Roborovski Hamsters

The Roborovski is very easy to recognise due to it's coat's features and size. The coat colours vary, but not too much. Here is an easy to read chart of what the average Roborovski should look/be like.

• Size - 4 to 4.5cm  (not 7 cm like you sometimes hear) [1.5 to 1.75 inches]
• Weight - 22 to 26 grams
• Feet - 4 toes on front paw and 5 on the hind (larger) paw
• Lifespan - 2 to 3 and a half years (highest recorded is over 4 years)
• Colours - Agouti (wild or 'natural'), White faced

Also known as 'wild' or 'natural' colouring. This is the most common form of colouring found in pet stores. The agouti coat is sandy coloured with the roots of the hairs grey. All coloured Roborovski's don't have dorsal stripes like other dwarf hamsters. Agouti Robo's all have adorable little white eyebrows which everybody knows and loves. White faced robo's don't have these as their faces are completely white. Their ears have a tiny bit of black to the side of them with a patch of white behind the them. The belly is completely white (well, male Robo's have a tiny patch of gold where their scent gland is), and eyes are pure black with no cloudiness or red patches around them. the noses are beautifully pink surrounded by white and sandy coloured fur. The whiskers should be many and long. They are white with darker whiskers closer to the eyes. 

Also called 'White mask' or 'Husky' Robo's. Although there are some theories that tampering with the colouring has produced Robo's which later in life can have health problems (more on that later). The white face coat is same as the agouti except for the usual white eyebrow feature which is not present in this variation. Instead the whole face is white. The rest of the body shows the normal agouti color, though lighter versions show up too.
The white face pattern first appeared in Sweden around 2002 before making its way into Europe.

It is wierd, though. In one reported case two agouti's mated, with the offspring being one Agouti pup and one  white-faced with a diluted colour (look below) This is called a 'Recessive gene'.

Some White faced Roborovski's are born with a diluted colour (the whole body, not only the. Not all though. There is a debate that a seperate colour gene altogether produces this diluted colour or it might just be that the gene is acting differently (different fenotype), but there is no actual reason for this. No-one really knows the reason for this diluting, but it may be a hidden illness or weakness. So the debate goes on... still, no-one is sure a) what causes this dilution and b) what the long-term effects of this disturbed gene may be.  

 Some white faced robo owners say that their Roborovski's colouring has faded over time. There is alot of scepticism about this subject. This is because there is nearly no actual evidence of this effect. But, thanks to roborovski.net, I have got my hands on the actual process of this fading. Here is the timeline!

<Five weeks old

<A few months old

<Seven months old

<Eleven months old

<Sixteen months old

<Nearly seventeen months

<Twenty-one months old (nearly pure white!) (see this video to watch these two Robo's in action, destroying that toilet roll tube!)