Colors

Photo courtesy of Elise Landry.

Many thanks to Jennifer Bell for her input.

The timeline for the development of gerbil colors has used egerbil.com as a reference, so credit also needs to go to Ed Cope.

Agouti Agouti is the original color of wild gerbils.

Spotting Spotting first appeared in the mid-1960s.

c[h] c[h]first appeared in the late 1960s, giving us dark-tailed white gerbils, also known as Himalayan.

a a first appeared in 1971, giving us black gerbils.

uw[d] uw[d] first appeared in 1975, giving us the gray agouti and slate colors.

p p first appeared in 1977, giving us the argente golden, argente cream, ivory, red/ruby-eyed white, pink-eyed white, dove and lilac colors.

Hairless A few hairless gerbils were born in 1978, but this mutation has not survived.

e[f] e[f] appeared around 1980, giving us the Schimmel color.

e eappeared in the 1980s, making possible the nutmeg, silver nutmeg, red fox, pale argente nutmeg, polar fox, dark-eyed honey and red-eyed honey colors.

c[chm] c[chm] first appeared in 1994, making colorpoint gerbils possible. These colors could now appear: CP agouti, burmese, siamese, black-eyed white, CP slate, argente fawn, sapphire and the CP gray agouti.

d d first appeared in 1997.

uw uw first appeared in 2000. This gene made cream-colored gerbils possible.

Sls Semi-dominant lethal spotting appeared in 2000. Gerbils who carry SlsSls will die near weaning time from toxic megacolon, so breeding of these gerbils should be done in a responsible and informed way.

wa the Waved gene, appeared in 2007.

Re[d] the Rexoid gene, appeared in 2007.

White Belly

Agouti, Golden Agouti: A- C- D- E- Uw- P-

Argente Golden: A- CC D- E- Uw- pp

Argente Cream: A- Cc[h] D- E- Uw- pp

Gray Agouti: A- C- D- E- uw[d]uw[d] P-

Ivory, White-Bellied Cream: A- C- D- E- uw[d]uw[d] pp

Dark-Eyed Honey:

• A- CC D- ee Uw- P-
• or A- CC D- ee[f] Uw- P-

Light Dark-Eyed Honey:

• A- Cc[chm] D- ee Uw- P-
• or A- Cc[h] D- ee Uw- P-
• or A- Cc[chm] D- ee[f] Uw- P-
• or A- Cc[h] D- ee[f] Uw- P-

Polar Fox:

• A- C- D- ee uw[d]uw[d] P-
• or A- C- D- ee[f] uw[d]uw[d] P-

Red-Eyed Polar Fox, Apricot:

• A- C- D- ee uw[d]uw[d] pp
• or A- C- D- ee[f] uw[d]uw[d] pp

Yellow Fox, Red-Eyed Honey:

• A- CC D- ee Uw- pp
• or A- CC D- ee[f] Uw- pp

Light Yellow Fox, Light Red-Eyed Honey:

• A- Cc[chm] D- ee Uw- pp
• or A- Cc[h] D- ee Uw- pp
• or A- Cc[chm] D- ee[f] Uw- pp
• or A- Cc[h] D- ee[f] Uw- pp

Dilute Agouti: A- C- dd E- Uw- P-

Self

Topaz, Argente Fawn: A- Cc[chm] D- E- Uw- pp

Black: aa C- D- E- Uw- P-

Lilac: aa CC D- E- Uw- pp

Sapphire: aa Cc[chm] D- E- Uw- pp

Dove: aa Cc[h] D- E- Uw- pp

Slate: aa C- D- E- uw[d]uw[d] P-

Red/Ruby-Eyed White: aa C- D- E- uw[d]uw[d] pp

Pink-Eyed White: -- c[chm] -- -- -- pp or -- c[h] -- -- -- pp

True Pink-Eyed White: -- c[h]c[h] -- -- -- pp

Red Fox, sometimes called Saffron:

• aa CC D- ee Uw- pp
• or aa CC D- ee[f] Uw- pp

Light Red Fox, sometimes called Light Saffron:

