Winter White Dwarf Hamster - Profile | Facts | Traits | Color | Eyes

(Last Updated On: April 15, 2021)

Winter white dwarf hamster is a common pet in Europe and North America and exhibit higher variance of their coats than these discovered within the wild.

Winter White Dwarf Hamster Profile

The Winter White Dwarf Hamster is about Four inches long and is grey with a white stomach, and a thick grey stripe working down its back and furry feet. This hamster earned its name as a result of its coat turns nearly utterly white throughout winter (when the hours of daylight lower). This hamster’s tail is short-you’ll hardly be capable to see it.

With constant dealing with, your Winter White Dwarf Hamster can grow to be comparatively tame, making this species a pleasant, assured, and curious pet. They are a lively species and prefer to run about-so be ready to provide them sufficient room to run regardless that they’re small.

Handle your Winter White Dwarf Hamster gently — scoop her up in each arm and maintain her with cupped arms so she’ll really feel protected and safe.

Your hamster’s front teeth by no means cease rising — so she wants a lot of wholesome issues to chew on like deal with sticks and chews.

Hamsters have tons of energy and need to run on a wheel of their habitat, or in a train ball day by day.

Choose a fortified diet applicable for hamsters

Your Winter White Dwarf Hamster wants a well-ventilated dwelling, giant sufficient for a meal dish and water bottle, a hiding space (if one is not inbuilt), and a train wheel. There need to be loads of room for all cage equipment, and for her to maneuver around freely.

They reproduce usually—more so than Syrian hamsters, and as they don’t have any mounted breeding season, can proceed to provide some numbers of offspring all year round. Young pups act aggressively to 1 one other, whereas breeding females could present comparable aggression to males. The winter white is thought to be one of the crucial tameable forms of hamsters.

The winter white dwarf hamster (Phodopus sungorus), often known as the Russian dwarf hamster, Djungarian hamster, striped dwarf hamster, Siberian hamster, or Siberian dwarf hamster, is one among three species of hamster within the genus Phodopus.

It is ball-shaped and sometimes half the size of the Syrian hamster, so is known as a dwarf hamster together with all Phodopus species. Features of the winter white hamster embody a sometimes thick, darkish gray dorsal stripe and furry feet.

As winter approaches and the times shorten, the winter white dwarf hamster’s darkish fur is sort of totally changed with white fur. In captivity, this doesn’t often occur as animals maintained as pets are typically housed indoors and uncovered to artificial light that forestalls the popularity of brief winter daylengths.

In the wild, they originate from the wheat fields of Kazakhstan, the meadows of Mongolia and Siberia, and the birch stands of Manchuria.

Winter White Dwarf Hamster Description

The coat of the winter white dwarf hamster is much less woolly than that of Campbell’s dwarf hamster, and aside from the traditional coloring, they are often colored sapphire, sapphire pearl, or regular pearl.

The head size of the winter white dwarf hamster is 70–90 mm, the size of the tail is 5–15 mm, and the hind legs are 11–15 mm. The bodyweight modifications dramatically all through the year.

It is at its lowest in the course of the winter. In males, the bodyweight ranges from 19 to 45 grams (0.67 to 1.59 oz), and in females, 19 to 36 grams (0.67 to 1.27 oz). In human care, they’re barely heavier.

The average lifespan of the winter white dwarf hamster is one to a few years in captivity, although they’ll dwell longer. In the wild, they’re identified to dwell as little as one year.

Apart from the standard coloration, winter white dwarf hamsters can be colored pearl, sapphire, sapphire pearl, and marbled.

Other colorations can be found, however, these are strongly suspected to seem solely in hybrid crossings with Campbell’s dwarf hamsters.

Some of those colorations are mandarin, blue, argente, yellow blue fawn, camel, brown, cream, merle, and umbrous.

In the summertime, the fur of the winter white hamster on the back modifications from ash-grey to darkish brown, or typically pale brown with a tint.

The face modifications to gray or brown, whereas the mouth space, the whisker space, and the ears are barely brighter. The outer ears and the eyes have black edges.

The remainder of the pinnacle is darkish brown or black. From the pinnacle to the tail runs a black-brown dorsal stripe.

The throat, stomach, tail, and limbs are white. The ears are gray with a pinkish tint with scattered black hairs. The hairs on the underside are utterly white.

The shiny coat the underside extends to the shoulders, flanks, and hips in three arches upward. It is distinguished from the darker fur on the top of the prevailing black-brown hair, three curved lines.

In the winter, the fur is denser. They typically have a gray tint on their heads. More than 10% of the hamsters saved within the first winter develop the summertime coat. In the second winter, only some turn into the winter coat, and winter color is much less pronounced.

The moulting within the winter fur begins in October or November and is accomplished in December, whereas the summertime coat begins in January or February and is accomplished in March or early April.

The ears are gray with a pinkish tint. Moulting each run job on the pinnacle and the back of the backbone to the perimeters, the legs, and the underside. The hairs develop longer in the summertime, to about ten millimeters long.

Winter White Dwarf Hamster in the wild

In the wild, the hamster’s fur modifications color within the winter. This adaptation helps them to evade predators within the snow-covered steppes.

