Silvering Page 3

I have heard people say that the mottleds do not silver. These appear to be the only selfs that do not silver. Many mottleds do silver, though. Most of these can be identified when they are young. The trend I have noticed is that the mottleds who silver tend to be the whitest of the silvered once they silver. The get lighter than unpatterned hamsters who silver. I have a few examples of silvering and non-silvering mottleds. All have been confirmed as mottleds through breeding, and all are ruby-eyed mottleds.

These are two blue mottled sisters -- littermates. The picture on the left shows them when they were only a couple of months old. The one whose head you can see is obviously silvering even at this age. Her sister, the one whose tail you can see, is a non-silvering mottled. On the right is a picture of them a few months later. You can see that the non-silvering mottled has not silvered. The silvering one is already significantly whiter. You cannot see it well in this picture, but her belly is still blue. Both have been confirmed to be mottleds through breeding.

This is the same hamster in all four pictures. Originally I thought she was a black platinum. Through breeding, I have proven that she is a silvering mottled. You can see her with a few of her little ones. She is a black carrying opal so one of the babies is a blue while the others are black mottleds (and won't silver).

Sometimes people suggest that my silvering blacks are dilute. Dilute affects the blacks differently. You will see brown showing through with the dilute. With silvering, you see white and not brown. Here are a couple of dilute blacks.