspring. It is recommended that breeders avoid letting white-bellied hamsters enter the pet market, as novice breeders can (and do, I know from experience) mate white-bellied hamsters together and produce eyeless whites.

Antibiotics

A common antibiotic, penicillin, can prove toxic to hamsters and as some hamster keepers have found out to their cost, not all vets remember this fact when selecting appropriate antibiotic treatments. Some antibiotics are supplied under brand names and it may not be immediately obvious that they are penicillin-based. If in doubt, ask your vet to check.