A Piece of Philippine Rodent Fancy History

I would like to share a little something about rodent fancy history in the Philippines, in my point of view and experience, of course, as a rodent fancier.

We used to have pure winter whites in the country. I was especially enamored of the specimens in Tetra Petshop in Robinson’s Galleria 10 years ago. There’s still a pet shop in Galleria, but it goes by a different name these days, if I’m not mistaken.

Winter whites were also available in BioResearch and Under the Sea. Only sapphire and pearl varieties were widely available. The agouti or normal morphs were quite rare, if not existent, for winter whites. Agouti (or normal) refers to the color/markings of the animal in the wild.

Pure winter whites and Campbells can be told apart with relative ease. Physically, winter whites look rounder and smaller; Campbells somehow bigger and longer; AND winter whites come in only a few varieties, so color or pattern reveals the breed in most cases. Temperamentally, winter whites are not bitey, not usually anyhow. The Tetra Petshop and Under the Sea stocks were friendly to humans and could be held by any potential customer. Even their Campbells were friendly to humans. The Siberians we have these days are almost pure, if not pure, Campbell hamsters. The winter white and Campbell hybrids in our market do not look different from pure Campbells.

I bred sapphire winter whites once, circa 2001. I also had pearl winter whites, but they were females, so naturally they never bred. During and some time after the first litter, my female sapphire developed polyuria (frequent urination) such that I had to change cage and shavings daily. I stopped breeding at one litter.

I diagnosed my pet’s condition as diabetes. I was – and still am – confident with that diagnosis even without labs considering the trend of winter white fancy at the time (here in the Philippines and in the US).

Linda Price of California Hamster Association stopped breeding non-agouti winter whites due to diabetes. She only concentrated on agoutis because of the pervasive medical condition affecting winter whites at that time. Linda Price, in my opinion, is the foremost hamster breeder in the world. She has great photos of different hamsters in her Web site.

Other notable breeders are Doran Jones of Wasatch Mountain Dwarf Hamsters and Lorraine Hill. Lorraine Hill’s rodent Web site is no longer existent, but her articles can still be found in the Net including her contributions to the British Hamster Association. I especially loved her Roborovski hamster photos.

My winter white improved after some time. It’s what we clinicians (I’m a medical doctor by profession, pet lover and linguist by vocation) call gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy). My winter whites reached old age without procreating again.

I haven’t seen winter whites in local pet shops in years.

In late 2001 and early 2002, Mayne also known as honeybabe in the Philippine Pet Finder (PPF) of Mix N Match Hamstery contacted me for the purpose of organizing the country’s first hamster organization. Nothing came of it.

honeybabe is now into a different pet fancy. Mix N Match Hamstery is no longer existent.

I doubt Mayne remembers me to this day considering we met in person only once, and that was a decade ago. I remember her only by name. I’ve forgotten how she looks.

I acquired my first couple of chocolate Campbells from honeybabe. I also got other morphs which were also available in pet shops. Mix N Match simply had better quality stocks. I feel it is safe to say that Jon and Mayne of Mix N Match Hamstery were the ones who introduced chocolate and black Campbells (and possibly other varieties as well) to the Philippines.

Mix N Match got its breeding stocks from Fins N Fuzz (in the US) owned by Rusty Pearce.

Rusty is friendly. I had the pleasure of correspondence once, just once. I thought of ordering stocks but thought better of it. Mix N Match had a problem with our customs people who wanted to extort money. Other than the expense, I never wanted that headache.

After some time, chocolate and black Campbells became common (and prices went down). The varieties found in many pet shops these days are poor in quality compared to the ones sold by Mix N Match. Black Campbells these days usually have some mottling of white. I never crossed the blacks to other varieties to check if this “whitening” is secondary to a platinum or a silvering gene.

I am glad, though, that Campbells now come in several morphs. That, I think, is thanks to davejhon (a PPF member).

Based on davejhon’s posts at PPF and the magazine in which his Campbells were featured, I’d say he’s currently the country’s Campbell guy and possibly the one who introduced the many varieties we love.

The surge in multiple Campbell morphs coincided with davejhon’s entry into the fancy. I may be wrong in giving credit, but davejhon sure has helped a lot of people with Campbell hamster concerns.

To encapsulate: Mix N Match introduced new Campbell hamster color varieties by importing from the US, while davejhon created various color morphs by selective breeding.

In 2005 and earlier, satin fawn mice were labeled as satin mice by BioResearch and sold them for 90 pesos each. These days, one can get a satin mouse for 10, 15 and 20 pesos depending on the size.

In 2008, gerbils were hard to find. It was the Year of the Earth Rat and pet sellers rechristened gerbils to kangaroo rats for better sales, and the name change worked wonders, because owning rats in 2008 was supposed to bring good luck. By 2009, gerbils were no longer in vogue and became quite easy to secure.

To this day, you’d still find pet sellers calling gerbils kangaroo rats.

The “golden” golden or Syrian hamster, the morph that made the Syrian popular, is making a comeback. It never really disappeared, but the quality was shoddy at best. Quality goldens are in the market again, both at PPF and here at PEP at least. Thanks to Mazelle for that.

It’s 2010, and the Roborovski is the only small rodent still considered to be expensive. Roborovski hamsters were sold for 800 pesos each a decade ago. They’re down to 300 to 500 each these days.

And so…

Bakit mahal ang Roborovski?

I will have to agree with others that it’s because they’re not that easy to breed. I think it’s also because of their non-biting nature. They’d rather run away than attack.

Their speed also makes them quite hard to catch for beginners. A newly acquired Robo may say goodbye to its new custodian several minutes or hours from purchase. The new custodian would have a flash in her/his mind about peso bills running away.

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I initially wrote the foregoing as a response to badbatz’s query in PPF why Roborovski hamsters are expensive.

I think many PPF members are also part of the Philippine Exotic Pets (PEP) community; hence, I republished the response here in PEP with minor modifications.

My intention is to share. I hope the admins and moderators of PEP are not piqued by this repeat.

Every animal lover is a historian in her or his own right.

Thank you so much.

I notice that the price of the roborovski is still high. A pet for everyone specially for beginners

move lang po natin sa new sub-category... ^^