Hi everyone,
I received a beautiful gerbil from Rebecca Allbritton last month. Her
best guess on (pre-molt) color was that he'd be a silver nutmeg spot.
When he arrived he was white with patches of pale, pale orange. He's
molted into a silver color -- his back is a mix of light - dark grey
with lots of variation among varying hairs. His back looks like
pictures of a silver nutmeg on the gerbil color palette at
http://home.wtal.de/ehr/gerbils/colors.htm , with a thin sliver of white
up the top of his nose and a tiny dot (2 mm) of white on top of his
head. The interesting thing is that his belly is pure white and his
toenails are white, too.
Below are the genetics of his parents and the possible dark-eyed colors
they can produce.
I'd say the only possibilities would be Silver nutmeg: aa Ccb ee gg P-
Spsp
or polar fox: aa Ccb ee gg P- Spsp
or (doubtful) even a grey agouti spot: Aa Ccb E- gg P- Spsp
Now here's the question:
if he were silver nutmeg (spot), i.e., self colored, could he have a
white belly and toenails??
if he were a polar fox wouldn't he be a variation of white?
if he were a grey agouti wouldn't he have darker pigment and not molt?
Thanks for any color help here -- I'll post the Silver Bullet molting
picture series if I ever get around to developing all my film,
Donna A.
Mom is a colorpoint slate: aac[b]c[b]EeggP-spsp
Dad is a grey agouti spot: AaCCEeggP-Spsp
Agouti - 18.75%
Grey Agouti - 18.75%
Black - 18.75%
Slate - 18.75%
Algerian Fox (Dark Eyed Honey) - 6.25%
Nutmeg - 6.25%
Polar Fox - 6.25%
Blue Fox (Silver Nutmeg) - 6.25%
Aa Ccb ee gg PP Spsp
