Blue Beige Campbells Dwarf Hamsters

Blue beige (bbddpp) is the three-gene color which is the combination of the opal, red-eyed argente, and black-eyed argente genes.  Since all three of these colors are recessive, the hamster must have two copies of each of these genes to appear blue beige.  It is not difficult to breed a blue beige if you have the three genes -- but you must have all three genes.  It is always easiest, though, to start with two two-gene colors which have one gene overlapping.  Then you can both predict what you get and recognize the colors when you get them.  It is also easier to know what genes your babies will carry when you start with a two-gene color and add the third gene. To breed a blue beige, you would start with two different two-gene colors like blue fawn and lilac fawn (beige works equally as well if you just make substitutions).  Between them, you need to cover the three genes needed for blue beige with one color overlapping.  Since blue fawn is the two-gene color for opal and red-eyed argente, you are only missing the black-eyed argente gene to get to blue beige.  Since lilac fawn is the two-gene color of opal and black-eyed argente, you are only missing the red-eyed argente gene to get to blue beige.  So you would breed the blue fawn to the lilac fawn with opal being the overlapping gene.  All babies would be opal carrying RE argente and BE argente.  You would then breed two of these opals together.  From this pairing, you should get approximately 9/16 opals, 3/16 blue fawns, 3/16 lilac fawns, and 1/16 blue beige. It is a bit trickier but still doable if you start with a two-gene color and a one gene color.  Let's take the example of breeding a beige to an opal.  Beige is the two-gene color for RE argente and BE argente.  If you breed a beige to an opal, you should get all normals carrying RE argente, BE argente, and opal.  You then breed two of these normals together.  From this pairing, you should get approximately 27/64 normals, 9/64 RE argente, 9/64 BE argente, 9/64 opal, 3/64 beige, 3/64 blue fawn, 3/64 lilac fawn, and 1/64 blue beige.  As you can see, it can take a lot of litters to get to blue beige this way with a lot of other colors popping up along the way.  The reality is that with a single pair you may never get a blue beige since these are all statistics.  Again, it is preferable to start with two different two gene colors instead.