Syrian Genes

Please feel free to contact me with questions regarding colors and genetics. An - is a wildcard. It's not known whether the dominant gene or the recessive gene is at that location. A ? means the gene has not been given an official letter designation yet. Genes are listed alphabetically and in order of dominance. You can see some of the colors by clicking on the color name. It's all pictures and will take time to load.

Snowy Desert Gerbils is putting together an online gene calculator. I'll post a link when it's up and running. Pedagogica Explorer is an excellent, free genetics teaching program.

	Click the coin to see how nature decides who gets which gene.

Because of the number of genes for a Syrian it is common practice to list only those genes that affect the color of the animal. A Syrian that has no mutations is listed as ++.

Banded Dom Spot Cinnamon - This is a lethal combination. During the development of the fetus, the part of the cells that produce color (melanin) also affect the development of the intestines. The hamster pup I have pictured died soon afterwards.

Agouti Colors are based on the wild (agouti) coloring of the hamster. The belly color runs from ivory to off-white. The hair shaft has two to three colors on it. There are cheek flashes and crescents on the head.

Agouti	Genetics
Golden (Wild)	++
Rust	bb
Dark Gray	dgdg
Light Gray¹	Lglg
Cinnamon^2;3	pp
Silver Gray	Sg-
Yellow⁴	ToTo or ToY
Beige	bb dgdg
Black Eyed Blonde	bb Lglg
Black Eyed Honey⁴	bb ToTo or bb ToY
Lilac	dgdg pp
Smoke Pearl⁴	dgdg ToTo or dgdg ToY
Blonde	Lglg pp or pp Sg-
Light Pearl⁴	Lglg ToTo or Lglg ToY
Honey⁴	pp ToTo or pp ToY
Silver Pearl⁴	Sg- ToTo or Sg- ToY
Lilac Pearl⁴	dgdg pp ToTo or dgdg pp ToY

Self Colored are the same color on the belly as the back. The hair shaft is one solid color. There are usually white faults of white paws and a white chin that sometimes extends to a zipper as far as the genitals.

Self Colored with Black	Genetics
Black⁵	aa
Chocolate Black	aa bb
Dingy Black	aa Lglg or aa Sg-
Dove	aa pp
Yellow Black⁴	aa ToTo or aa ToY
Champagne	aa bb pp
Silver Dove	aa pp Sg-
Honey Black⁴	aa pp ToTo or aa pp ToY

Self Colored with Black Eyed Cream	Genetics
Black Eyed Cream⁵	ee
Pale Eared Cream	bb ee
Black Eyed Ivory	ee dgdg or ee Lglg or ee Sgsg
Red Eyed Cream	ee pp
Black Eyed White	ee SgSg or ee Whwh or ee Dsds
Sable	ee U-
Chocolate Sable	bb ee U-
Gray Sable	dgdg ee U- or ee Lglg U- or ee Sg- U-
Red Eyed Ivory	ee Lglg pp or ee Sg- pp or ee dgdg pp
Mink	ee pp U-
Copper	bb ee pp U-
Blue Mink	dgdg ee pp U-

Other Self Colored	Genetics
Umbrous³	U-

Partial Albinism is responsible for siamese cats. The development of color is heat dependent so the five points have the darkest color: ears, nose, paws, tail and genitals. At this time there is no true albino. The FEW is often called the false albino.

Albinism³	Genetics
Dark Eared White⁶	c^dc^d P-
Pale Eared White⁶ (False Albino)	c^dc^d pp
Extreme Dilute Heterozygous	c^dc^e
Extreme Dilute	c^ec^e

Colors should be the same as for non-pattern colors. The genetics are the same except for the pattern genes.

White Patterns	Genetics
Banded³	Ba-
Dominant Spot¹	Dsds
Banded Dom Spot²	Ba- Dsds
Recessive Dapple	rdrd
Roan⁷	ee Whwh
White Belly^{7; 8}	E- Whwh
Anophthalmic White⁷	WhWh
Piebald¹¹	ss

Tortoiseshell is a gene linked to the X chromosome or X-Linked. As such a female XX can have non-yellow toto, Yellow ToTo or Tortoiseshell Toto. Tortoiseshell is a pattern of Yellow and non-Yellow colors. Where the non-Yellow is the base color is seen (like Golden or Black). Where the Yellow is the Yellow combination color is seen (like Yellow or Yellow Black). Tortoiseshell combined with either Dominant spot and/or Banded creates a Tri-color hamster. There is work being done to produce Tri-colors with the recessive dapple pattern. Mosaic is a variable sized patch of darker colored fur. It's random and not able to be reliably reproduced.

Other Patterns	Genetics
Tortoiseshell⁴	Toto
Mosaic	??

Coat types can be combined with any color. Satin darkens the color. Long Hair lightens the color.

Coat Types	Genetics
Short Hair³	L-
Hairless⁹	hrhr
Long Hair³	ll
Rex	rxrx
Satin^{3; 10}	Sa-

Homozygous form is lethal - fetus dies in utero and is absorbed by the mother without harm.
Banded Dom Spot Cinnamon has a problem with the lack of pigment in the intestine area during fetal development. This usually causes an early death.
There are three pairs of linked genes in Syrians. There can be recombination but at different ratios. The pairs are: Banded & Hair Length with a 9:1 ratio; Dark Eared White & Cinnamon 2:1; Umbrous & Satin 16:1. They are explained in detail on the Linked Genes page.
Yellow is linked to the female sex gene or X-Linked. This is explained in detail on the Linked Genes page.
Black Eyed Cream masks Black.
Dark Eared White masks all colors.
Homozygous form is an eyeless white.
White Belly is masked by all of the other White Pattern genes including the carried Recessive Dapple and by Dark Eared White gene.
Hairless mothers are unable to lactate enough to successfully raise litters.
Homozygous Satin has thin brittle hair.
Piebald is believed extinct.

This page was last edited on October 14, 2011


Wet Tail \| HaPV \| Solitary \| Cushing's Syndrome