Genuinely how do people get into breeding?

[Axolotl hammy]

Title says what I’m asking.

I’m not planning on it anytime soon but I’m genuinely curious as most breeders sell only to people promising not to breed the hamster. I’d LOVE one day to have ethically bred winter whites but there is one breeder for WWs in my country and it’s fully on the other side. Do people import their hamsters? How does this even work?
Again, I’m not planning on breeding my hamsters or anything. I literally have one male HYBRID who I would obviously not breed. I have owned one ethically bred Syrian before and she was lovely. Sassy but so sweet and chunky and absolutely beautiful. She was an extreme dilute dominant spot tortie. She was Alvin from strong brew hamstery’s chip pups litter (which is also across the country) and I got her as a retiree from another breeder who sort of disappeared a while ago.

 

[Socks' Mum]

I think you would need to attend hamster shows and register with an ethical breeding association. I think you need to work quite closely with other breeders from shows. Ethical breeding is quite complex and I think the best source of advice would be from people who show their hamsters and are part of an association. There is no profit in ethical breeding and it is a lot of hard work finding excellent homes for the pups. Sows can only have a very small number of pups and then need to be retired, and finding excellent homes for them is a lot of work and can be very demoralising if the new homes don't work out. You need to prepare adoption contracts and have ways of pre vetting potential owners, eg by asking them in person who their exotic vet will be, what exactly they will feed their hamster etc and disqualifying bidders who aren't convincing enough in their replies. Finding homes for hamsters you care about can be heartbreaking. The best advice I can give about breeding really is don't breed

 

[Maz]

It can be a traumatic process as well. Sometimes Mothers die giving birth or can't give birth and have to be rushed to the vets. The one breeder for Winter Whites in the US, imported from the Uk to start pedigree breeding. You would need to join an ethical breeding association and discuss it with the breeder and work very closely with them mentoring you. It's a very complex process to match the genetics correctly for a breeding pair. I don't know how the one breeder manages as if there is no other breeder then they would need to bring in a male from somewhere else to avoid interbreeding - and yes probably imported. And they would need to be 100% verified pedigree (male and female) or you could end up breeding hybrids. I wouldn't recommend you import hamsters though. I agree with Socks Mum. But speak to the breeder and find out more. It's not something to do alone really.

I can understand the enthusiasm as I felt similar when I had my first pedigree hamster. But it's a huge undertaking. Most ethical breeders only breed the occasional litter, and take care of the Mothers so they aren't put through it too many times. After a litter they have to have specific knowledge to know which hamster from the litter to keep back for breeding - that will have the best and healthiest genes. In the Uk they aren't allowed to sell the hamsters, they have them adopted and will have an agreement that the hamster can't be bred from (it's their own line) and that the hamster needs to be returned to them if for some reason it can't be kept.

 

[Maz]

In the Uk there is the National Hamster Council for verified breeders and they have standards with which all members have to comply. The nearest thing in the US is the California Hamster Association. I think it's unlikely the winter white breeder would agree to you breeding from one of their hamsters, so yes to start your own hamstery you would probably need to import both a male and a female winter white from different hamsteries in Europe (with verified ancestry) to start your own pedigree line, and then seek help with mentoring.

The prime reason for breeding pedigrees is generally to keep the species (ie winter whites) in tact - but also for temperament and health genetically. Hamster rescues tend to be anti all breeding, even ethical breeding, as there are so many hamsters need homes - but that's a bigger issue - the number of unethical breeders supplying pet shops.

 

[Socks' Mum]

The legal aspects are a bit of a quagmire as well. If you were to sell a hamster and described him or her as a pedigree winter white, the product sold, the hamster, would have to be a true winter white. There is also the tax aspect of selling, if you wanted to sell hamsters, which can be tricky.