GENERAL EXTERNAL ANATOMY
The Syrian hamster is short tailed and stocky, with a very large amount of loose skin dorsally. The body weight of the mature male is about 85-110 g; the female is bigger at 95-120 g (Derrell Clark 1987; Nowak 1999; Whittaker 1999).
The original wild hamster was reddish-gold with a gray ventrum, but many color varieties now exist from cinnamon, cream, and piebald to albino (Harkness & Wagner 1995) (Fig. 11.1).The eyes are black and exopthalmic and the incisor teeth are colored yellow due to iron pigments (Derrell Clark 1987).
External genitalia
The sexually mature male has an enlarged, rounded posterior end when the testes are descended, pigmented flank glands, and a longer anogenital distance than the female. The female has a more pointed posterior, less prominent flank glands, and a completely separate vaginal and urethral opening (Bivin et al. 1987; Lipman & Foltz 1996) (Fig. 11.2).
Figure 11.1 • Many color varieties of hamster now exist, hence the name
change from Golden to Syrian hamster.