Rabbits N'Rodents
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Colours
Agouti vs Self
An ''agouti'' is simply the term used to describe a hamster with the markings of the wild hamster, as you can see in the picture to the left. This is a golden hamster, but other agouti colours include cinnamon, rust, lilac and silver grey. Whereas a ''self'' is a hamster without these markings, ie black, sable and cream.
Agouti Colours
Golden (++ wild colour)
Probably the most common colour around, and in my opinion the most attractive. The golden hamster comes in two shades, light and dark golden. The hamster shown is a dark golden, which appears paler in the picture due to the flash. It should appear to be a deeper golden red heavily ticked with black guard hairs over the back and around the eyes. The cheekflashes should be black and the crescents should be white. The light golden is less popular and much rarer.
The goldens found in petshops usually are a shade between light and dark due to poor breeding that dilutes the deep colour of the dark golden, and often there is little to no ticking and the black on the top of the head is usually faded also.
Beige (dgdgbb)
A very rare colour, but attractive, and certainly not a colour you would find anywhere other than a breeder, if you are lucky. Instead of black cheekflashes like goldens, they have dark beige ones and a brownish topcoat.
Blonde (Lglg)
A pale coloured animal, with red eyes and as expected a blonde/creamy coat with pale grey cheek flashes.
Cinnamon (pp)
Cinnamon is not very unlike the golden and rust. They have an orangy base colour and the most obvious difference is the beautiful red eyes.
Dark Grey (dgdg)
A very striking colour, with a dark slate grey top coat, and contrasting jet black cheek flashes and ideally, heavy, even black ticking. The eyes are black, ears are dark grey. It is also important to note, that this colour is 'delicate' due to its proneness to 'kinked tails', which is when the tail bones do not lie straight, in severe cases it is noticeable without feeling the tail. Although unproven, breeding kinked tails may cause severe spinal injuries, so please, never breed any animal with a kinked tail. It can happen in other colours, but partially dark greys and dark grey derived colours, ie lilac.
Also, as dark grey was first discovered in a litter of heavily inbred rusts it is not a very robust colour, so not recommended for the novice breeder. Dark greys benefit from being bred back to a strong colour, ie golden every couple of generations. The resulting litter should contain dark goldens with improved ticking and all will carry the dark grey gene.
Light Grey (Lglg)
Light grey is becoming an increasingly rarer colour as many favor the dark grey or silver grey. It isn't as dark as the dark grey, nor is it as 'bright' as the silver grey.
Lilac (dgdgpp)
Not a common colour, at least in petstores, and is derived from crossing a dark grey (dgdg) and rust (bb). It should have a 'pinkish' tone, hence the name, but some lines are more brown than the pinkish.
Rust (bb)
The rust is another attractive colour, but much rarer, and differs from the golden in that it is more orangey and has brown cheekflashes.
Silver Grey (SgSg/Sgsg)
This is another favourite colour of mine, the silver grey. They come in two shades depending on their genetic make-up, if they are genetically SgSg they are much more 'chinchilla coloured', if however they are Sgsg they have what is described as 'buttermilk' patches which from this picture you can see faintly on the nose. So far the Sgsg is not a recognised colour in showing.
Yellow (Toto/ToY)
A good example is hard to come by in the US, with many resembling the colour of a cream more than an agouti animal probably because the yellow line was crossed with creams, which tends to 'mask' other colours. It should be a distinct yellow colour with the original agouti markings and ticking. The cheekflashes are brown/black.
Yellow is also the sex-linked gene as males are To(Y), and females are ToTo, with Toto giving tortoiseshells, which are a very popular colour, particularly in the striking black combination. The majority of tortoiseshell hamsters are females, with a tortoiseshell male being almost unheard off, and always, or so it would seem, infertile!
Self Colours
Black (aa)
One of the most widely available colours in the USA and Canada and often sold as 'black bears' for more money. Despite the myths 'black bears' cannot live with another hamster and nor are they any tamer than other hamsters, because they are just syrian hamsters. Some line of black hamsters have been selectively breed for tameness, but again doesn't guarantee a tame hamster. Blacks should ideally be jet black with no white patches according to the BHA show standards. However blacks tend to 'brown-off' with age.
Chocolate (aabb)
Chocolate is exactly as you'd expect, a dark brown hamster with black eyes, but sables are more common.
