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Post by TJ's Rodent Ranch on Apr 5, 2024 10:56:16 GMT -8
I first put this in the Member Photos section, but I don't think it got a lot of views there. I got this little guy from a petstore (where this photo was taken) and originally thought that he might be dove or lilac. I've never come across a color like this, so I've got absolutely no clue, those were just my impulsive first thoughts, lol.
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Post by betty on Apr 6, 2024 6:23:58 GMT -8
Yes - he's one of the self silvers (aa ** pp) - most likely Sapphire, but possibly Lilac as they are darker in color.
Genetically - the Lilac is aaCCpp; the Dove is aaCcchpp; and Sapphire (midway between the two) is aaCcchmpp.
Show-wise they only call for the extremes of color in the range - so Lilac for the darkest silvers (I call them silvers as they are the color gene twins of the argentes and argente means silver) and the Dove for the palest silvers irrespective of the genes (well, you can't see the genes at a show so why fuss over them).
Because the cp gene is so variable a light Lilac could be as pale as a dark Sapphire, and a light Sapphire lighter than a dark Dove - so it can be tricky to tell them 100% apart from just single photos. Sapphires pop up the most because the chm gene is very common in the UK at least.
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Post by TJ's Rodent Ranch on Apr 6, 2024 15:55:45 GMT -8
Ah, I'd completely forgotten about Sapphires.
I'm trying to find a good female to breed him with so that I can hopefully carry his color into the pups. Looks like I'm going to have to dive back into genetics... the last time was fun, but if I have the time right now is the question, lol.
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Post by betty on Apr 7, 2024 10:30:31 GMT -8
I went with aa lines for my Sapphires - as you want to avoid mixing the cp with pp where possible (to avoid the PEWs) - so I used the 3 genes aa - pp - ee and got loads of self blacks, silvers and gingers. All looked great in litters.
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Post by TJ's Rodent Ranch on Apr 9, 2024 22:45:20 GMT -8
Hmm... interesting. I'm trying to think of a gerbil that would have those genes. I put him with one of my newer females, Jackalope. She's a black (possibly a slate). I'm still a bit of a dummy with genetics, I haven't touched on it in a bit, so sorry if I've gotten something wrong!
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Post by betty on Apr 11, 2024 10:35:09 GMT -8
Slate to Sapphire could still get the blacks/slates and silvers (if Jackalope carries a pink-eye gene there).
As for the aa ee pp triangle - it is all about the recessives really as you can't double up on ee or pp in both gerbils. They both need aa - but (for ease) only one can be ee (and the other must carry e) and only one can be pp (and the other must carry p).
So if you have the Sapphire (pp) carrying e - the other must be a Nutmeg (ee) carrying p OR a Black or Slate carrying both e and p.
They can however both be plain black if they both carry both e and p and you'd still get all 3 colors.
Basically between the two of the them you want aa aa; *e *e; and *p *p (and ideally nothing else recessive that pairs up).
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