The hamster digs tunnels one meter deep resulting in ground burrows the place they’ll sleep, elevate their younger, and conceal from predators.

The weasel is among the hamster’s foremost predators. Most of those burrows have six entrances. In the summertime, the burrows are lined with moss.

To preserve the burrow heat within the winter, the hamster closes all however one entrance and features the burrows with animal fur or wool that it finds.

The temperature contained in the burrow is often 16.7 °C (62.1 °F). The hamsters typically dwell within the semideserts in Central Asia.

They additionally dwell within the dry steppes and wheat or alfalfa fields, in addition to on small fields within the forests of the area around Minusinsk.

The fur on the hamster’s feet shields the feet from the chilly ground within the chilly climates within the wild. The inhabitant’s density is extremely varied.

In 1968, the first 4 examples of the hamster had been caught in Western Siberia and dropped at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

Behavior and Temperament

Dwarf winter white Russian hamsters are nocturnal however could also be lively for brief occasions in the course of the day too. They make wonderful pets and are typically fairly good-natured.

They are more tolerant of dealing with than different forms of hamsters and are much less more likely to chew or nip; nonetheless, this breed could be squirrelly and typically could also be too fast and difficult to deal with for youthful youngsters.

Unlike Syrian hamsters, dwarf winter white Russian hamsters are social with their species and could be saved in same-sex pairs or groupings, however often provided that launched at a younger age.

Do not add adults or new hamsters to a gaggle. Even some hamsters that had been raised collectively could get territorial and need to be separated as they grow old. Beware of mixed-sex pairs or teams; they may flip your habitat right into a breeding tank, which might produce a litter every three weeks.

Do not expose hamsters to different pets; it may stress them out. Cats could view them as prey animals.

Winter White Dwarf Hamster Breeding

Winter white dwarf hamsters reproduce at a quicker price than Syrian hamsters. Phodopus species are capable of growing to be pregnant once more on an identical day that they’ve given delivery.

This can all occur inside a 36-day interval. This is finished as a survival strategy to provide giant numbers of offspring in a brief time period.

This location’s super calls for on the mom. Research suggests biparental care in Campbell’s hamsters (P. campbelli) however not in winter white hamsters (P. sungorus).

Frequent preventing can happen between the pups and as quickly as they’re weaned from their mom, they’re separated from her. Most of the dwarf hamsters develop to three to 4″ long.

Hamsters maintained indoors that get artificial illumination throughout autumn and winter are more likely to breed all year round, whereas within the wild and in animals maintained in captivity however below totally natural light-dark cycles, breeding is restricted to the long days of spring and summer.

During the breeding time, the hamster could grow to be aggressive. After mating, the feminine could wish to assault the male to guard her infants. The male often hides in holes or caves to flee the vicious chew of the feminine.

The hamster’s estrous cycle lasts 4 days; every 4 days, the feminine could settle for the male back to breed once more. This often happens when the darkness of the night units in. If female and male hamsters will not be housed collectively from a younger age, figuring out if the feminine is prepared to breed with the male is tough.

Winter White Dwarf Hamster Habitat

These mini hamsters are little sufficient that they’ll squeeze between the bars of many hamster cages. Your best choice is an aquarium-type tank for housing.

While a minimum size is 24 inches long and 12 inches huge (concerning the size of a 20-gallon aquarium), a much bigger tank is preferable. Be positive that the top permits for airflow, and ensure it’s safe.

Cover the underside of the tank with 2 to three inches of sentimental bedding. Your new pet could get pleasure from burrowing into the bedding to remain heat, particularly in the course of the winter.

The substrate can embody wood shavings, shredded paper, or a business brand of bedding. Avoid cedar or pine wooden shavings, since they launch risky compounds which can hurt your pets.1

Hamsters need exercise and train wheels are a great strategy to preserve your pet match and glad. You may also present climbing buildings and tubes, however, don’t create a construction from which your hamster can take a major fall.

Tubes, whereas enjoyable, could be difficult to scrub. Also, be sure you select a kind that gives airflow. Offer a slightly home or nesting field contained in the cage to your pet to cover or sleep.

Winter White Dwarf Hamster Diet

Hamsters can get a full diet with pelleted meals accessible at pet shops.2 Select a kind meant for hamsters versus mice or rats. Offer about 1 to 2 tablespoons day-after-day in a small ceramic bowl.

You may also feed your pet a large range of recent meals and treats, together with many fruits, greens, whole-grain cereal, and pasta. However, some meals could be poisonous or hazardous, together with raw beans, raw potatoes, almonds, citrus fruit, garlic, and onions.

Provide your hamster with a provide of recent, clear water. You can preserve a ceramic dish of water within the cage or cling a bottle from the facet of the cage. Regularly examine that the water nozzle is functioning and alter the water day by day.

Conservation

This hamster is listed as of Least Concern by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The inhabitants and distribution size are giant, and no main or widespread threats to the species are identified. Population numbers within the wild will not be recorded.

Winter White Dwarf Hamster – Profile | Facts | Traits | Color | Eyes | Pet