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Syrian Colours Part 4 (Coat Types)

*Note from TheOnePet: Sorry for the delay as TheOnePet was on holiday for two weeks.

 

Alas the last part for “What colours to choose”? Though there ain’t much ‘colour’ in coat typings, but it will affect your decision when you are selecting your hammies. Some of the coat types will actually change your view from hamster to hamster. Maybe some of the colours don’t suit this kind of coat type? Well it’s for you to decide.

Note:

Pictures are credited to original work of owners.

Most descriptions are standards according to Midland Hamster Clubs.

A comparison will be made for short haired male/female and long haired male/female to show the difference.

 

Coat Type: Short Haired

Genotype: LL/Ll

Phenotype: The fur is soft and very dense

Remarks: Wild type coat. The first picture shows a short haired male. The second picture shows a short haired female.

 

Coat Type: Long Haired

Genotype: ll

Phenotype:

1. The colour and markings shall conform to the recognised colour standard, allowing for the dilution effect of the long-haired gene; this is particularly noticeable on the ticking of agouti varieties, but will also affect other varieties.

2. The fur shall be soft, very dense, and evenly long over the entire top surface of the body, excluding the face, where it shall be shorter. The coat shall be as long and dense as possible i.e. males must have longer fur than females.

Remarks: This coat type may be combined with satin and/or rex. The first picture shows a long haired male with obvious long hair protruding from various part of the hamster, noticeably at the rear. The second picture shows a long haired female with less obvious long hair protruding at the rear. To detect long haired females, one must give extra attention to any form of long hair streaks as some LH females do not have obvious long hair.

Coat Type: Rex

Genotype: rxrx

Phenotype: 1.    The colour and markings shall conform to the recognised colour standard, for diluting effect of the rex gene; this is particularly noticeable on the ticking of agouti varieties, but will also affect other varieties.

2.    The coat shall be soft and dense, and evenly “frizzy”.

3.    The whiskers shall be curly.

Remarks: This coat type may be combined with satin and/or long hair. Rex x Rex matings should be avoided since the fur and eye lashes would curl so much. It could lead to eye irritation and disorientation due to strongly curled whiskers.

 

 

Coat Type: Satin

Genotype: Sasa

Phenotype: Glossy fur coat

Remarks: This coat type may be combined with long hair and/or rex. Also note that 2 Satin pairs should mate together, “double satinisation” will occur, leading to balding patches and greased oiled looking hamster. This should be avoided by mating satin to a non-satin. Also known to be incomplete dominant.

 

 

Coat Type: Hairless

Genotype: hrhr

Phenotype: No hair found, exception of a tiny amount of sparse hair found on some, usually on legs and tail.

 

Remarks:  Female hairless cannot mate as it cannot produce milk for the babies. Only hairless male can mate. May have other health complications. Extremely rare. Note that irresponsible breeding of hairless hamsters will result in a ‘outbreak’ of the hairless hamster which is undesirable.

 

That is the end of the ‘What colour to choose?’ series! But wait that’s not the end yet! As you may have notice there are quite a lot of terms used that may still seemed alien to you… say genotype or dominance. Now that the different colours had capture your attention, next week I will go into basic genetics so that you can truly understand some of the terms and why some colour and patterns can exist together. Stay tune ;D

 

PS: any queries please feel free to drop a mail at addeva@theonepet.com