Hamsters galore!

British Hamster Association Standards

April 2003 Feature

Dominant Spot

[Scroll down for judging.]

For the last two months we've examined the belly coloration on our hamsters. This month we're going to shift to the coloration on the backs -- specifically to the desirable spotting pattern on Dominant Spot Syrians.

Patterns are considered in the Colour and Markings category which accounts for 30 of the possible 100 show points. For a patterned hamster, 15 of these 30 are reserved for the pattern.

Standards copyright and reproduced with permission of the
British Hamster Association.

"The Dominant Spot shall have the appearance of a white animal with coloured spots. The spots shall be sharply defined and distributed evenly over the top surface of the animal."

Note that the hamster should have the "appearance of a white animal" with spots instead of a spotted animal with white. This is one of the most common faults -- too much color. We aim for a hamster which has approximately equal amounts of color and white, and too much white is also penalized.

The spots should be "sharply defined" making sure that the white and colored hairs are not intermixed. This is a little harder to determine on longhairs than on shorthairs, so you have to examine each animal carefully to determine how well defined the spots are.

Lastly, the stardard requires that the colored spots be "distributed evenly." So you want a hamster that does not have large patches of either white or color. The spotting pattern should be consistent over the entire back of the hamster.

Well-marked Dominant Spots are very difficult to breed. The spotting pattern within a litter can vary tremendously, and well-marked parents do not always produce well-marked pups. Thus, this is not usually a gene which beginners start with. It's better to start by producing hamsters with very good color and markings. Once the line is well established and consistent, adding the Dominant Spot gene can be the next challenge.

Here are some Dominant Spots who demonstrate some of the things we've talked about.

This little Dove Dominant Spot has a very poor pattern. It's so bad that he could even be mistaken for a poor Banded hamster.

His mother was a well-marked Dominant Spot, and he had a fairly well-marked brother. He may produce well-marked pups, but he would receive a significant deduction for his poor pattern.

This Golden Dominant Spot is also poorly marked. She does have enough pattern that you can identify her as a Dominant Spot, but she definitely does not have the "appearance of a white animal with coloured spots."

This Yellow Black Dominant Spot does have the appearance of a "white hamster with coloured spots," but she is lacking a bit in the amount of color and in how sharply defined her spots are.

With some colors like Yellow Black and Cream, the challenge is usually to get enough color. With other colors like Golden and Black, the challenge is usually to get enough white.

This Black Dominant Spot is the best of this group. The angle on this photo makes it difficult to fully assess her spots, but they are reasonably good and well-distributed.

The spots could be more fully defined, and the judge would take into account the effect of the long hair on the definition of her spots.

These two sisters (who were closely supervised for this brief encounter) demonstrate the challenge in breeding well-marked Dominant Spots. The female on the left has better size and type, but her pattern is weaker. Her sister has a better pattern but is lacking in size and type. Getting everything good in a single animal is a challenge, and the dominant spot gene adds one additional characteristic to this challenge.

That's it! Now go take some pictures of your favorite "best Sominant Spot" Syrian hamsters, and upload them to the BHA Standards Photo Gallery. (Photo tip: Take a top view which best shows off the spotting pattern.) No camera? Surf the web for photos of hamsters with great Dominant Spots and submit a link on the BHA Standards Links List. In your post be sure to indicate which hamster you're entering on the linked page in case there is more than one. If multiple people submit the same link, credit will go to the first. (No links to hamsters at AAA Hamsters, The River Road Hamstery or the California Hamster Association.) Only two hamsters entered per member per month please. Multiple photos for each are fine, if needed. Questions? Post to the BHA Standards Message Board.

Remember - enjoy your hamsters, and...

Have your Standards!

Linda and Jan

Judge's Page

by Linda Price

We have the three key criteria when evaluating Dominant Spot hamsters.

Appearance of a white animal with colored spots.
Spots which are sharply defined.
Spots which are evenly distributed.

Let�s look at the animals submitted this month and see where their strengths are in comparison to the key criteria.

1. We�ll go to the links submitted for a good example of this. The picture at the top of this linked page (http://www.hamsteriyhdistys.net/laikukas.html) shows a very nice example of a hamster who has the appearance of a white hamster with colored spots. She�s also pretty close to having 50% color and 50% white. She is clearly the strongest in this area.

2. We�ve got a couple good examples of hamsters with sharply defined spots: Spotty and the link to Jane (http://w1.541.telia.com/~u54108168/gallery4.html). Both have little inter-mixing of colored and white hairs giving the more crisply defined spots. You can also see the depth of the black color due to this crispness of the spots. This is particularly noticeable in Jane and will also be more noticeable in short haired syrians than in long haired ones.

Here is Spotty. You can see that his/her strength is in the crispness of the color versus the white areas.

3. We�ve got two good examples of spots which are evenly distributed: Stormie, and Oriole. Both of these hamsters are fairly balanced in their spotting patterns. Stormie could use a little more spotting on the rump. Oriole probably could too, but it�s not entirely clear from the photo.

The winner for the best overall Dominant Spot is PBJ7. She is the most balanced in the three categories. All of the entries needed more white to give the appearance of a white animal with spots, and that is her main weakness.

In addition, PBJ7 has the best type of the group. She would be a very nice breeder and could easily produce pups with more white spots than she has.

Thanks to Kat, HamsterLuver, and Dray for submitting the entries! Thanks Lari and HilltopHamstery for the links! Good job!

And congratulations to Dray for submitting the overall winner!