Gerbil Breeding: Discover The Genes

Well if it was me I'd choose an Agouti with the fewest recessives possible as a partner. I'd even breed the Agouti beforehand to make sure it is not carrying any recessives. That way I KNOW that if recessives appear in the grandchildren, they are coming from the "unknown" gerbil grandparent and not from the Agouti. Since finding out what the "unknown gerbil" carries is the aim you don't want to begin with another parent that carries anything else, if you can help it.

At the most, I'd choose an Agouti gerbil that carries only Aa and Pp, so that at least we know the grandchildren's colours will also mix with aa and pp recessives so you get all the possible colours in each type of recessive (eg: gray agouti, slate, Ivory Cream, REW in gg recessives).

So if the Agouti is AA CC DD EE GG PP and unknown gerbil is ** ** ** ** ** **,

all their offspring are going to be A* C* D* E* G* P* Agouti's,

and all the pups will carry one recessive of each type that the unknown parent has, and they will be identical to each other genetically as well as physically. If you then breed a pair of that second generation for several litters you will find out exactly what genes you have as the alleles come apart and come together (try it on a gene calculator, by substituting any recessives you like in the Agouti code where the stars are, but make sure the parents have identical codes).

The trouble with breeding your "unknown" gerbil with an existing recessive type of gerbil is that you may or may not get what you are expecting, but if what they carry is a new gene, you'll never know. You HAVE to make the new, unknown genes double up on themselves by selfing, as I have described. It is the only way for a new genetic trait to emerge (bar chance mutation).

Take for example the possibility that the ticked gerbils are dilute light colourpoint agouti, with codes like this:

Aa c(h)c(chm) dd Ee Gg Pp

and their siblings are dilute Siamese, aa c(h)c(chm) dd Ee Gg Pp

and some PEW siblings thrown in for good measure, ** c(h)c(chm) Dd Ee Gg pp (or REW, or RESN, whatever recessives you like)

how would you ever know you had both the dilute genes, dd, and the c(chm) genes since you don't have gerbils with full recessives in those types to test them with? And are you going to breed them to a gg, then an ee, aa, and pp partner successively, to find out if they carry those specific genes? It will take you a very long time to do this with lots of split caging, etc.

That means, to really find out for sure, you've GOT to do some limited inbreeding. But once you have done it, you know what's what. It's really what I'd have done from the very first, TBH.

Source: http://gerbilforum.proboards21.com/index.cgi?board=colours&action=display&thread=1152720064
Author: Sandy
Web: <a href="http://www.geocities.com/cvaneysinga/gerbil.html" target="_blank">The Gerbil Corner</a>
Originally Posted by Skylinux @ 2006-07-23 10:08:42

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