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I used the zoom on our digital camera to get some great shots of both Princess being a good Mum and the newborn pups without disturbing them at all. She appeared to have no problems at all giving birth.
When placing food in her cage, Princess left her brood to come and talk to us and we quickly took some more shots of the litter, whilst I quietly told her what a clever girl she had been and how proud I was of her.
When we examined the photos later, we were terribly concerned that whilst we could see the dark eyes clearly on some of the hamsters, on others they were not so clear. As Princess is a Roan, she carries the ‘White Bellied Gene’ and genetically is Whwh. So all of her babies will inherit from her either Wh or wh. Were the Wh hamsters to inherit another Wh gene from their father, they would be ‘anopthalmic white’. This would mean that they would have very small or no eyes and be pure white. These hamsters are apparently also deaf and have a shorter lifespan of 6 months to a year. As Dad is Spud, a mink self coloured hamster (whwh) this should not be possible (only by mating her to another Roan or a ‘White Bellied’ hamster should this happen), but we still spent the night worrying about it. If it does turn out that this has happened however, of course we would keep those hamsters and give them a caring home.
We are hoping that we are just being ‘overprotective grandparents’ and that the whole litter will be fine.
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Mother fast asleep |
Pups in nest |
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Hamster pups in nest |
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