Just For Fuzzies- Genetics

Glider Colors and Genetics

The Basics

To start, there are 2 types of genes in gliders: Dominant and Recessive.

The colors known to be Dominant are: Mosaic and White Face. The colors known to be Recessive are: Leucistic, Cremino, and Albino. There are 2 colors that are still being studied and are not yet fully figured out just yet. Those 2 colors are: Platinum and White Tip.

When a color is dominant then one parent MUST already have the color in order to produce a joey of that color and there are no hets for dominant genes.

EXAMPLE: You have to have a mosaic parent in order to have mosaic joeys. Also, if a mosaic glider has a gray, non-mosaic joey, then that joey can NOT produce mosaics.

When a color is recessive then the parents do not have to SHOW the gene, however, BOTH parents need the gene in order for them to be able to produce a joey of that color. Any joeys produced from a glider showing a recessive gene(a leucistic, cremino, or albino) will have the gene, whether or not they show it.

EXAMPLE: If you pair a leucistic and a 100% leucistic het and they have a leucistic joey and a gray joey. The gray joey, even though it does not show the color, still has the leucistic gene because 1 of the parents is a leucistic.

Here's where gentics get confusing...percentages. :P

If you are going to be breeding gliders with a Recessive gene, then you'll need to be able to understand how the percentages are determined in order to know what kind of joeys you will have and to know what your odds are of getting a joey of the color you are breeding for. The simplest way to explain it would be with the Punnett Square.

I used the Leucistic gene for these squares, but it applies the same way to the other Dominant colors as well.

All 4 joeys will be Leucistics

2 Joeys will be Leucistics and 2 will be Hets

All 4 joeys will be Hets

1 joey will be a leucistic, 2 joeys will be Hets, and 1 will not have the leu gene.

LL= Leucistic

Lg= Leucistic Het

gg= Gray

Those are the easy to remember pairings, the ones that get a bit tougher are the ones with POSSIBLE hets being produced. If a het is less then 100% then it's not actually a het, it's only a posssible het. The percentage is simply the percentage of the glider actually having the gene. For example: a 50% leu het has a 50% chance of carrying the gene. Now, if a possible het produces a joey of color(leucistic/cremino/albino), then that possible het has proven that it has the gene and then becomes a 100% het.

Here are some of the most common pairing percentages:

* Color(leucistic/cremino/albino) x anything = 100% Het

* 100% x 100% = 66%

* 100% x 50%= 50-66%

* 100% x gray = 50%

* 66% x gray = 33%

* 50% x gray = 25%

The Color Variations

Leucistics

Description:	Entirely white body with black eyes. Ears sometimes have gray shading.
Het Description:	Sometimes leucistic hets will have lighter-colored bodies.
Information:	There are 5 Leucistic lines: Cheese, Ethan/Gabriel/Fizban, and Sammie/Sesamie. Cheese was imported to the US along with Mac, a mosaic. Ethan, Gabriel, and Fizban are brothers that were bred by a breeder in Canada. Sammie and Sesamie are brother/sister from a glider owner in Arkansas. The 2 newest lines are the Magnolia line, from ToandFro Gliders and the Snow White line, from The Pet Glider.

Albinos(T-)
No Picture Available...
Description:	Entirely white body with red eyes.
Het Description:	As far as I know, albino hets have no unique characteristics.
Information:	There is 1 Albino line: Moe and Disco. They are both gray albino hets and have produced 5 albino joeys: Alabaster, Alfred, Galileo, Princess, and Sarafina.

Creminos(T+ Albinos)

Description:	Cream-colored(varying in shades) body with tan-colored markings and ruby eyes.
Het Description:	Sometimes cremino hets from the FFR line will have ruby-colored eyes and/or light-colored ears.
Information:	There are 2 main cremino lines. The first creminos were born at Flying Fur Ranch from 2 gray gliders with ruby-colored eyes. Other cremino hets have since been discovered by the breeder at FFR after looking at all over her grays and pulling all those that had red eyes. I'm not sure exactly how many different lines FFR has. The 2nd cremino line came from the existing albino line and the first cremino from this line was born at To and Fro Gliders. The 2 lines ARE compatible.

White Faces/White-Faced Blondes

Description:	A White Face(left)has the same body color as a gray, although the shading can vary from dark gray to silver. However, the difference between a gray and a WF is the absence of a gray bar under their ears. A White-Faced Blonde(right) is the same as a White Face, but the body color is a creamy "blonde" color.
Information:	There are 3 original White Face lines: Cereal, Ole Yeller(also spelled "Ole Yeller" and "Old Yeller"), and Pele. Cereal was owned by Mike Sandridge at Sandman Gliders, Ole Yeller belonged Susan from Flying Fur Ranch, and Pele was bred by Mary and Charlie's at the Glider Tree. Also, although it's not gauranteed, it has been discovered that higher generation WFs will usually produce more WF joeys and sometimes their joeys will get lighter with each generation. There are also "super WFs", which are WFs that have proven, through multiple breedings, to ALWAYS produce WF joeys.

Mosaics

Description:	Mosaics come in many color variations, such as platinum-colored, white, ringtail, patched, etc... The main characteristics that 99% of mosaics have are white hands and feet and most mosaics have other markings as well(rings on their tail, white splotches on the back of the neck, etc...)
Information:	There are 3 mosaic lines. The Mac(and Cheese) line was imported from Indonesia and is non-sterile. The Mother White line is non-sterile. The third line, know as the "Sterile LIne". The sterility only effects the males, but is passed on through the females. Males from sterile lines often start producing after 5+ generations of being bred out. The Sterile Line may have originated from the Mother White line because both lines were owned by the same woman(Dai Green). It is believed that the sterile line was the result of Dai Green inbreeding some of her mosaics(from the "Mother White Line") to the point of sterility because, at the time, she didn't realise that only 1 mosaic parent was needed to produce more mosaics, so she inbred the gliders rather then breeding them out.

White Tips

Description:	White tips can pop up in any color of gliders. However, mosaics are NOT considered white-tips, even though they may have white tips on their tails. Mosaic and WT genes are completely different.
Information:	There are many WT lines and the exact number is unknown becuase the white tip gene is unpredictable and can pop up in any line, whether there are WTs in the lineage or not.

Platinums

Description:	Platinums have an extremely light, silvery(almost white) body with light gray markings.
Het Coloring:	There is no for-sure het coloring that is known of at this time. The platinum gene is a new gene and is still being studied.
Information:	There are 2 original platinum lines. The first line is the Haley line, which came from the pairing of a WFB(Lil Dipper) and 100% Leucistic Het(Bailey). Haley, the first platinum, was born at ToandFro Gliders. The second line is the Silverbelle line. The Silverbelle line came from 2 gray gliders. Silverbelle was born at Flying Fur Ranch.