When is a Campbell not a Campbell?
Answer: When it's been crossed with a Winter White
I have been asked by several worried members of a hamster club to comment on the dwarfs at a show I attended recently. As the judge was a
trainee I was book stewarding which meant that I could see all the hamsters. I had been pre-warned that there were some odd-looking hamsters
coming up. When we came to the Winter White class I was even more surprised to find a Campbell's colour on a Winter White body and vice versa.
This is a scenario that until now myself and other judges hadn't come across. What do we do with them? My first thought was to disqualify them but
under the rules they weren't ill, didn't carry any contagion and weren't missing any bits. They just didn't conform to either standard so after
discussion with another eminent judge it was decided to reclassify them as non-standard.
This raises several serious questions. Firstly, these hamsters are being bred (I gather) for commercial sale to pet shops. I know that pet
shops are rather naive about dwarf hamsters and tend to lump all Russians, be they Campbell or Winter White, under one category. With the
introduction of larger pet stores and the demise of some of the smaller back street ones this may change, but for a member of a hamster club to be
doing this, a mistake once, yes maybe but to do it time and again and then show them is inexcusable. Secondly, think of the damage that could be
caused to the hamsters themselves.
With these points raised I started going back through articles and books looking up hybrids. Unfortunately, several books do mention this idea
as a way of expanding the breeds. It has certainly been done in dogs and rabbits as a way of producing a new breed of animal but it has only been
done with a group of like-minded people all working together for the good of the breed.
The Campbell and Winter White are similar species but are slightly different genetically. On the whole, they are from different areas of
Russia. In the wild they would eat slightly different foods and if they did meet would ignore each other.
Captive bred hamsters don't have that luxury. We choose the mates for them. Some of us don't care if they carry or suffer from diabetes, kidney
failure, glaucoma, cancer, missing limbs or ears. I could carry on but here we have a breeder who totally disregards the rules of breeding
hamsters and crosses species.
So, to go back to basics, the word ‘hybrid' describes a cross-breed, a mixture which means that they will carry the characteristics of both
parents. This is similar to a cross-breed dog rather than a mongrel. A cross-breed requires two different parents. A mongrel requires the two
crossbreeds mated again resulting in four or more different breeds. But (and this is a big but), it cannot be bred out. If you have a cross-breed
or a mongrel you will not, by selective breeding, come back to a pure bred animal.
Mating Winter White to Campbell can, and probably will, produce no end of problems. Firstly, any resulting offspring may be infertile which is
good to the extent that if they are, the problem stops there, but this has to be proven and there will always be the odd on that isn't infertile.
Problems may arise in the production of litters, especially if it is the Winter White that is producing because of the slightly wider head of
the Campbell. The Winter White birth canal is not geared up for the big-headed babies. Result - lost litter and lost mother.
Secondly, both species are flushing up health problems. The biggest is diabetes in Campbells and glaucoma in Winter Whites. Crossing the two
species will inevitably cross these two diseases.
So, now ask yourself the next question: what if these hamsters did carry on breeding and were then crossed with mottled, argente etc. How would
we know? How would we ever be able to trust dwarf breeders again that what you were getting was a true bred Campbell and not a hybrid?
I implore all dwarf breeders to stand together with regard to this. Please keep careful records of your stock and keep your lines pure. For the
NHC, BHA and all clubs it is time to take action to educate pet shops and to request that breeders, old and new, become better educated when
breeding these hamsters.
Back in the day a very good breeder friend of mine had an escape of a Winter White male soon followed by the escape of a Campbells female. The
female was found a few days later and popped back in her own tank. A couple of weeks later the female started looking a bit pear shaped. Knowing
the likely hood was she was pregnant by the other species the breeder put the hamster into the lounge. On the day she gave birth an awful terrible
sound was heard unlike any other. The breeder told me she would remember it for the rest of her days. It was the sound of a hamster in intense
pain and suffering and very, very haunting. She rushed the poor hamster to emergency vet who said the babies where stuck and the poor pregnant
hamster couldn't physically give birth to the babies as the skulls were too wide for her. He operated and removed the babies and the mum died on
the operating table and the babies shortly after as it proved impossible to hand rear them. The breeder then split the hamstery into 2 locations
and will never again keep even Campbells and Winter Whites together in the same room in case of a dual escape, they were so traumatized by the
event.
I have also spoken to breeders in Holland who openly breed hybrids who have echoed this experience and been scarred by the experience. First
generation hybrids are also often infertile. Only a rare one will actually breed, so you are unlikely to actually move on anywhere with any babies
you produce.
This page was last edited on
June 28, 2011
