Rodents Continued:
Hamster and Gerbil
Managment
Dr. N. Matthew Ellinwood, D.V.M., Ph.D.
February 29, 2012
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES
HAMSTER & GERBIL
MANAGEMENT
Hamsters
•
•
•
•
•
Mesocricetus auratus – golden
Cricetulus griseus – Chinese
Cricetus cricetus – European
Cricetulus migratorius – Armenian
Phodopus sungorus – Russian or
Siberian, or Dzungarian
Taxonomy
• Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Suborder: Myomorpha
Superfamily: Muroidea
Family: Cricetidae
Subfamily: Cricetinae
• Cricetidae (True hamsters, voles, lemmings, and New
World rats and mice; 600 species and second largest
family)
• Cricetinae (hamsters; subfamily of Cricetidae)
– 25 species in 6-7 genera
– Cricetulus
• Cricetulus griseus (Chinese hamster)
• Cricetulus migratorius (Armenian hamster)
– Cricetus
• Cricetus cricetus (black-bellied or European hamster)
– Mesocricetus
• Mesocricetus auratus (golden hamster)
– Phodopus
• Phodopus sungorus (striped hairy-footed, Russian, Siberian, or
Dzungarian hamster)
Habitat and Natural History
•
•
•
•
•
First described in 1839 (Golden Hamster)
Hamster (German for “hoarder”)
First domesticated in 1930 (Syrian Hamster)
Expandible cheek pouches
Polyestrous
– 4 day cycle
Golden Hamster
• Mesocricetus auratus
• Syria (now considered a vulnerable species)
• Circadian
– Active after dusk, late night, and dawn; wild vs lab
• Adult size and life span
– 5-7 inches, 2-3 years
• Expandable cheek pouches (common to hamsters)
• Anecdotal accounts
– 25 kg in burrows
– Arabic dialect “Mr. Saddlebags”
• 16 day pregnancy (shortest of all placentals)
• 8-10 young
– Can be stressed to abandonment or cannibalism
• “Foal” heat
• Territorial (housing issues)
• Separate by gender at weaning (3 wks)
– Sexually mature by 4-5 weeks
• Natural habitat
– Dry desert climate
• Mitochondrial evidence supports only one
maternal line in domestic golden hamsters
– Sought as an alternative to Chinese hamster
– Domesticated in Mandatory Palestine by Israel
Aharoni, 1930, Hebrew University, Jerusalem;
Mother and litter
• Invasive species in Israel
– 1931 to Britain’s Wellcome Bureau of Scientific
Research
Lab Animal
• 4th most used lab species of rodent
• Circadian research
• Consistent behaviors of marking and
grooming make good ethology models
• All lab golden hamsters
– Descended from 3 animals
– Highly inbred
– Inbred lines
• Cardiomyopathy
– Dialated cardiomyopathy
– Cause of sudden death
– Strain BIO14.6
• Delta-sarcoglycan mutation
Housing and welfare concerns
• Large diameter wheels
• Bedding that allows nesting materials
• Not recommended for children younger
than 7 years of age
• Require adult supervision
• Large enclosures which allow sufficeint
room for exercise
Wide Variety of Colors and Patterns and
Hair Lengths
• Short haired
• Teddy Bear (Angora)
• Self versus Agouti colors
• Self colors
– Cream (UK 1951)
– Black (UK 1991)
• Whites
– Black eyed white
– Dark eared white
– Flesh eared white
• Agouti colors
– Sable (1975)
– Wild Type
Patterning and Orange
• Banding, pie balding,
spotting and X linked
orange all seen
Chinese Hamster
• Longer bodied
• More mouse/rat like
– Grouped as a “rat like hamster”, ie genus
Cricetulus
– Longer tail
– Males have prominent scrotum
– Females usually kept in pet trade
– Shown dominant white mutation
• Wild type coloration of a Chinese hamster
Campbell's dwarf hamster
• Phodopus campbelli
• AKA
– Russian dwarf hamster
– Djungarian (or Dzungarian) dwarf hamster
• Social hamsters
Winter White Russian Dwarf
Hamster
• Phodopus sungorus
• Social hamsters
• Can hybridize with Cambells
Anatomy
• Cheek pouches
• Flank marking glands
• Sexual dimorphism (females larger)
Handling
•
•
•
•
Easily startled
Can be inclined to bite
Handle by cupping
Scuffing if necessary
• Housing management
–
–
–
–
–
Houdini’s
Solid surface enclosure
Stainless steel
