4/16/98 Cookies and Nutty's babies born 4/8/98 are 8 days old. When I took them out to see their colors. I counted 1 Black,3 black Pied,1 Nutmeg pied,and 1 Red Fox pied. Then when I was putting them back,I saw another pied baby. I counted them again. "7 babies".This was a nice suprise :o) because I thought one died.
This is Oreo with Sunkist's last litter. They Survived being weaned at 20 days old.
Creamy and Wally are making a burrow against the front of the tank, in the first picture. Nabisco is sleeping in the burrow against the back of the tank,in the second picture.
This is Nutty, Cookie and OrangeGina (born 3/4/98).OrangeGina is Sunkist's Grandaughter.
5/2/98 Nutty and his babies were given new homes.I didnt want anymore nutmeg babies or colors I already have.I still have a nutmeg pied, his son Wally. He is with Creamy,Pookie, and Nabisco.
5/8/98 Below is a link for the Gerbil Mailing List,Gerbil Picture contest. On the mailing list, I suggested a "Internet gerbil show" and this contest is the result of this idea.
5/10/98 Oreo is still with his babies. I haven't been able to find homes for them. I was going to breed one of the babies with Cookies Red fox pied female baby (born 3/4/98),but I've changed my mind. Cookies next litter of babies have nicer markings.(born 4/8/98) One of the black babies is very pied, almost Mottled. This gerbil will be a good mate for Oreo. She is Oreo's Granddaughter. Perhaps,I will get mottled gerbils. Cookie also has another Red fox pied baby.(born 4/8/98)I could pair the two Red fox pied babies together and maybe get Red fox Mottled ? These Red Fox babies are Sunkist's Grandchildren. Creamy and the others are fine. Several days ago, I gave them several egg cartons and a box, now its part of the litter.
5/15/98 Cookie had 7 babies today.:o)
5/23/98 The 7 babies are 2 Black pied, 2 Nutmeg pied,1 nutmeg, 1 Lilac, and 1 lilac pied.
6/11/98 One of the babies died today.It was the lilac pied baby I wanted.:o( He was a runt and may have had a congenital condition.
Oreo and his new mate April mated today. April was born April 8,1998 and is 9 weeks old. She is Cookies daughter.
6/18/98 Today, I received this award.
If you want to win this award click here.
6/26/98 All of Cookies babies went to Parrots of The World Pet shop today except one male and one female. I really liked the colors of the babies, but the ones I wanted were female.I kept a Red fox male son "Sunny-delight"and Black pied'almost motted' female "April" from April 8,1998.The Red fox pied will be Cookies new mate. Perhaps, I will get very pied babies in different colors since both have a few spots on their hips?
7/3/98 The winners of the GML Gerbil picture contest are up.
7/6/98 Oreo and April had 4 babies today.This litter is my 6th generation born.Maybe some will be Motted?
7/8/98 One two three four five....five? Oreo and April had FIVE babies not four.I can just barely make out the pied markings on their heads.
7/10/98 Some of the babies have faint markings on their rumps, Its still too early to tell if they are motted. Today I updated the Family tree part 2.
7/21/98 Oreos's babies are 4 almost motted and 1 black.
Here is information about Pied
markings and the lethal gene in Gerbils, from the Gerbil
Mailing List. Given by Julian Barker of the National Gerbil
Society. On the mailing list, Julian wrote: Because of
the introduction of Pieds there is now almost a complete
continuum available from a small spot on the head through
to an animal with about 50% white.
Then I asked Does the lethal gene apply to all forms of spotting? My pied to pied matings have resulted in large litters. I am starting to get almost Motted gerbils like Oreo.
(The Lethal gene usually causes litters to be smaller because of the SPSP gene)
Then Julian responded : I don't think
anyone has proved that but I would be very surprised if it
was not the case. The problem is, if the litters are not
reduced by a homozygous lethal, what colour are the living
homozygous pups?
This is because:
All the evidence suggests that pied gerbils are spotted
animals with a modification that extends the white
markings. Therefore all pieds are also Sp+. If pied is not
related to a lethal dominant spotting then it is clearly
not dominant because Pied x Pied does not only produce
pied, you get spotted gerbils as well. If it is an
independent recessive gene you would get unmarked x
unmarked = pied or at least spotted, which doesn't happen.
Do we see lots of surviving black eyed whites? We would
expect this if homozygous spotted animals survived because
with homozygous lethal in mice and other species it is
possible to transplant tissue from the embryos that will
die onto viable embryos and the transplanted areas is
always completely white. In some types of lethal spotting,
mice do sometimes live past birth and are dark eyed whites.
However, they often die within days or weeks afterwards,
tend to be very anaemic and in some varieties can be
sterile.
Obviously producing such animals are not desirable.
Dominant white spotting is caused by the migration of
certain types of cells being delayed during the development
of the embryo. The cells that will create pigment never get
as far as the areas which will eventually be white. Because
of the pattern of migration, the areas that are white
always follow a pattern. For example, the nose and feet are
more likely to be white than any other area. Different
animals have different patterns of migration so the white
markings are different. For example, the hooding in rats is
caused this way.
It is easy to imagine pied as a series of modifying factors
that between them delay the migration further and further.
However, the delaying of this migration could also delay
development elsewhere in the embryo which may be why
certain problems like circling have been seen in some
heavily marked gerbils as well as other white marked
animals.
It is possible that there is a factor for mosaicism that is
in circulation. This would help explain some off the
mottled gerbils I have seen and in particular the dark
patched pieds. Mosaicism is where for some reason, often
due to problems in copying DNA in the embryo, different
parts of the animals have different genotypes. IE, in a DPP
some of the gerbil may be pied and some of it isn't! If
this is a result of mosaicism then it would explain
breeding problems these animals have had. Interestingly,
the first Spots to come to the UK nearly died out after a
few years due to similar breeding problems.
Julian
G's Gerbils will soon be registered show gerbils.
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