Illness has caused some cutting back...

For 6 month I’ve had some kind of illness that the doctors couldn’t identify.  Unfortunately this has caused me to be a some what neglectful toward my hamsters out of necessity. I have solicited some assistance finally as the work load was just too much. It is my hope that as I am slowly recovering my strength that I will be able to resume my studies and care for my hamsters again.

I’ve moved to a new house...

Don’t panic yet. I’ve just moved two blocks from my old location.  This was quite a trick but I’ve managed to get my hamsters into the house here. Well, actually into the garage.. :O)  I think it was a good move it gave me a good excuse to rethink some things which I shall post here soon.

Pure Argente and Opal lines achieved

It has taken just over a year, about 5 months month longer than I originally estimated. I had a few set backs along the way.. for instance my nephew decided to help pair up some hamsters while I was away on vacation.  His idea was to put them all together and let them work out what colors they wanted to mate with. ;o/

Finally I managed to get argente from the hydrox line to cross with a standard red eyed argente. the results are that the argente are the same gene.  I have argentes from the their first generation litter. So rats. They are still cute little animals..

I've had some interesting revelations about the genetic backgrounds of my two newer hamsters. Because any genes that are carried are by definition recessive, it will take at least two generations to discover what they are unless they have been declared by a breeder.  Well, the second generation of hamsters in Cubit and Patches' family have been born and this is what we now know.  Probably Cubit has carried Satin and Albino.  I can't be sure that one or the other of these genes is not carried by Patches instead of Cubit but I have a hunch that this is not the case.   I do not know that there aren't more genes hiding, but I will now attempt to isolate each of these genes. Pure colors are hard to find right now; but pure colors are important in genetics to determine the uniqueness and viably of new genes.

At this time I have pure Red Eyed Argente and pure Normal Campbell's lines. I'm currently working to get a pure Opal lines established.  Albino introduces a new challenge in that it masks any colors that are in the phenotype.     I have three Albinos in the current generation; I know for a fact that each of these three Albinos also are showing Opal though it is masked by the Albino gene.   There is a 25% chance that any of the Albinos are showing Argente which would also be masked; and then finally there is a 50/50 chance that any of these three Albino also carry Ruby Eyed Mottled which is dominant. You can see that trying to isolate the Albino could take generations of work.

It would be a simple matter to exclude the mottled gene in one generation by breeding the Albino to a normal.  Mottled would show in their offspring in one generation because of it's dominance.   So then, inbreeding the normal offspring, I should then get a 50% chance to get Albino or Opal in the phenotype of any hamster in the subsequent generation but unfortunately this would still not yet be pure. 

I’d still have to contend with the Argente, the Opal, and the possible Satin and who knows what else. Eventually to get a pure line you’ll need a male and female with only one color gene mutation, so I know that there will be an extra generation breeded to a normal to get pure normals carrying Albino.  That’s two generations and at least 5 months without even really doing any of the meaty work. I expect it will take a good 4 to 7 generations. to be sure I’ve gotten all the other genes out.

I’ve been very lucky in breeding until now and I’ve been able to have my pure normal and Argente lines without too much effort or waiting; I guess it’s about time I did some real work.