How Rare IS Rare?

[tuftsnfluff]

One thing I can say about my rather wiggy current breeding female.. is her and her mate, Alabaster "Frost", can certainly create some beautiful pups.

However, it seems to have gotten better.

Her first Two litters produced Golden Agouti and Schimmel, and in the 2nd litter I got a Lt. Nutmeg with the afore mentioned two

But in the THIRD litter, her largest at SIX pups, she dropped two Blacks.

Where this isn't surprising by any means, as nowadays recessive "a" is so prolific, I'd pretty much bet on EVERY gerbil having at least ONE "a" in their genetic code.

What IS surprising is the Black MALE pup of this litter literally has NO WHITE on him where black gerbils are supposed to have it.  

No small stripe of white from the chin, none on his paws, even under his nose is more pink skin color than showing any white. 

Here he is at 16 days old.  Just shy of opening his eyes.

Now, my understanding is its almost impossible to get a SOLID Pure Black gerbil, but how RARE is it really?

Personally, I've never seen one till this litter.  All black gerbils I've ever seen had the white strip under their chin, long or short, and always had white flecking or spotting on their front paws

In fact, his sister has hardly any white on her at all either except for a small tiny dot on ONE of her paws and just under her nose.  I cant remember if she has a chin stripe, I don't THINK so.

So, I'm really curious what others thoughts, opinions, and experience on this is.

Could I possibly really have a Pure Black Gerbil Line with this pair? 

If so, this can be extremely exciting and I'll want to hold on to some of these kiddos most definitely!

He's a little over two months old now, and checking him, he still has NO white chin stripe or any on his paws.  He might have a tiny bit under his nose, but he's an explorer and wouldn't sit still for me to flip him over and really look.   But its so hard to tell if its some white or, again, just his skin color showing through in a spot where the hair is sparse.

Even better, Jinks just had another litter of SIX pups this month, June 18th.

Where the pups are now NINE days old..   She dropped three blacks and three Schimmels.

But the blacks in this litter are looking the same, either NO white at ALL or the barest hint on a paw.

How awesome is THAT?

[Shooting Star]

No-white Blacks aren't actually that difficult. The problem is you have to have an actual line dedicated to them, and you can't just breed the ones with the least white without paying attention to temperament and type.

Almost every breeder these days decides what to breed based on how difficult it will be to rehome the pups. Black is boring. If you add C-recessives, it washes out the color. Dd and Ee are okay. Adding uw[d] just makes Slate, which looks the same as Black to adopters. Red eyes (p) are often a no-go. Spotting in a low-white line gives tiny-spot, which just isn't as attractive to adopters as the patterns with more white. So nobody actually breeds for Black, it's just a byproduct of other breeding goals.

[tuftsnfluff]

Indeed my intention was not to breed for Black, in fact, I was told that Alabaster "Frost" didn't carry "a" or a "p" in his line at all back to his grandfather.

Clearly, that ended up not being true, so guess who's going to change from "AA" to "Aa".  LOL   I'm pretty sure he's a CP DeH.

It's really clear however, that he has "PP", because despite being with a Lilac, they have never thrown a "pp" pup in Five litters.

All we have gotten has been Schimmel, Golden Agouti, Black, and Nutmeg.  Never gotten a DeH even though the percentage is the same as getting a Nutmeg.

What I was after with this pair was the e(f) they both carry.  We only have two lines of Schimmel where I am and I believe they are closely related. 

I wanted to start a third that's non-related.

As far as temperament goes, Frost is the most amazing father I've ever had.   Always attentive and curled up on his babies when Jinks isn't feeding them.

And when I say "wiggy" for Jinks, she's a bit hyper-active and can't seem to slow down, almost like ADD in people, but I've actually noticed this behavior in most Lilacs I've had, which has been three at best.  I worried because of this behavior, she would find it hard to concentrate on caring for and feeding the pups.

But, she's a great mother --  till --  she's ready to drop another litter and she then wants to chase off the current group of kids at 3 to 4 weeks old. 

Can't really blame her for that one.

So, we end up hand feeding them kitten milk, and showing them about the water bottle.  And that's fine as my hubby loves the hands on syringe feeding.

Both parents are incredibly sweet, never nip or bite, and clamor right into our hands when we put them in the tank and their kids end up doing the same.

Their pups are some of the sweetest, no fear little explorers we've ever had. 

As for as Blacks being boring, I always thought so and such may be accurate for you and in your area, but here.. EVERYONE wants Blacks.

My husband ADORES the blacks, and a breeder near me is partial to them as well.   

Most all my adopters want at least one black in every pair I rehome, so getting them to good homes is never an issue.

I usually find that the biggest adoption issue for gerbils is the "pp" White gerbils.   Those tend to "creep" people out and make them think "albino rat".

And you can explain all you like, but it doesn't matter.

Personally I love the "pp" whites, as they are usually a smorgasbord of wonderful recessives.  And though I know its a sight issue, I love how some of them sway back and forth.  

Other "pp''s I tend not to have a problem with adopting.  As long as the fur has some sort of nice color, most my adopters don't care.

Where this isn't a "dedicated" line for No-White Blacks, I had always heard it was really hard to get them with no white at all. 

I'm sure I will keep least two of them.  I do wonder what those that pick up e(f) will look like later down the line as they get older.

It sure is working funny on their mother, lightening her up in patches here an there.  It isn't uniform "fading" at all.

Its been very interesting to say the least.

Sadly, this pair is reaching the end of their viable breeding as Jinks will be 2 years old in July and, with the exception of this most recent litter, the litters are getting smaller and smaller and I believe soon, not at all.  It's a shame as their pups have been so popular, I've only been able to keep ONE male Schimmel and his "no-white" Black brother.

I'm hoping to keep another male and least one female Schimmel. 

Since I have two female Schimmel sisters from the two possibly related lines listed above, (I have their e(ef) Light Nutmeg father).. I will at least have the chance to keep a non related Schimmel line going if I can find a way to get another non related Schimmel down the line from somewhere else. 

Hopefully that won't be too hard as my friend, Sarah, from River City Gerbils, goes to AGS shows often and she's willing to bring me a Schimmel, Polar Fox, and Silver Nutmeg when possible.

Though, with what's been going on with them recently, not sure that's a good idea anymore.

BUT!!... the pairs she has together right now are capable of producing the latter two of the three!!  

Yay!

[Rockstar Gerbil Clan]

Lucky!!

I have two gorgeous glossy black females from a recent litter with the tiniest white on their fore paws. I was musing about how to go about getting a solid black gerbil. So count me incredibly jealous! Black is lovely, my mom likes them too.

[tuftsnfluff]

Hey RockStar!

Love your Sig banner!   Siamese gerbils are one of my favorite colors.

I'd be happy to provide you (and a friend I have also a gerbil breeder in Canada, Royalized) some solid color blacks if at all possible!

Her June 18th litter popped three Blacks and much to my surprise, was not Schimmel but three Light DeH.

And her last litter, born July 21st, gave two Blacks and what's looking like two Light Schimmel for sure..

I need to check them all to see the percentage ratio of white to black, but I think most of them seem to have very little to no white at all.

Where I would love see and take a trip to Canada, we just relocated and ,sadly, not a plan any time soon.