Rodents Continued: Hamster and Gerbil Managment

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Rodents ContinuedHamster and Gerbil Managment
Dr. N. Matthew Ellinwood, D.V.M., Ph.D. February
29, 2012
Iowa State University College of Agriculture and
Life Sciences
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HAMSTER GERBIL MANAGEMENT
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Hamsters

• Mesocricetus auratus golden
• Cricetulus griseus Chinese
• Cricetus cricetus European
• Cricetulus migratorius Armenian
• Phodopus sungorus Russian or Siberian, or
  Dzungarian

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Taxonomy

• Kingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataSubphylum
  VertebrataClass MammaliaOrder
  RodentiaSuborder MyomorphaSuperfamily
  MuroideaFamily CricetidaeSubfamily Cricetinae

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• 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)

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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

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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

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• 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

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• 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 Britains Wellcome Bureau of Scientific
  Research

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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

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• Cardiomyopathy
• Dialated cardiomyopathy
• Cause of sudden death
• Strain BIO14.6
• Delta-sarcoglycan mutation

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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

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Wide Variety of Colors and Patterns and Hair
Lengths

• Short haired
• Teddy Bear (Angora)

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• Self versus Agouti colors
• Self colors
• Cream (UK 1951)
• Black (UK 1991)

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• Whites
• Black eyed white
• Dark eared white
• Flesh eared white

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• Agouti colors
• Sable (1975)
• Wild Type

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Patterning and Orange

• Banding, pie balding, spotting and X linked
  orange all seen

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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

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• Wild type coloration of a Chinese hamster

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Campbell's dwarf hamster

• Phodopus campbelli
• AKA
• Russian dwarf hamster
• Djungarian (or Dzungarian) dwarf hamster
• Social hamsters

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Winter White Russian Dwarf Hamster

• Phodopus sungorus
• Social hamsters
• Can hybridize with Cambells

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Anatomy

• Cheek pouches
• Flank marking glands
• Sexual dimorphism (females larger)

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Handling

• Easily startled
• Can be inclined to bite
• Handle by cupping
• Scuffing if necessary

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• Housing management
• Houdinis
• Solid surface enclosure
• Stainless steel
• Polycarbonate plastic
• Something that cannot be chewed through

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Bedding

• Corn cob
• Paper
• Hardwood
• AVOID
• Cedar
• Pine
• Nesting material (especially females)
• Housing/hutches/enclosures

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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

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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

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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

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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)
• Tyzzers Disease
• Clostirdium piliforme
• Clostridiosis
• Cl. perfirngens, and difficile (antibiotics)

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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

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Gerbils

• Mongolian gerbil
• Meriones unguiculatus

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Taxonomy

• Kingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass
  MammaliaOrder RodentiaFamily
  MuridaeSubfamily GerbillinaeGenus
  MerionesSubgenus PallasiomysSpecies M.
  unguiculatus

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Gerbillinae

• Subfamily of rodents
• 14 genera
• 110 species
• Old world rodents
• Often adapted to harsh desert enviorns

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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Handling

• Do not grasp by tail
• Degloving injury
• Causes tail to necrose and slough
• May require amputation
• Base of tail
• Scruffing when necessary

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Common Diseases

• Seizure
• Black Gerbils most susceptible
• Sore nose (nasal dermatitis)
• Degloving
• High humidity
• Rough hair coat
• Tyzzer disease
• Cl. piliforme
• Usually fatal

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Research

• Stroke model
• Incomplete circle of Willis

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Colors and Patterns

• Over 30 different patters and colors observed in
  the Gerbil fancy

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Golden Agouti (Wild Type)
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Schimmels
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Light Red Fox
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Nutmeg
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Silver Nutmeg
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Lilac
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Dove
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Fat Tailed Gerbils

• Pachyuromys duprasi
• North African gerbil