Colour and Coat Varieties
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Black-Eyed Cream
The Cream hamster is among the oldest and most popular varieties. A good example should be a rich, deep apricot colour, reflecting the intensity of the orange-yellow phaeomelanin pigment in the hairs. It lacks the agouti markings of the Golden i.e. the dark cheek flashes and crescents, but it retains dark pigment in the eyes, ears, hip spots and perineal area. It is a robust variety, and generally of good temper. The first description of Cream in the scientific literature dates to 1954, from the American Society of Zoologists, however, the author (Hulda Magalhaes, Bucknell University) credits Mrs Jean Cook F.Z.S. of Glenside, Surrey, England for supply of the specimen. Also, in a later description, the late Roy Robinson credits the discovery of Cream to a fancier from Leeds in 1951. If anyone has more information on the origins of the Cream, please get in touch! In genetic terms, the gene for Cream is inherited as a recessive, symbolised 'e' (for non-extension of eumelanism). A Cream therefore has the genotype 'ee'. Black pigment (eumelanin) is completely absent from the hairs, and it is likely that there is some dilution of the yellow pigment also, although this is difficult to demonstrate. The ears may have a 'marbled' appearance in the young animal, but gradually darken with age. Fertility and longevity are normal. Combination of Cream with other colour genes can produce a large number of individual varieties, and there are BHA Standards for some of these.
Red-Eyed Cream (eepp)In combination with Cinnamon, the black pigment of the ears is diluted to a peach grey, whilst the eye colour becomes claret red. Pale-eared Cream (eebb)Cream and Rust produce a Cream hamster with black eyes and grey ears. (Non-standard) Sable
Mink/Caramel (eeU-pp)
Sable Chocolate (eeU-bb) aka "brown sable"Only subtly different from the Mink, the Sable Chocolate uses Rust instead of Cinnamon to dilute the black pigment, and is therefore a shade darker than Mink. Ivory (eeLglg, eedgdg, eeSgsg)This is where it gets a little complicated. The BHA standard for Ivory stipulates that the genotype must be either eeLglg or eedgdg, in other words, Ivory must come from Cream plus either Light Grey or Dark Grey. It is, of course, possible to create Ivory hamsters by combining Cream with Silver Grey (see the page on Grey hamsters), giving a genotype of eeSgsg, but these are not considered standard at the moment. A paler, red-eyed Ivory may be created by combining any of the above with Cinnamon e.g. eeLglgpp. Black-eyed White (eeWhwh or eeSgSg)Eh?? I've never really understood why Cream plus Anophthalmic White (Wh) produces a Black-Eyed White hamster, because there is no appreciable dilution of the yellow pigment when Anophthalmic White is present in the heterozygote without Cream (WhwhE-). I guess it's just one of those things. Add in Cream (e) and the pigmentary machinery gives up altogether! A better way to produce Black-Eyed Whites is to combine Cream and Silver Grey (eeSgSg). The Silver Grey must be the Homozygous (SgSg) form, otherwise you get an Ivory (eeSgsg). Cream + YellowDon't know - I've never seen it. Yellow doesn't affect yellow pigment much, so it probably doesn't differ much from Cream
Cream + BlackThe Cream gene prevents formation of black pigment, so it wins this particular contest. In genetic parlance, Cream is said to be epistatic to Black.
Cream + Dark-eared whiteDark-Eared White (Cd) prevents the formation of black and yellow pigment, so it wins the contest with all the other colour genes. |
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