• aa Cc[chm] D- ee Uw- pp
• or aa Cc[chm] D- ee[f] Uw- pp

Blue, Dilute Black: aa C- dd E- Uw- P-

Cream: -- C- D- E- uw[d]uw[d] pp

Black-Eyed Whites will show in Self class:

Colorpoint Dark-Eyed Honey, which will appear as a Black-Eyed White:

• A- c[chm]c[chm] D- ee Uw- P-
• or A- c[chm]c[chm] D- ee[f] Uw- P-

Light Colorpoint Dark-Eyed Honey, which will appear as a Black-Eyed White:

• A- [chm]c[h] D- ee Uw- P-
• or A- [chm]c[h] D- ee[f] Uw- P-

Colorpoint Polar Fox, which will appear as a Black-Eyed White:

• A- c[chm]c[chm] D- ee uw[d]uw[d] P-
• or A- c[chm]c[chm] D- ee[f] uw[d]uw[d] P-

Light Colorpoint Polar Fox, which will appear as a Black-Eyed White:

• A- c[chm]c[h] D- ee uw[d]uw[d] P-
• or A- c[chm]c[h] D- ee[f] uw[d]uw[d] P-

Colorpoint Schimmel, which will appear as a Black-Eyed White:

-- c[chm]c[chm] e[f]e[f] Uw- P-

Light Colorpoint Schimmel, which will appear as a Black-Eyed White:

-- c[chm]c[chm] e[f]e[f] Uw- P-

Silver Schimmel, which will appear as a Black-Eyed White:

-- -- -- e[f]e[f] uw[d]uw[d] P-

Colorpoint

Colorpoint Agouti: A- c[chm]c[chm] D- E- Uw- P-

Pearl, Light Colorpoint Agouti: A- c[chm]c[h] D- E- Uw- P-

Colorpoint Gray Agouti: A- c[chm]c[chm] D- E- uw[d]uw[d] P-

Light Colorpoint Gray Agouti: A- c[chm]c[h] D- E- uw[d]uw[d] P-

Himalayan, Dark-Tailed White: -- c[h]c[h] -- -- -- P-

Burmese: aa c[chm]c[chm] D- E- Uw- P-

Siamese: aa c[chm]c[h] D- E- Uw- P-

Colorpoint Slate: aa c[chm]c[chm] D- E- uw[d]uw[d] P-

Light Colorpoint Slate: aa c[chm]c[h] D- E- uw[d]uw[d] P-

Colorpoint Nutmeg:

• aa c[chm]c[chm] ee Uw- P-
• or aa c[chm]c[chm] ee[f] Uw- P-

Light Colorpoint Nutmeg:

• aa c[chm]c[h] ee Uw- P-
• or aa c[chm]c[h] ee[f] Uw- P-

Colorpoint Silver Nutmeg:

• aa c[chm]c[chm] ee uw[d]uw[d] P-
• or aa c[chm]c[chm] ee[f] uw[d]uw[d] P-

Light Colorpoint Silver Nutmeg:

• aa c[chm]c[h] D- ee uw[d]uw[d] P-
• or aa c[chm]c[h] D- ee[f] uw[d]uw[d] P-

Other

Nutmeg:

• aa C- D- ee Uw- P-
• or aa C- D- ee[f] Uw- P

Silver Nutmeg:

• aa C- D- ee uw[d]uw[d] P-
• or aa C- D- ee[f] uw[d]uw[d] P-

Red-Eyed Silver Nutmeg:

• aa C- D- ee uw[d]uw[d] pp
• or aa C- D- ee[f] uw[d]uw[d] pp

Schimmel: -- C- -- e[f]e[f] Uw- P-

Red-Eyed Schimmel: -- C- --e[f]e[f] Uw- pp

Red-Eyed Silver Schimmel, which will appear as a Red-Eyed White:

-- C- -- e[f]e[f] uw[d]uw[d] pp

Champagne: -- C- D- e[f]e[f] Uw- P- Sp+

Honey Cream: A- Cc[h] D- ee P- Uw- Sp+

Strawberry Cream: A- Cc[h] D- ee pp Uw- Sp+

Silverpoint: Silverpoint is more of a look than of fixed genetics. Light Colorpoints carrying ee or Colorpoint Nutmegs carrying ee[f] are sometimes classified as Silverpoints in Shows.