Syrian Hamster Colors Genetics
This color is called golden.
Syrian hamster colors genetics. The syrian hamster has the greatest variety in colours basically because it has been bred for much longer than the other species and therefore there has been more time for mutations to occur. It is an unusual gene which is not simply either dominant or recessive. The main gene that fits this description in the syrian hamster is yellow to. Syrian hamsters can come in many different colors including gray black yellow red or a mixture of several different colors.
Some have been standardized by clubs for show purposes. On our instagram page i ve started a series of genetics posts that hopefully teach syrian hamster genetics in an way that is easily understood by everyone even without a background in genetics or biology. One popular color is brown syrian hamsters. Again for full descriptions and photos of colors coat types and patterns see the pet web site but here are a few guidelines to get you started.
Syrian hamsters are often seen in colors diverging from the usual gold as a result of accumulated years of breeding. Here i have listed a wide variety of the colours coats that are around today although it is not possible to list. How are genes passed from parents to hamster pups. The long hair gene is.
Syrian hamsters have 22 pairs of chromosomes and some of the genes within those chromosomes determine what the hamster will look like. Chromosomes exist in sister like pairs. The first step in discovering a hamster s genotype is to know its phenotype. Beige produced by breeding a two hamsters with the rust and dark gray genes the beige color variety is often the smallest and less robust of the litter.
If you have a syrian hamster that is blonde cinnamon lilac honey or fawn then these often have red eyes. It is an unusual gene which is not simply either dominant or recessive. But over the years a number of mutations appeared and now you can find a wide range of colours and coat types some being common and other rare. Some colors such as mink and copper have red eyes which tend to darken with age whilst some hamster s have odd eyes also known as heterochromia.
The golden hamster is the wild type of the species. The syrian hamster is commonly called golden hamster referring to the wild colour. However over the years many different colours coat lengths patterns and coat types have now developed due to mutations. The genes that determine that color were passed from generation to generation producing hamsters that were basically the same color golden.
In the wild syrian hamsters were basically all the same color. The ones mentioned below along with other non standard colors for this group are a result of genetic mutation.