Eva's Winter White Dwarf Hamster Page

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Winter White Dwarf Hamster - Phodopus sungoris

I have owned 5 Winter White Dwarf Hamsters many years ago. They all lived together in quite a small aquarium, and they became more or less tame. They were adult and unhandled when I got them. (One was a 2 years old male, the other four were his 1 year old daughters.)

They were quite amusing! They harassed eachother alot, but I never saw them trying to kill eachother, as all my other dwarf hamsters has done. I don't know if I just missed it since I knew nothing about dwarf hamster back then, or if they were nicer towards eacher than all my other dwarf hamsters. I have been told that there was an old strain that looked a lot like my 5 back then that was known to be extremely nice tempered, though :-)

Many years later I received a few Winter Whites in need of a new home. They were really tame and lovable. Since I liked them so much I wanted to have some babies, so had several litters and they were all wonderful pets! They had only one problem - sooner or later they started to kill eachother, without exception! That's why I started to learn about the behaviour of hamsters...

Another name for this species is Winter White Russian Dwarf Hamster, and its latin name used to be Phodopus sungoris sungoris, but it changed to Phodopus sungoris. The name White White stems from the fact that this hamster often turns white in the winter!

The photo to the left shows my pet Winter White Dwarf Hamster Robin, the father of Nasse, and Julia, in his winter fur. Both Nasse and Julia got big lump at the age of 2 years, Nasse's turned out to be a big tumour and Julia's turned out to be a deep boil. Dwarf hamsters seldom live long lives.

You can clearly see that Robin had the colour sapphire (dd), just as his two children, since there is no black in their fur, only bluegrey. Sapphire is basically a blue agouti. Robin also had a lot of white on his belly, which is his partial winter coloration. All Winter Whites do not turn turn much white in the winter, some are only a little white.

To the left you can see how really young winter white babies can look!

In the wild the Winter White live in Siberia and Manchuria, maybe this is the reason they are sometimes called Siberian Hamster.

More about colour variations of this species you can see at Eva's Winter White Colour Page.

True Winter White Dwarf Colours

There are only four different colours on the true winter white so far (that I know of) and those are:

the normal coloured (wild coloured, also called agouti)
the sapphire,
the pearl
the sapphire pearl.

But some people can't get enough, so what has happened is that Winter Whites have been crossbred to Campbell's and produced bastards. This was done in order to introduce the colour genes from Campbell's into the Winter Whites. After crossbreeding the bastards have been bred back to Winter Whites for many generations, making them resemble Winter Whites but with totally new colours.

Normal Coloured Winter White

This photo to the left shows one of my pet Winter White Dwarf Hamster's (Nasse) sons, Razmataz, a normal coloured Winter White. Pyssling (to the right) is Razmataz' mother.

Here to the right is Pyssling, a normal coloured winter white, in partial winter fur (the white patches). She came to visit Nasse, and they had some pretty little babies together, Razmataz and his littermates.

You can also see another photo of Pyssling, where you see her from another angle.

The winter fur is thought to develop when the hamster is kept in the dark for 16 hours per day (imitating the short winter days). Only Winter Whites may get a white winter fur.
All Winter Whites do not turn much white in the winter, some are only a little white.

Sapphire Winter White

Here are two photos of two young sapphire coloured Winter White hamsters, Sasha & Ru. These two are littermates, and their mother was my pet hamster Julia.

You can clearly see that Sasha & Ru have the colour sapphire (dd), just as their mother Julia, since there is no black pigment in their fur, only bluegrey. Sapphire is basically a blue agouti.

Pearl Winter White

No photos yet.

Sapphire Pearl Winter White

No photos yet.

How to see the diffrence between Campbell's and Whiter White

One thing you ought to be aware of while breeding White Whites is that it has a closely related species called Campbell's Dwarf Hamster, and that the Winter White and the Campbell actually may interbreed. And that is not really such a good idea, since the temperament of the Campbell's is not as good as that of the Winter White. To have a guide to seperate these species you ought to know that Campbell's have a more triangular head, while the head of the Winter White is more rectangular. Overall colour in wild coloured specimens are slightly darker in Winter Whites than in the Campbell's, and belly colour is lighter. Eyes are larger and ears less prominent in Winter Whites. Body size is slightly bigger and the fur is slightly thicker in Winter Whites, compared to Campbell's.

Here is a Campbell to the left and a Winter White to the right. Note the bigger and more prominent ears in the Campbell and the more triangular head in the Campbell.

Today these two species are crossed to produce more different colours in the Whinter White (since Campbell's have more colours), and many of the dwarf hamsters on the market are hybrids or with another word bastards (=crosses between two species) without people knowing about it.

Winter White cross-bred with Campbell's

It is important to understand that if you introduce foreign genetic material into a species where it do not belong you will not get back your normal animals again. Besides colour genes a lot of other genes have been introduced that will control other aspects of these animals. These animals will always be bastards in a true sence, whatever you cross-breed them with. I have not seen any of the new colours yet, but I've been told that these animals already exists in pet shops. If you like these new colours, remember to keep some Winter Whites that is never crossed with these bastards, since otherwise we might lose the true Winter Whites altogether.