Re: Breeding pair

[Sarah Conte]

Hi, Another thing you should know is that when you have two spotted/pied gerbils, their litters might be smaller than a non-spotted or mixed pair.  Spotted gerbils carry the gene Spsp, and non-spotted carry spsp.  As far as I know, no gerbils carry SpSp because this combination is lethal, and any pups who carry this gene die in utero.  Therefore, about half of their pups will likely not make it.  This is not a reason not to breed them, just FYI.  If you're interested in predicting potential litters, use this website: http://home.wtal.de/ehr/gerbils/colors.htm to find pictures that look like them, the copy down the genotypes of their color (ex: black spotted is aaC-D-E-G-P-Spsp) Then use this website: http://www.netxp.com/rick/gerbils/genetics.html to plug in those genotypes to predict what the pups might look like.  Once they have their first litter, you should be able to predict with more accuracy. Hope this helps :) Sarah The Classic Theatrical Struggle: The Show Must Go On vs. This Is Stupid, I'm Going Home!