At what age can you tell colour ?

[k]

Hi !

Our baby axies are around 10 days old. The mother is wildtype and the father axanthic albino (I think !) (He is pink with pink eyes and no shine in the gills). The eggs were half brown, half white to start with and the babies although not hatched appear to ALL be pink (there are approx 250). I just wondered if color change occurred at this age ? And if not and if this is to be the final colour, is it unusual for 2 coloured parentsto give birth to one colured babies (and nothing else).

Thanks !

 

[sharn]

pink would either be leucistic or albino id think. im not up on phenotypes and all that stuff but they can throw off one colour only if both parents have it in their genes. a few people can go into detail more on that subject, i just find it confusing hehe!

(Message edited by sharn on March 28, 2006)

 

[joan]

The father is probably not axanthic, as they tend to be weak and die before reaching adulthood. I've also not heard of any axanthics in the pet trade. He's probably melanoid albino. The 'shine' is caused by the M gene, and if there is no shine, he's melanoid.

When the babies are big enough to see their eyes, then you'll know whether they're albino or not. You can usually be pretty sure about color by the time they grow their front legs.

If one parent is dominant heterozygous for a gene, say she's D/D (dark), then all the offspring will be dark. So no, it's not unusual for parents of different colors to have just one color offspring.

 

[k]

Thanks for your posts

No he has no shine so he must be melanoid albino (sorry I thought it was the other way round !).

We can start to see their colour now and it looks like they are a mix of both

 

[teesha]

i thoguht D/D ment even colouring and A/+ ment dark????

 

[k]

Well the colours seems clear once hatched - 2 wild and one albino so far ....

 

[k]

Update - all the albinos seem to have hatched permaturely and died :-(. Possibly more to come though ...