No, I'm sure they were black. Not nearly as much white as in grey
agoutis. They were black on top, sides, and belly, with the typical
white bib and white areas on the paws. There were also some pied black
younger gerbils in another tank, but the attendant didn't know whether
or not they were the offspring of the adults in question. I'm
suspicious that they're just aged black gerbils. It could be that
they're pied I guess, but there is no white collar and no solid, or even
mottled, area of white. Just specks. Looks almost like a black gerbil
who was sprinkled with confectioner's sugar, but the white is very
evenly spread throughout the coat. I may go buy them just so I can take
pictures to show the List. :-)
Rick
Julian and Jackie wrote:
>
> Rick Stidham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>
> >I saw three male black gerbils in a pet shop today that were black with
> >a generous amount of white ticking all over their bodies. Almost like a
> >nutmeg but with black where the brown would be, and white where the
> >black would be.
>
> Are you sure this wasn't either Grey Agouti - that is Golden Agouti with
> white where the yellow is so they are white and black all over except
> for their white belly?
>
> If not, they were probably some sort of pied black.
>
> There are silvering genes in other animals that give a lot of white
> hairs on the flanks of the animal. But silvering in gerbils is not known
> to exist.
>
> --
> Julian
>
> ************************************************************************
> * Jackie and Julian *
> * [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
> * National Gerbil Society *
> * http://www.gerbils.co.uk/ *
> ************************************************************************
