Question About My Chinnies' Genetics

[Ristarwen]

I'm still a little confused about the recessive/dominant traits and breeding for said traits...there are just so many colors!!! So, first off, can anyone suggest any article/paper/book on chinchilla genetic selection?

Now, to the real question: I have two standard males. Their mother is beige. Their father was supposedly also gray. From what I understand, gray is a dominant allele above all others?

So, assuming that their momma is a homo beige, would they be considered "beige carriers" (hetero beige?), or are hetero beige, even with a gray allele, still beige, just lighter than homo? Would their mom have to be hetero beige to pass them a gray allele to go with the one from the father?

Just to be clear, I am NOT planning on using these guys for breeding. But if I were to breed them to a homo beige, would I have a 50% chance of getting homo beige babies, assuming their mom was also homo?

I really am just curious...I'd love to know more in-depth information on chinchilla color genetics.

 

[I<3MyChinnies]

But if I were to breed them to a homo beige, would I have a 50% chance of getting homo beige babies, assuming their mom was also homo?

I'll let others answers the bulk of this, but the quick answer to this part is no. You can only get HOMO beige chinchillas when BOTH parents are beige. Your two standards cannot yield homo beige chinchillas as far as I know. Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[aznmexaggie]

Beige is a dominant gene. If a chin gets one beige gene from a parent, he will be beige in appearance. If he gets two beige genes, he is homozygous for beige and will be a lighter champagne beige color.

If their mom was homo beige, both of her offspring would have been hetero beiges as beige is the only gene that mom could give. However, since they are standards, their mom is a hetero beige and did not throw her beige gene (which would have been a 50/50 chance). Beige is not a recessive gene which can be carried so no, those kits do not have a beige gene to give to their offspring and cannot produce beiges when bred to a standard. If bred to a homo beige, all 100% of the kits would be hetero beiges due to the female having only beige genes to offer.

 

[minrex]

No, standard grey is not dominant over all other colors. White, beige, TOV, and many of the ebony genes are all generally dominant over standard grey. In fact, the only colors you usually come across that are recessive to grey are violet and sapphire.

Since beige is dominant over standard, your two standards do not carry the beige gene, even though one of their parents was a beige. If they had the beige gene, they would be beige. Therefore, breeding to a true homo beige would produce 100% hetero beige offspring. Breeding to a hetero beige would statistically produce 50% hetero beige, 50% standard offspring. There is no way you can get a homo beige out of a standard parent.

 

[Ristarwen]

Okay, thanks. :thumbsup: That was a bit of confusion for me.

 

[Rickman]

If you google SILVERFALL CHINCHILLAS they have a calculator that helps a lot - read their front page twice to help understand the differences that can occur, as even a computor can't forsee the things that can happen in genetics! You'll have fun with it, too!

 

[ky2pr]

Here is the link to the Silverfalls Calculator. If you are interested in chinnie genetics, this is fun to play with.

http://www.silverfallchinchilla.com/genetics/ChinCrossCalculator.aspx

 

[Spoof]

If you really want to learn the ins and outs of colors, do some punnet squares. This page walks you through the colors and how they work. )