Confused, can dwarfs and syrians mate?

[LaGypsyEyes]

:confused: my cousin said dwarf hamsters and syrians can mate..is this true?

[Da One]

can they mate? Hmm... Not likely. They will most likely kill each other before this happens...

[narattah]

They can interbreed, but most of the time it would result in a death of the mother or dead babies. If a Syrian male mated with a Dwarf female, she may not be able to or have a hardtime giving birth since Syrians are much bigger in size, and vice versa.

Here's some related info:
http://www.petwebsite.com/interb.htm

[PonyPalJuMpEr]

I Don't Think So But I'm Not Sure...... It's Like The Question Can Dogs And Cats Mate?

[TobyRat]

There is no way possible they can breed. They are TOTALLY different species. The link Narattah gave, is a article about why campbells and winter white dwarfs souldn't breed. Syrian hamsters can only be bred to other syrians.

[Da One]

There is no way possible they can breed. They are TOTALLY different species. The link Narattah gave, is a article about why campbells and winter white dwarfs souldn't breed. Syrian hamsters can only be bred to other syrians.

yup .

[Jiffykat]

I Don't Think So But I'm Not Sure...... It's Like The Question Can Dogs And Cats Mate?

I get your point, but it isn't really like asking if dogs and cats can mate. Dogs and cats are totally different species, not just different breeds. Besides the territorial thing, and them probably killing each other, you'd think they would be able to breed they are both hamsters. Different breeds of cats can mate, different breeds of dogs can mate. However, I don't have experience with hamsters yet, (I will hopefully be getting one or two tomorrow) so I wouldn't really know.

[yodelinghamster]

ya know, the same sick question popped into my head, and I just blew it off with, something would be wrong, (like all the stuff said before me) it just can't happen! They are to different!!!

[TiaMaria]

They couldnt persay 'mate' but if they had hamster eggs and hamsters sperm they could create a whole new genetic type of hamsters..Dwarves will reject all other species other then there own, its just like a white winter dwarf and campbells dwarf matting..the female would most likely die in the process simply because other different shape of heads and bodies.
Hope this helps.

[TobyRat]

They couldnt persay 'mate' but if they had hamster eggs and hamsters sperm they could create a whole new genetic type of hamsters.

Wow, I'm kinda confused. . . they could "create a whole new genetic type of hamster"? How?

[TiaMaria]

Because syrians and dwarves have very different genes, but the mating genes are very similar, so if someone took lets say a syrians hamster males sperm, and took a female dwarves eggs and implanted the eggs with the males syrians sperm, it could definately create a whole new genetic type of hamster.

Why people dont do this u ask?!

Its simply because we are running out of 'pure' hamsters, and by doing this it could make the pure hamsters extinct.
For example...Campbells dwarves mating with White Winters can create hybrids and some of the purebred campbells and white winters are extinct in some parts of the world, and if hybrid breeding continues, like in pet shops ect, the species of pure breds will definatly become extinct.

[LaGypsyEyes]

ah, thank you for clearing that up. My cousin is stupid for wondering why her dwarf hamster died *sighs* I looked it up on the net after asking you guys this (sorry couldnt respond sooner) and i found an article stating that they could not have babies without resulting in death. Luckily, I know Jimi enough to know that he wouldnt "mate" with my dwarf hamster. Instead he'd just kill her off.