Talk:Syrian hamster variations

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Problems

This article seems rather inaccurate: is variations an appropriate and common description for this? (in example, should it be breeds?) Is the golden hamster really a variety of the Syrian hamster? This terribly needs a citation. As far as I know, it is a descriptive name for the whole species (and the most common name), given for the color of Mesocricetus auratus in the wild. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 16:11, 9 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Golden hamster is a term used both to describe the species as a whole, due to it being the most common colour, but is still a colour variation nonetheless. In addition, the page lists variations in coat colour, pattern and style, not the specific breeds of hamster. --Tb240904 (talk) 18:01, 9 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I am removing the problem tags as you failed to respond my comment. I researched hamsters as part of my biology project last year so know what I'm saying is accurate. Also I have used references from more than one source. --tb240904 Talk Contribs 11:16, 19 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I have problems with this article. There is no main article for Syrian hamster. If Syrian is a superset of Golden—meaning there are other Syrian varieties that are not Golden—there needs to be a main article. If Syrian and Golden are really interchangeable, this article should be retitled Golden hamster breeds (or something similar) to match the main article. Incidentally, Golden hamster is only 14k; this article should really be merged into Golden hamster. / edg ☺ ☭ 11:32, 19 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This article makes no sense. I don't know what these variations are, but they do not seem like the breeds I've heard about. That this was researched as part of a biology project does not make it more accurate. I do not at all see how the golden hamster is a variation of the Syrian hamster—they are the same thing. This article currently doesn't seem worth merging even to the poor article we currently have on the golden hamster. —innotata 15:46, 19 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Looking this over again, I suppose this is really a list of traits, not breeds. There are sources, tho I'm not certain how reliable they are, and Hamsters: Black Eyed Cream Syrian Hamster no longer links to the information cited. If this were condensed a little (perhaps some of it could go into tables) and a bit better sourced, I imagine it could be merged as a Traits section in the Golden hamster article (where this article is already clumsily linked). However, I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable on this subject to be certain. / edg ☺ ☭ 20:22, 19 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Syrian Hamster and Golden Hamster have been used interchangeably as common names for Mesocricetus auratus in all the literature that I have read on the subject. The preferred name now is usually Syrian Hamster because the original name Golden Hamster also represents one of the color variations. Originally these hamsters came only in the color shown in this picture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Golden_hamster_front_1.jpg After many years of selective breeding a wide variety of colors and patterns have been developed. The information in this article is interesting and correlates with similar naming of fur colors and patterns in rabbits. However I have not seen any mention of this specific information in my web surfing. I found it interesting and hope that the author can further substantiate the data contained within. Was your college project published? What were your sources for that project? Did you do genetic testing to prove any of it? 21:23, 5 July 2010 (UTC)mlatham23 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mlatham23 (talk • contribs)

I can't see how the preferred name is "Syrian hamster", but see Talk:Golden hamster for why that page was moved.
I don't think this article is worth much. I don't even know what it refers to. Can you list traits, breeds, or what ever these are the way this article is written.
The user who wrote this page is a secondary school student. —innotata 21:39, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ok you made me get up and dig out my main reference. It is a magazine that I purchased at the pet store. The magazine name is HAMSTERS, an article named The Independent Species by Martha Boden. Copyright 2005 by Bowtie Magazines. The first paragraph states that the most common species of hamster in the US is the Syrian or Golden Hamster (Mesocticetus auratus). It goes on to use the term Syrian exclusively to refer to the breed. This is the case with the rest of the online articles that were quoted in the discussion on the "Golden" Page. Why a few people are still holding out against the change makes no sense. I left a comment on that page also. Because that page has made that decision, it makes discussions of the variations confusing.
Hopefully with some constructive questions the secondary student in question will provide us with his resources. If he does I will look at formatting to make it less confusing. I have to wander around the Wikipedia site some more to see what others have done. Mlatham23 (talk) 22:15, 5 July 2010 (UTC)mlatham23[reply]
I checked the citations and the first 2 went to pages that belonged to the Midland Hamster Club which is one of three clubs that make up the National Hamster Council in the UK, this is their website http://www.hamsters-uk.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=46. They refer to the this species with a common name of Syrian. They refer to Golden only as a color variation. The link above takes you to a very nice layout of the judging standards for the varieties of this species. Mlatham23 (talk) 01:58, 6 July 2010 (UTC)Mlatham23[reply]
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