Yesterday, my Lisa passed away. She wasn’t a breeder, but she was one of my oldest gerbies. Her death has me worried about her sisters, Coco and Java. Coco was never a breeder for me either, but Java was. A beautiful siamese, she never gave me siamese. I had her paired with Gandalf, whom I thought was a dove (and therefore should have given me siamese), but I never got any, so I think he was a lilac who just looked light because of the spotting gene.
I have one of his sons with Honeysuckle, and they had one litter, of which I kept one pup (Annabelle). I put another son with Peanut, but only got blacks (and black with whites). Again, not colors that are genetically what I need in order to get closer to more rare colors. But, I don’t really have a plan, so without a plan, how do I know if I am getting any closer?
What I need to do is decide what I want to eventually put out, then I have to get gerbils with the genetics to get me there. My hubby wants to blend the Lauren/Vincent line with the Java/Gandalf line, but that doesn’t necessarily give me anything genetically useable.
Most of the gerbils that came from the Lauren/Vincent line are really too old to breed. All the females are. That leaves only males, and even those are really too old, except maybe Bambi or Flower, who are grandchildren. There are no females young enough on the Java/Gandalf line except whatever comes from Honeysuckle or Peanut (which means Annabelle).
If I put Annabelle and Bambi together, I would get Light Dark Eyed Honey, A*C(cb\ch)D*e(e\ef)G*P*; (BEW) Light CP Dark Eyed Honey, A*cbchD*e(e\ef)G*P*; Himalayan, DTW, A*chch******P*; Himalayan, Very DTW, aachch******P*. From those, I could get siamese and burmese if I matched with a burmese or siamese.
I just don’t which way to go right now.