Black Eyed Cream (ee)
A popular colour and sometimes mislabelled in the USA and Canada as a separate breed all together from the Syrian ie 'honeybear'. The colour can vary from very pale to very dark cream and if crossed with the satin gene can look much darker than a 'normal' cream. Usually as babies they are paler than when they are full grown and tend to go 'patchy' with age (over 6 months).
Can be combined with other colours to give many mutations ie Sable and red eyed cream.
Red Eyed Cream (eepp)
Paler than the black eyed cream, the red eyed cream has beautiful red eyes due to the presence of the cinnamon (pp) gene.
Dove (aapp)
The dove is a mousey brown/grey colour, although it can vary as to date there is no show standard, with red eyes, relatively common in petshops.
The dove is a combination of black and cinnamon, hence the red eyes.
Ivory-Black eyed (dgdgee/Lglgee)
An off-white hamster with black eyes and dark ears.
Ivory-Red eyed (dgdgeepp/Lglgeepp)
Similar to that of the black eyed ivory, but with red eyes.
Mink (eeppU_)
Minks have a faded ginger coat with lovely red eyes. This hamster is bascially a red eyed cream with a darker coat due to the addition of the Umbrous gene (Uu/UU).
Sable (eeU_)
The sables seen in petstores are often a chocolately colour or sometimes a greyish colour, but ideally should be dark brown, almost black whilst young, before 'browning off'. They have cream eye rings, which reveal that they are really just black eyed creams with a darker coat due to the umbrous gene. If you are breeding sables, seek out a reputable breeder who has nice dark sables.
White
There are many variations- Dark eared (cdcd) which has black eyes, flesh eared white (cdcdpp) with red eyes and black eyed white (SgSgee) with flesh coloured ears.
Patterns
Banded (Baba/BaBa)
A banded hamster simply has white hair around their middle, as you can see from the picture to the left. Most common are golden, black, cream and sable banded, but it can occur in any colour mutation.
Dominant Spot (Dsds)
Sometimes black dominate spots are referred to as 'dalmations' as they are have white patches all over their body. The amount of white depends on the individual, but they all have a white belly. It is important to note that because of their white belly they can carry the white bellied/roan gene, and for this reason, never breed two dominant spots together as there is a risk of producing eyeless whites as mentioned in the roan section, below. Also, by breeding two dominant spots together, there will be a smaller litter, as 1/4 of the litter will get a double dose of the Ds gene, and all DsDs animals die in the womb as it is a lethal gene.
Roan (Whwh)
Roan shows up differently for agouti and self coloured animals. In agoutis it shows up as a white belly, but in selfs, it is when the coat is heavily ticked with white hairs. However, a double dose of this gene is deadly, as if two roans/whitebellies are bred together, approximately 1 in every 4 pups will be eyeless whites, who are weaker animals and often die very young and have no quality of life, so it is VITAL not to breed two animals carrying this gene, and hence highlights the importance of only breeding pedigree stock from reputable breeders so as you know their geneotypes! Breeding any two hamsters could result in this diaster as in some animals it is very hard to tell if they are carrying this gene.
Tortoiseshell (Toto)
A hamster with two colours in their coat, the base colour and yellow patches. The shade of yellow is not the same for all tortoiseshells as it is determined by the base colour. The most common is the black tortoiseshell. As this is a sex linked gene, all tortoiseshells are female, although occasionally a male tortoiseshell is born, but is as far as I know, always infertile.
Tortoiseshell and White (TotoDsds/TotoBa_)
A tortoiseshell hamster with the addition of white either from the dominate spot gene, or banded gene. A very striking hamster, partially black tortoiseshells as you can see in the picture to the left. As mentioned above, tortoiseshell only occurs in females.
Coat Types
Shorthaired (L_)
The coat is short, straight and smooth and is the natural coat type of the wild hamster.
Longhaired (ll)
Only males have a noticeably long coat, whereas females have tufts usually behind the ears, at the scent glands (hips) and a few tufts around their bottom. Males can have longhair all over apart from the face or just down their sides and around their bottom. The hair is usually 3cm-5cm in length and may become shorter in warmer weather or when elderly.
Rex (rxrx) The hamster has a short wavy coat, most noticeable in longhaired males. The most distinguishing feature of the rex is the curly whiskers.
Satin (Sasa)
The coat has an extra shiny appearance, and is finer than a normal coat. However a double dose of the satin gene (SaSa) can cause the fur to become extra fine and may therefore cause bald patches, never mate two satin syrians together!