Should I add him to the family?

[Ericalynn429]

I have 2 winter white female hamsters and am concidering breeding but not before i am 100% knowledged so i can be a better pet owner and so i can understand everything completly during the process.

I just moved in with my boyfriend and he has a male Russian Dwarf. Our hamsters look basically identical. I was wondering firstly if its possible for different breeds to mate and if so, is it a good idea? I know different breeds have different tendancys and protacols on what you should and shouldnt do during a pregnancy. As with winter whites, i know you would leave the male in the cage with them and also i belive that i would remove the other female from the cage when i decide to mate them correct?

A big concern i have is the worry that they will mate right after the babies are born and a cupple weeks later.. I have an abondance of hamsters lol. I want whats best so i dont want to over due it!!! I know the male is supposed to remail with mom and babies so how do i prevent them from mating during this time when they need him?


Anyother useful is greatly appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to help me out!

[Ericalynn429]

i was doing some more reserch....

are winter whites the same thing as a russian dwarf

because the extneded name for winter white said it was

winter white russian dwarf????

[Ericalynn429]

Wow what a POS forum

no replies in 3 days?

[TVR]

dont breed them unless you can guarentee they are 100% winter white.
Where did they come from? how old are the females?
Winter whites can be hard to introduce when they get to adulthood and if you accidentally breed them to a campbells you could kill the females as they wont be able to pass the babies (plus the babies will be hybrids and prone to all sorts of nasties such as diabetes and nerological issues)
Winter whites are a type of russian dwarf. their latin name is phodopus sungorus sungorus... two closely ralated species that occasionally get labelled as russian dwarfs are the campbells (phodopus sungorus campbelli) and the roborovski (phodopus roborovskii). Sungorus and campbelli can hybridise and this is where the problems start. To the unitiated they also look very very similar. dont breed dwarfs of any description unless you know what they are (i.e can trace back through family history right back to wild caught lines

Kat