Albino Pups

Question
Hi,a while ago i bought two European Black Bear Hamsters,a male and a female.They both have the regular markings,the black with the white down the front.And so the female got pregnant,and had 10 pups.7 are black and three are albinos i think.there white and have pink skin,and they just opened there eyes and there eyes are red.and they also got a white stripe down there front but u can hardly see it cus of there fur color.First off,are these actually albino?and secondly is this normal for this breed of hamster?thanks

Answer
Hello Matt.

First I would like to tell you that "Black Bear" is just a nickname for the black color of the Syrian hamster invented years ago by pet stores.  There is not a separate breed, nor are they European.  There IS a European hamster, but it is ill-tempered, endangered, and illegal to keep, and this is not what you have.  Unfortunately, some pet stores, either out of ignorance or deliberate deceitfulness, charge more for these hamsters that simply have a nickname tacked on to them.  

You can read more about "Black Bear" Syrian hamsters at
http://www.geocities.com/aaahamsters/EurBlackBear.html

Albino simply means an absence of pigment in the body.  So an animal that is completely white and has red eyes is an albino.  Animals have been bred that lack pigment in the eyes, but still have pigment in the fur, and these are not true albinos.  The hamster in the picture on my profile, for example, has red eyes, but she also has argente colored fur.  Despite her red eyes, she is not albino because she still has pigment in the rest of her body, she only lacks pigment in her eyes.  She is known as a red-eyed argente.  (Interesting fact:  The lack of pigment means that we can see light reflecting on the blood vessels of the eyes, which is why they look red.)

So, knowing that what you now know, that what you have is not a seperate breed but simply a black Syrian hamster, we'll do some simple genetics.  Black is a recessive color gene.  This means that in order for the babies to be black they have to get the recessive genes from BOTH parents.  This would lead me to conclude that the albino babies you have either have a different father, or, both of your black Syrians also carry an albino gene (and this would make me suspect that they are littermates and should probably not be bred), and these babies inherited albino genes from both parents.

And in closing, yes it is perfectly normal for a mother Syrian hamster of one color to have babies of another color.

:)