Crazy greys

[moondancer]

Here is my second generation of gerbil breeding.

Strawberry is my own production and I believe she is a saffron spotted or Argente spotted I do have a photo of her (photo below is her sister but she is identical to her but with white markings on her head)

The mother was REH and father was SAPPHIRE and both were spotted too.

The father of the pups was a black pied who belonged to my friend. I can't remember his lineage but I can ask her.

Here are the 7 pups (5 girls and 2 boys) and none were like their father and a lot of grey's. I am curious what the greys are though as they are different shades. The two pale ones were white as newborn


The group photo of them in the box

Facial shots of the pups

Side view

Solo body shots

Belly shot

I am loving my lines so far hope I get nice 3rd generation from these when older

[betty]

It all depends on the under-hairs. If you rough her hair up backwards - an Argente will be silver/grey underneath and a saffron won't be. The spotting doesn't change that.

The full white chest can also help but can look confusing with the spotting white chest. But if her full tummy is white (even up the sides around her waist) and her undercoat is grey - Argente for sure.

Also, if her sister has a full white tummy too (chest to vent) she will be Argente too. (unspotted) Saffrons don't have a clear white strip on the tummy so that makes it easy.



As for the pups - even though I am not great at images - they all look like self silvers (Lilacs and Sapphires for sure).

Now with a Saffron and a Black gerbil this all makes sense - but the fact they all have red eyes is a bit more unusual statistically as the dad must have had one dark eye gene to pass on. It isn't impossible for a dark eyed parent to have all pink eyed pups - especially where the colorpoint genes are involved - but it is unusual for sure to see in such a large litter.

I do love the selfs...

[moondancer]

I have photos of them at 2 anx 3 wks old and when she was 10wks old.

I believe when they were weak their pigmentation was grey like as I thought they were sapphires until they turned 2wks.

They both have the white stripes

Here are the photos

FULL BELLY AT 3WKS


SIDE VIEW AT 2WKS


CLOVER AND STRAWBERRY AT 3WKS SIDE BY SIDE


STRAWBERRY AT 11WKS

Yeah I sm shocked they are all red eyes was hoping for a black. But having so many greys are so adorable. I am very proud of my lines

[betty]

The fact mum is an argente makes this even more unusual (statistically). The punnet square on this one is all out of wonk.


Having dad being dark-eye based - to have absolutely none of this dominant trait in the pups is very unusual.

If you were asking in advance what colour pups these two would have from an Argente mum and Black dad - we would say Agouti only for sure; followed by Black (only if the mum carried an a) and Argente (only if the dad carried a p). You would only get the silvers if both were true.

If you showed me the mum and those 7 red-eyed pups and asked me to guess what colour the dad was I would say a silver - most likely a Sapphire.

Hmm. What a surprise genetics can be...

[moondancer]

They are very unquie litter. I was expecting black eyed pups honestly from them. But to get mostly greys I was shocked seeing them. I am hoping there is a breeding quality from this litter. If i was trying to get lilacs or sapphires I wouldn't get them. But now I am. Where I live greys are rare.

The solid ones are boys. The little sapphire spotted female is mind (her white is hard to see with the flash), she is called daffodil and the smallest.

[betty]

How are they faring now moondancer? Any quality ones to choose from in the end?

And how is Daffodil - did she catch up in size?