why you shouldn't breed your hamster
now of course without breeding we
wouldn't have any hamsters so because of this it's important not
just anybody breeds
it's a little bit more complex than just
taking a male and a female and putting them together and creating
babies it's not just something your average
hamster owner should be doing
an ethical breeder is someone who breeds
with the intentions of improving the species whether that be
through health or temperament
irresponsible breeding would include
trying to breed for the reasons of they just want cute babies you want to
breed because you want to make a profit or you want to breed just because you
want to see the miracle of life there are many
responsibilities a ethical breeder must maintain
in order to be an ethical breeder these would include
knowledge in proper hamster care pregnant and nursing
hamsters will require special care and a different diet than just your average
hamster that you're keeping as a pet they need to be able to properly
understand a hamster's behaviors they need to have the ability to deal
with aggressive hamsters as well as nervous and skittish hamsters they need
to be able to properly scruff a hamster as well as check a hamster's teeth and
clip nails
they also need to be able to administer
any medications if necessary as well as they also need to know how to
care for any rejected or ill pups and this isn't exactly an easy task
if a mother has rejected some pups pups are going to need feedings by hand
very very often this means no sleep for you
space as you may know hamsters need large enclosures
they need a lot of space to be happy and enriched
and this goes for if you're breeding as well
every single one of your hamsters
is going to need a properly sized enclosure and you're
probably going to need spares in case any of the pups you have
need to be held back or they haven't found a home yet
vetcare this is mandatory
many pups or mothers
may require seeing a vet for a vet visit they may need any medications
they possibly may also need to go through surgeries
so having an exotic vet who knows about hamsters is really important
money you are going to be spending more money
breeding hamsters than you will ever make back
selling them you'll need to have some sort of steady income so that you are
able to purchase all the necessities for your hamsters including multiple
accessories like hideouts and wheels multiple enclosures an abundance of food
and bedding as well as enough money for vet visits
and as you may know these things can add up really fast
knowledge in genetics and lineage
this is absolutely necessary and without
this knowledge it would be selfish to go ahead and
breed so what are genetics?
genetics is what you inherit from your
parents genes which contain dna and that then determines different
traits such as what hair color you're going to end up
with your eye color how tall you're going to be things like that
hamsters already have poor genetics due to irresponsible and
improper breeding done by pet mills this has caused
hamsters to more commonly live shorter lifespans as well as be
more prone to genetic conditions and more diseases and illnesses
it doesn't matter if a hamster appears physically healthy
that does not tell you the type of genetics they carry
without knowledge in hamster genetics you can easily end up with an
anophthalmic hamster also known as an eyeless white hamster this occurs when
two hamsters carry the white belly gene are then
bred together and then they produce offspring
that is often eyeless or have poorly formed eyes
they are often deaf, they are fully white and they can have other complications
Gerald here is an anophthalmic white syrian hamster he was adopted from
a pet store from one of my followers they have to
take care of him particularly different because he is
blind and also deaf so this makes life for gerald a
little bit harder than your average hamster most hamsters
already do have poor vision but when you are fully blind and also deaf
life can be very hard to adapt to Gerald can easily be spooked
and he tends to take his time around places he doesn't zoom across
a bed because he can easily fall off so he is
very cautious with when he does things it's also very easy for him
to get spooked because when you can't hear and you can't see it's almost
impossible to not get spooked when somebody
touches you or something bumps into you
though of course anophthalmic white
hamsters can live normal lives now hamsters who carry
the white belly gene are going to have a white belly hence
the name but here's the catch not every hamster
with a white belly is going to carry the white belly gene
so unless the hamster has a lineage or pedigree
there is no way to tell if the hamster carries the white belly gene
therefore two hamsters with white bellies should not be bred
it makes sense that eyeless white hamsters would be more commonly found
in pet shops because this goes to show their lack of care or knowledge in
breeding they just take any male and any female
and they put them together regardless of their history or genetics
hairless hamsters
this is a genetic mutation causing the
hamster to be completely hairless
this is something that is very
unethical to purposely try and breed and if you ever
come across a breeder who is breeding hairless hamsters
steer clear of them
hairless hamsters often have shorter lifespans than your
average hamster and also have other issues such as
having no whiskers or very very curled whiskers and as you may
know animals rely heavily on their whiskers especially
ones who have pretty poor eyesight so to not have whiskers it can
be a pretty difficult life
hairless hamsters also cannot have the same type
of enrichment as a regular hamster would
since a hairless hamster has no
hair you have to avoid sharp and irritating
things like any type of substrate that is like
shavings or anything that's super rough no sand
baths because those would be quite rough on just bare skin as well as
nothing really pokey you would avoid things like grapevine wood and cork logs
because they can be very scratchy they could very easily
scratch bare skin or cause an irritation of some sort and
you don't want that hairless hamsters also
cannot regulate their body temperature because they do not have
hair, hair is very important
for dwarfs such as
campbells or winter whites breeding two from the pet
store is completely unacceptable unfortunately these two
species are the only two hamster species that can interbreed
with each other and unfortunately somebody went ahead
and did this and we now have hybrids
hybrids have many issues because they were never meant
to be bred with each other hybrids are found to have more issues with
aggression as well as they are way more prone to
diabetes and they can have a lot of neurological
issues most pet stores you go to are more than
likely going to have hybrids whether or not
it's labeled as a winter white hamster or campbell's hamster
if you buy two winter whites that are labeled winter whites i can almost
guarantee you they are hybrids
this is due to improper
breeding and it is almost impossible to tell if
you purchase a winter white hamster whether or not it is purebred or a
hybrid so this is why you should not breed
two dwarfs from the pet store this is why just in general
you should not try to breed two pet store hamsters because you do not know their
genetics or their history
a hamster's lineage is also important
lineage means the members of someone's family who lived
long before them and it's similar to like a family tree
so it can date back to your past family members and it can
tell you if they had any genetic issues or anything like that
so if a hamster has a genetic condition such as
heart disease it would make sense to not breed them to prevent
passing that condition down
when things like this are acknowledged and followed
we end up with healthier hamsters and possibly longer living hamsters
there also is the emotional side of breeding even the most professional
well-prepared ethical breeders still will have
issues and still will have hamsters pass don't forget
you when breeding animals you are putting
animals at risk of passing away because giving birth isn't always an easy
task to accomplish and there can be complications during birth which can
cause immediate death
and this is why not just anybody should
go ahead and breed their hamster without actually being able to
follow all of the things mentioned in this video if you truly want
to breed for the ethical reasons then i would suggest mentoring
under a already experienced ethical hamster breeder
so hopefully this video has been able to help anybody who was considering
breeding to maybe make the decision to not and
just enjoy the hamsters that you have
so i'll see you guys in my next video
bye