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Post by geikou on Feb 10, 2004 22:32:40 GMT -8
I have a gerbil whose color I thought to be dove, based on comparison with pictures on the net. However, I've noticed that her color seemed to be changing. There are patches which are darker and seemed to be getting more and more. In this picture(sorry, a little blurry), you can see that there is a rather clear demarcation about midway along her body. The lower part is darker than the upper part. There are also small darker patches near the head. In this photo, you can see the clear "line" better, which marks the lower part as darker than the upper body. Near the thigh area, the color is lighter again. You can also see the dark patches on the head. I'm not too sure, but the dark patches seem to be increasing as she got older. I think she was more uniformly colored when younger. Or maybe I simply didn't notice this until recently. Are dark patches common among dove gerbils? Is my gerbil a dove at all, or simply not a pure dove?
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Feb 11, 2004 2:45:07 GMT -8
I've heard of this before with dove and lilac gerbils! But I'm not totally sure why that happens.
I shall ask around for you and will tell it here to you as soon as possible! (I'm very busy at this moment), maybe someone else can already give an answer?
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Feb 12, 2004 7:36:09 GMT -8
OK, Geikou, I've found some information! I knew I had seen it somewhere! ;D
This is from the National Gerbil Society (UK) website (written by Julian Barker):
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Post by geikou on Feb 12, 2004 10:11:20 GMT -8
Thanks, Peter! For looking up the information. That is very interesting. That could be the explanation for the dark colour. However, the dark patches on my gerbil does not seem as obvious as the ones in the pictures. I will be looking to see if the dark patches spread out even more, as I suspect. There was this owner in another forum whose gerbil displayed a similar dark patch. This gerbil looks particularly cute because the patch is on its head, so it looks like it's wearing a hat or helmet! www.greenfrogstudio.com/gerbils.htm
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Post by queenofthenile on Feb 12, 2004 19:13:54 GMT -8
geikou, that picture of your gerbils sleeping together underground is so cute!
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Feb 15, 2004 12:58:02 GMT -8
Geikou, I've discussed this with other people, and they say that your gerbil is most likely a Lilac or a sapphire, not a dove! And maybe a bad coloured lilac. Dark spots are indeed more obvious! And those patches have also dark pigment in its skin! Has your gerbil that? It can also be the effect of the red eyes (pp)! (this picture is from Eduardo, here is website: www.adeusinsetos.com/gerbil.html. It could also be that your gerbil is molting, the lines of different shades could mean that old hair is durty and new is clean and lighter. This lines could go to the tail and head at the same time, keep looking to see the complete molt (if it is a molt). This could be true, because you mentioned that the patches seem to be increasing as she got older! Keep us updated, e.g. on how he changes! ;D
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Post by geikou on Feb 16, 2004 0:26:14 GMT -8
Thanks again for looking up information! ;D Actually, this isn't really an important topic. I was just curious to see the colour difference, and wanted to know if this was common for other gerbils. For a long time, actually, I didn't care what colours my gerbils were. I just knew I had a "grey" and a "beige" gerbil. Later I wanted to know exactly what colours they are, so I looked up gerbil colors on the Internet. However, most of the pictures given as example of colours are not very clear, so it causes some confusion. Later, I found this website has a rather good picture to compare between a lilac, dove and sapphire. They also had a rather good detailed description of the colours. www.gerbilshowsuk.org/ ---Go to "Standards Gallery" under "Sapphire" ---See also " Dove" and "Lilac" Based on this picture and other sites, I decided my grey gerbil looked most like a Dove. That's because its colour (if you see it in the flesh) is really more of a "silvery" grey, rather than a sort of "leaden" grey in the lilac and to a lesser extent, the sapphire. However, it's still not accurate to judge based on pictures. I certainly find the lilac colour very attractive, but I would be hard-pressed to call my gerbil a lilac. If my gerbil is a Sapphire, that would mean it is carrying the c(chm) gene, the Burmese gene? So far, i have not heard of any Burmese or Siamese gerbil here. I don't think there are any here yet. But it still remains possible that my gerbil could have descended from a Sapphire. I actually asked the breeder whom I got my gerbils from, but he could only tell me the parents are Argente and Dove. Of course he may be mistaken and the " dove" parent could actually be a Sapphire? As I thought the c(chm) gene is likely to be more rare than the ch, i thought my gerbil would most likely be a Dove rather than Sapphire. Anyway, I also think the darker patches on my gerbil are most likely not the Dark Patched types, because they are actually not that dark, but still dark enough to be noticeable. Now I believe it is possibly a molt. I have read that all gerbils molt their coat, but in most colours this is not observable, except for some colors such as Nutmeg. There also isn't much information on the molting of grey or other colored gerbils, or so-called "bad-coloured" gerbils. However, the molt (if it is a molt) for my gerbil seems to be from a lighter to a darker grey, instead of the other way around. Now, the darker patches does make her look somewhat like a sapphire (but still too light to be lilac), but before dark patches, she cartainly looked more like a dove. I will try to post pics here if there are any further obvious molting.
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Feb 16, 2004 4:25:58 GMT -8
I've seen molt in my nutmeg gerbils, but here is a German page with pictures of molt in a lilac gerbil: www.ig-rennmaeuse.de/platin.htm. We're curious too, OK I am! I've also not much experience with dark spots or molt (exept in nutmegs)! So I learn also from this! ;D
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