Amelie is the daughter of our hamsters Princess and Dubaku. We decided to keep two of the litter and wished to keep a sable roan and a sable. Amelie was one of 3 roan girls who were so similar we called them triplets. The other two girls went to fellow breeders.
As you can see, Amelie, the roan, looks very different to her sable sister. This is entirely due to the White Bellied gene, which turns a self coloured hamster (such as a sable) into a white hamster ticked through with colour. The colour is concentrated around the head area and should be evenly ticked over the rest of the body. This gene is a complex one and if two hamsters carrying it are mated, 25% of the litter would be born with no eyes.
She is also a satin-coated hamster. Her coat appears shinier than a normal coated hamster because the hairs in a satin coated hamster are hollow and therefore reflect the light. Again one should be careful about the gene that causes the satin coat. Two satin coated hamsters mated together would produce hamsters with very thin or even no fur!
Amelie is a real live-wire. She certainly has her Mum's hyperactivity rather than her Dad's lazy ways. At the moment her favourite activity appears to be hanging upside down from the top bars of her cage and swinging from one side to the other.
Currently Amelie is still sharing a cage with her sister Sabine, but will shortly be separated. Syrian hamsters are solitary creatures and prefer to llive away from other hamsters. Although Amelie currently gets on well with her sister, as they both mature fights could well break out.
Amelie is very friendly and loves attention. If I put my hand under her whilst she is upside down in her cage she will let herself drop into my hand before then climbing up me to come out for a cuddle. She is still quite small compared to her sable sister, but we have hopes that she will grow into a good strong girl!
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Type: Long Haired Satin Sable Roan
Sex: Female
Born: 04.11.07
Click the thumbnails below for full sized images
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Amelie playing guitar |
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A free range hamster egg |
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Amelie and Sabine enjoying millet together |
Amelie and Sabine together in a running ball |
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