Polycarbonate plastic
Something that cannot be chewed through
Bedding
•
•
•
•
Corn cob
Paper
Hardwood
AVOID
– Cedar
– Pine
• Nesting material (especially females)
• Housing/hutches/enclosures
Feeding
• Granivorous
• Food hoarders (hoards are discretely located far from
latrines)
• Commercial chow
– 17-23% Crude Protein
– 6-8% Crude Fiber
– 4.5% Crude Fat
• Blunt noses and feeders
• Coprophagous
• Vit E deficiency (muscle weekness – White Muscle
Disease
– Fresh milled within last 6 months
Breeding and Housing Mgmt
• Sex by anogenital distance
– Separte at 3 weeks (weaning) by sex
• Solitary in wild
• Estrus every 4 days (24 hours)
• Female to male cage (short periods – never
unattended)
• Fighting or lordosis
– Mating within 30 min to 4 hours
Gestation and Parturition
• 16 day gestation (15-18 days)
– Longer gestations increase complications
•
•
•
•
•
Clean cage before parturition so as not to disturb young
Birth usually at night
Non-prococial young (altricial)
1 delivered/10 min
Avoid disturbance for 2 weeks (haired and visual)
– Cannibalism
– First time dams but also experienced dams
Diseases
• Viral induced lymphoma
– Hamster polyoma virus
– DNA virus stable in enviornment and easily
transmissible
– Bacterial disease
• Hamster enteritis complex
– Proliferative ileitis
» Wet tail (Lawsonia intracellularis)
– Tyzzer’s Disease
» Clostirdium piliforme
– Clostridiosis
» Cl. perfirngens, and difficile (antibiotics)
Diseases
• Parasites
– No significant risk
– Kindey failure
• Common age related cause of death
• Atrial Thromosis
– Associated with sudden death (older females)
• Cancer (rare)
– Zoonoses
• Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM)
• Salmonellosis
– Allergies rare
Gerbils
• Mongolian gerbil
– Meriones unguiculatus
Taxonomy
• Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Subfamily: Gerbillinae
Genus: Meriones
Subgenus: Pallasiomys
Species: M. unguiculatus
Gerbillinae
•
•
•
•
•
Subfamily of rodents
14 genera
110 species
Old world rodents
Often adapted to harsh desert enviorns
Domestication
• First described in 1867
• Gerbil from Jerboa, a semitic name of a
local type of near eastern unrelated desert
rodent
• 19th Century pet in France
• US stock to US in 1954 By Dr Vicotr
Schwetker
Habitat and Natural History
•
•
•
•
•
Desert of Mongolia and North China
Large burrow complex
Large family structure
Single breeding pair
Wide temperature fluctuations
• Crepuscular and diurnal
Social and Clannish
•
•
•
•
Best kept in same sex pairs
Will fight unknown/new animals
Pair up littermates early (before 12 weeks)
Pair up breeding pairs early (at or before 12
weeks)
• Breeding pairs cannot be reestablished as adults
• Fighting can be a problem in even established
pairings
Housing
• Solid floored cage (burrowing)
• Maloclusion (chewing substrate – avoid
plastic)
• Low humidity (30%)
– Higher humidity can be a problem
• Tolerate fulx in temperatures well
• Paper/wood shaving bedding
– Sand (sore nose)
Feeding
• Produce little urine and drink little water
– Should be supplied nonetheless
• Not coprophagic
• Feed commercial rodent chow.
• Not a hoarding speices
– Store calories as fat
• Will self select for high fat grains/seeds
– Ex: sunflowers – limit as a treat item only
Handling
• Do not grasp by tail
– Degloving injury
– Causes tail to necrose and slough
– May require amputation
• Base of tail
• Scruffing when necessary
Common Diseases
•
•
•
•
•
Seizure
Black Gerbils most susceptible
Sore nose (nasal dermatitis)
Degloving
High humidity
– Rough hair coat
• Tyzzer disease
– Cl. piliforme
– Usually fatal
Research
• Stroke model
• Incomplete circle of Willis
Colors and Patterns
• Over 30 different patters and colors
observed in the Gerbil fancy
Golden Agouti (Wild Type)
Schimmels
Light Red Fox
Nutmeg
Silver Nutmeg
Lilac
Dove
Fat Tailed Gerbils
• Pachyuromys duprasi
• North African gerbil