Eva's Hamster Page

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The photo shows my pet Winter White Dwarf Hamster "Nasse". Here he is over a year old. He is not with us anymore.

Hamster species

The most common species of hamster that is kept as a pet hamster is the Syrian Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus), also called Golden Hamster.

There are also three different species of dwarf hamsters that are commonly kept in captivity, but in most books the Chinese hamster (Cricetus griseus) is included in this number; making it four. Although the Chinese Hamster is not a real dwarf hamster, even though it is small enough.

The three dwarf hamsters are:

So there are really five different species of hamsters around, the syrian, the Chinese and the three dwarf hamsters, that is kept as pets and showed at hamster shows.

Winter Whites and Campbell's look alike and may occasionally interbreed so I made a comparison of these two species on the Winter White page. Please do not interbreed these! The cross-bred offspring will be sterile, most of them, I have been told.

More to read about dwarf hamsters

A booklet about dwarf hamsters (in Swedish).