Reverse Engineering Genetics

[Moon Breeze]

So I have a mom with 4 pretty little pups that I rescued recently.  The same day we also rescued a Siamese and 2 PEW males.  The previous owner told us she thought that one of the PEW males might be the father of the pups but was unsure.

Mom is definitely a DEH, possibly LDEH.

Her pups' colors consist of 3 PEWs and 1 Agouti.

What I am trying to find out:

* What are the mother's genetics?
* What are the pups' genetics?
* What color was the dad and what could his genetics be?  

From playing around with what I know of gerbie genetics, I -think- mom might be a LDEH with the following: A*C(chm)D*eePp

I'd be interested to know everyone's thoughts.

Thanks for reading!

[betty]

Because of the genetic nature of PEWs, this will be quite difficult to do as the colouration of them 'bleaches' all colours. They are basically colourpoints though.

If you think of the PEW colouration as a 'blanket', your PEW males could be ANY colour pink-eyed gerbil underneath. By this I mean that any known colour of pink-eyed gerbil (Argente/Lilac/REH/RESilver Nutmeg/etc) could become a PEW if it also has 2 c-recessive genes. The way the 2 sets of genes work together is to blank out the effects of anything else. This is why you can't get a Colourpoint Argente or a Colourpoint Red-Eyed Honey.

This is also true of any colourpoint gerbil who also carries 2 pink-eye genes - so a genetically Burmese gerbil who happens to carry 2 pp will become a PEW. You can't have a Pink-Eyed Burmese.

So although your genes for the Mother are probably right (if you put Cc* instead as you don't know she isn't carrying the ch rather than the chm) you can only work out the slimmest of genes for the PEW father **/c*c*/**/E*/pp. The Agouti pup is most likely A*/Cc*/D*/Ee/Pp, but the PEW pups can only be **/c*c*/**/*e/pp for definite. Unless you are having a second litter, you might never actually know more than this.

Does that look right to you? Also, if the Siamese was the PEWs actual brother, and/or the LDEH mum was their sister we could probably add a few more genes in, but otherwise, it is pretty slim pickings. Any pictures though?