On dwarf hamster species

A few words on dwarf hamsters and pet shops...

There are strictly speaking 3 sub-species of dwarf hamster: Campbell’s (Phodopus campbelli), Roborovski (Phodopus roborovskii) and Winter White Russian (Phodopus sungorus). The Chinese hamster (Cricetulus griseus) is not really a dwarf hamster, but it’s only slightly bigger than the genuine dwarf hamsters and therefore often labelled a dwarf itself.

I have no idea whether Pearl/Gråperle was really a Campbell's or if she was a Campbell's/Winter White hybrid. The two can interbreed and apparently there's plenty of confusion about which is what. The sign in the pet shop at Tveita simply said "dwarf hamster mother of pearl" which I've since learnt isn't any sort of a dwarf hamster species at all... You can't trust pet shops. She looked very, very much like the classic, typical Campbell's, though. I'll find an old picture or two and post those.

In the case of Knerten & Fjerten, the sign in the pet shop said "dwarf hamsters". Next time I'm so getting hamsters from the bigger, better and all-round much more trust-inspiring pet shop at Alna! I was there recently and, coolness!, they even had a Chinese hamster, which I hadn't seen 'in real life' before.

Well, I suppose "next time" is 3 years away, as Robs have an average lifespan of 3.5 years! :-)