Working on Type

(All photos are of hamsters from the River Road Hamstery.)

Type refers to the shape and proportion of the body and its parts and how they relate to each other.  For breeders who seek to improve type in their lines, an easy way to go about it is to purchase hamsters with excellent type from a breeder who has already developed it. Unfortunately for most of us, the only sources for new stock are the pet shops, where type ranges from poor to abysmal.  These hamsters have long, narrow heads, close-set ears, small, close-set eyes and pointed, rat-like noses.  Their bodies tend to be long and narrow, as well.  Even so, with patience, much searching, careful observation and luck, a halfway decent "starter" hamster can be picked up.
The photos on this page show the progress that can be made using only selection as a means to improving head type.  In the first line are featured three of our early Goldens.  From left to right they are from a breeder, from a litter we bred from two pet shop hamsters, and from a pet shop.  They all show poor type, but especially the one from a breeder which only goes to show that getting a hamster from a breeder is not synonymous with getting quality.  The best of the three is the one selected from a litter.

Several generations later from two different but interrelated lines, we produced the following two females.  They demonstrate more breadth and some shortening of the face, but not nearly enough.

The female above left was mated to the father of the female above right. At five weeks, the Umbrous Golden shown here in three views was selected as having the best type.  She was 10 weeks old in these shots which is often a stage of growth where the hamster is lengthening before it broadens.  If that is the case, she may look better later on.  Although she could use a little more width and more bluntness on the nose, she shows a vast improvement in head type over her ancestors.

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