Genetics Question

[Zoo Kid]

My Black gerbil Shadow does not have a white belly "A" gene. Would I put "aa" or " "? Also Shadow has some white areas on his belly. Should I put "SpSp(+)" or "sp(+)sp(+)" I just got the calculator.

[Zoo Kid]

How do you tell a dominent (sp) gene. Also. WHY HASEN'T ANYONE RESPONDED. :splat:

[Padfoot]

shadow is a black gerbil right? if so, then he's aa. the A gene is for the characteristic agouti coloration, which has white belly and the hairs are one color at the base and a different color at the tip. If you notice, white bellies caused by the A gene are not pure white, and more like a creme or grayish tone. aa gerbils have the same color all over their bodies unless they are spotted. Spotted gerbils can have most of their belly white and can be confused with the called white belly of agouti gerbils. The white of spotted gerbils is a pure white. I think that you should put your gerbil Spsp(+). Spsp(+) is for spotted and sp(+)sp(+) is for non spotted gerbils. SpSp is lethal, which means the baby dies in the womb. Really, when using the gerbil color calculator, the Sp doesn't matter a lot, cause it doesn't intefere directly with color (it can lighten some colors and such, but when using the calculator, if you put the sp it only tells you that half the offspring will be spotted if you have a spotted with a non-spotted and that 1/4 of them will die if you have 2 spotted paired)

[Zoo Kid]

So that means that the babies will have SpSp genes in them. Does SpSp kill all or some? Will the SpSp killed babies be stillborn :aeek2: .

[Padfoot]

SpSp kill all that have that genetic combination. This means that your breeding pair (I'm assuming that both are spotted, right?) will have 25% less babies that they would have had if not both were spotted. They will have babies, but not as much. I'm not sure what the term stillborn covers (my main language is spanish, not english), but the babies that are SpSp are not born at all. so you'll really won't know how many SpSp were.

[Zoo Kid]

Stillborn means that the baby comes out dead. Also when did you learn English? and why?

[Padfoot]

Puerto Rico is part of the US, so schools teach english... been learning it since kinder... but the official language is spanish...

[andreaS15]

I was under the impression the babies wouldn't be born at all, and that the fetus's was absorbed into the mothers body?
Maybe I misread somewhere?

[Padfoot]

Yeah, that's exactly what happens, cause they die in a really early stage of developement.