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Winter White Dwarf Hamsters

I recently got myself two little Winter White Dwarves on the 12th March 2005, one Normal and one Sapphire, both are females and were born in December and so are Three months old. Winterwhites are also known as Djungarian Hamsters and can also be referred to as a Siberian Hamster (this name is shared with the Russian Campbells), and are very similar to the Campbells. These two species can easily be mistaken and are so alike that they can be hybridised. This, as with any species can be devastating to a species and it could get to the point where you simply don't know what your hamster is, so care must be taken when breeding dwarves.

Winter Whites originate from Eastern Kazakhastan and South West Siberia, where is lives amongst the steppes. The Winter White is the least common the two, Campbells have been kept and bred for longer, and have more colour variations than that of the Winter White. Until recently the Winter White has just three mutations; Normal, Pearl and Sapphire. In January I heard of two new colours, apparently coming from pure WW lines, these new colours came from Sapphires, and produced Brown and Mushroom. In Europe there is also an orange WW, which too is claimed to be pure, there is still scepticism on their purity. For information click onto this article written by Lorraine Hill Hybrids.

The below information is taken from 'the petwebsite' written and owned by Lorraine Hill:

"The Dwarf Winter White Russian Hamster is more compact in shape than the Dwarf Campbells Russian Hamster and has more prominent eyes, a roman nose and a curved spine towards the rear giving it a bullet shaped body. Dwarf Winter White Russian Hamsters are approximately 8-10cm in length when full grown with males being larger than females. They have expandable cheekpouches. Russian Hamsters have furry feet and are sometimes referred to as the Furry or Hairy Footed Hamster.

The Dwarf Winter White Russian Hamster is so called because of its tendency to turn white in the winter. This is due to the shorter daylight hours and the hamster's coat may become lighter or have white patches or become almost completely white. Dwarf Winter White Russian Hamsters do not normally breed when in their winter white coat."

A more scientific over-view of the Winter White:

Order	Rodentia
Family	Cricetidae
Genus	Phodopus
Specie	sungorus
Size	10-12cm
Weight	20-28 grams
Toes front	4
Toes rear	5
Chromosomes	28
Gestation Period	18-21 days
Lifespan	1.5-2 years although up to 4 years has been known

 

My Winter Whites:

I decided to call my two Milwaukee and Nila, Milwaukee is known as Millie for short, and Nila is...well... called Nila. Millie is the Normal and Nila the Sapphire. So far both are quite friendly, and not scared of our hands, Millie is happy to come onto my hand whenever I place it in their temporary home, Nila will sniff at me but not usualy come onto my hands as such, but it is easy enough to pick her up should I wish to.

Although a lot of places say that Campbells and Winter whites can live in single sex pairs, I was advised by a Winter White breeder that they tend not to keep females in pairs as they can be quite aggressive, well as it turned out the day after Millie and Nila weren't sleeping in the same places, I later found out that Nila was attacking Millie and so took her out. They are now seperated into their own little houses. I'm not sure if they miss eachother, I can't imagine Millie misses being attacked and for most of the night she barely came out and explored her new home bless her. I didn't give her a wheel for a night or two to make sure she'd recovered and took her to the vet to make sure she would be ok. He advised that as the bites are only small, giving Baytril could actually do more harm than good ie weakening the immune system for no reason, as antibiotics kill invasive bacteria as well as our own natural body bacteria and white blood cells. I have bathed her wounds in salt water and everything seems to be fine, the only one I can see after a day is one on her leg which seems to be slightly swollen. Millie now has her wheel and is running around like mad, she's such a sweet little thing.

Nila

 

Millie