Hi from Berlin

[KatherineR]

Hello everyone,
my name is Katherine and I am originally from England, but live in Germany since 12 years, since 10 in Berlin.
I breed Syrian Hamsters (and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels) under the Prefix Hazelhope's. Since over a year I have kept 2 Robos females together as pets. My history with Hamsters is very Syrian biased and prior to taking up breeding in 2009 I had no experience of dwarves at all, but I had experience of Syrians from 15 years previous (10 years breeding). At the time when I bred Syrians in the 80 and 90's I had never heard fo Robos and as such just wanted to get to know them as pets.
In Germany most Robos live a solitary life. When I got my Robos i was sufficiently informed to know, that that need not be the case, and so I kept my two females together, they have been living harmoniously so since 1 year and 3 months.
In September 2010 the new mottled gene caused a furor. At the time I expected comemrcial breeders to flood the market with the "Newest thing" prduced of yourse by massive inbreeding and no care to the animals. of course this is exactly what happened. It was when the gene first appeared that I vowed that I would try to do something about this, even though of course I can not change the world. There are no hobby breeders in germany and as such the pruchase of a Robos is only possible in a petshop or from a commercial breeder. I believe this does the animals no service, I love Robos and as such I am starting my forst steps to breed them.
I currently own 3 mottled adults, 1 mottled baby, 4 baby mottled carriers and 2 juveline cream males as my start breeding stock. With the exception of the one mottled baby all stock is from the Czech republich.
I have no experience of forming groups. And nobody here has it either, as such this is something where I pretty urgently need your help. The Czech Robos arrived yesterday in 3 boxes (mixed gender9 - as the yseemed to get on, I have for a first plopped them in cages in the same group constitution und the rpemise if it aint broke don't fix it.
Fir a first I could do with advice about the mottled adults. This consists of a pair with one additional female. the pair has already had a litter together. As they arrived together in one box I can not tell who of the two females is the partner of the male. Thereofre the threesome is together and was getting on well last night. Would you leave them as they are or split them?
So, i will have many question, I have taken some photos of the Robos which I will posten, when I find out where.
Thanks for reading my monologue, but I ahve a lot of questions- and yes there really is noone in this country that could help me.
all the best,
Katherine

[Tammy - Oak Farm]

Hiya Katherine,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for joining.

Congratulations on your new robos

If I was you I would want to be able to sort out who the parents are of any babies that might be born, so with the Pied (mottled) Robos I think I would split one of the females from the group and see if either of the females have any babies – you will then know for sure the mother of each of the babies and it will be easy to document.

Are any of the other pied or pied carriers related to the adults? If not then you could maybe pair up one of the females with a young male?

Obviously you should do things your way, but I think I would like to get some completely unrelated agouti robos to pair up with the babies so that you have some new bloodlines to breed them with.

Good Luck with your new robos If you need any more help or info please just let me know.

Please feel free to post photos of them all in the relevant sections of the forum

Tammy x

[KatherineR]

Hi Tammy,
thanks for your answer.

Regarding the mottled adults. If I have two females and one has a litter - would the second female possibly produce milk aswell? I am trying to gauge how likely it would be for me to identify the mother of the litter. Am worried that I would split the existing couple - who have already proven that they can have pups. I could pair up a female that does not get pups in current constellation with one of the juveniles as they are unrelated, once they come of age (really tiny at the moment)

It's so cool that you suggested I get some unrelated Agoutis. of the mottled carriers we have a brother and sister here and a male and female who are unrealted. But, it just so happens that next week a Finnish breeder will be bringing me 2 Agoutis with pedigrees (the others here don't have pedigrees or have very short pedigrees). She will take one of the cream boys back with her along with at least one mottled carrier. In May I whould get some new creams. They do not have red eyes. The info I got about them is that at the start of the mutation in Czech pups had red eyes, but with time new born pups (not red eyes turning black..) no longer had red eyes but the light colour remained.

will post pics shortly.
all the best,
Katherine

[Nella]

Hi Katherine,

I have mottled robo's and mottled-carriers too. I started with 4 mottled females and got a mottled male a few months ago. 3 of the 4 females had litters (the other one isn't paired up yet) and one of the daughters of these females is now paired up with the mottled male. If everything geneticly fits (really recessive genes or not) there should be 50% mottled babies, so it would be great to see my first mottled babies.

I paired all the females out to an completely unrelated (not-mottled carrier) robo so that I have new (good) blood in the line. These carriers will be paired up together and the recent pair is to find out if I can get mottled babies (the male is bought a few months later and won't be directly related).

How are your mottleds behaving? Do they show stereotype behavior? Or holding the heads too far behind? 3 of my 4 females (and the male) seem to be healthy but the other female is holding her head too far up and is hyperactive. Another Dutch breeder told one of his females appeared to behave the same.

I'm looking forward to see pics of your robo's.

Greetz,
Nella

[KatherineR]

Hi Nella,
thanks for your post.
The adult Robos I have are quite active, but nothing out of the ordinary. They seem to get on very well and are not very nervous. I have a juvenile female who has the same activity level as the 2 Agouti females she is in with (the agoutis are carriers though). She seems to be a bit interested in dominating the others - but I think someone has to.
When I got the juvenile mottled female she came with another one. She was very nervous on the first evening and fell in the water bowl a few time which was placed next to the wall of the plastic box (big mistake have learnt to place water in the middle since then). She developed wet tail and unfortunately died. The other girl remained totally healthy. These two mottleds came from an animal importer who I think imported them from NL.
The adult mottleds (3-4 months) all weigh 30 grams or a bit more. Which I think is a good weight.
best regards,
Katherine

[Nella]

Wet tail with robo's? I've never heard of robo's getting that? That's a syrian-decease? Maybe she had something else?

[KatherineR]

I also thought it was a syrians disease. I could not believe what the vet said to me - but all symptoms did match.