Roborovski Hamster
Sexual maturity: 5 weeks
Gestation period: 22days-30days
Litter size: 4pups-10pups
Characteristics: Fast, agile, timid, shy
Gestation period: 22days-30days
Litter size: 4pups-10pups
Characteristics: Fast, agile, timid, shy
Robos as pets
- Recommended as "see no touch" pets
- Loud noises can agitate them
- Rarely bite
- As light can disturb them sometimes, red lights are recommended to allow an owner to view them.
- Great climbers
- Like to tunnel & run
- Known to sleep in their wheels, especially in those with banked edges
- Hypoallergenic
- Dislike eating pellets
Breeding
- The female Roborovski hamster can bite an owner if she is handled while she is heavily pregnant.
- As parturition grows closer, the female will become more aggressive towards the male and often banish him from the nest till after the birth.
- When keeping them as pets, females should not be mated until they are closer to four months of age.
- If the male is still around the female shortly after she gives birth, he will often attempt to mate with her again.
Variations
- agouti — a natural grayish-brown with white underside and "eyebrows"
- "white face" — a dominant mutation producing an agouti-coloured hamster with a white face
- "husky" — a recessive mutation producing a white-faced hamster with a paler, more orangey coat than the agouti colour
- "mottled" or "pied" — both dominant and recessive mutations have been identified, these hamsters have the agouti colouring with irregular patches of white over their heads, bodies and sometimes their faces
- "platinum" — a combination of the dominant white face gene and the husky gene that produces a hamster that looks similar to a white-faced when young, but fades with age to nearly white
- "head spot" — a combination of the dominant and recessive pied genes that creates a pure white animal with one patch of colour on the head
- "white-from-white-faced" or "dark-eared white" — a combination of the dominant white-faced gene and the husky gene that produces a white hamster that retains a greyish undercoat and ears
- "white-from-pied" or "pure white" — a combination of the two pied genes that produces a pure white hamster
- "red-eyed" — a recessive mutation that produces a caramel-coloured hamster with a chocolate undercoat, dark brown (red) eyes, and pale ears