Affiliated to the National Hamster Council
Affiliated to the National Hamster Council |
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This gene is a naturally occurring mutation.
Inheritance is simple; the Light Grey gene is dominant, so a
hamster can be Light Grey even if it only inherits the gene from
one parent. To slightly complicate this, the Light Grey gene, Lg,
causes death of young inheriting it from both parents. These
young die at a very early stage of development in their mother's
uterus and are reabsorbed. This means that mating Light Grey to
Light Grey can always produce some young that are NOT Light Grey.
(Any live Light Grey animals must "carry" the gene lg
for non Light Grey because, if they didn't, they would have died
before birth. Also, due to the "missing" LgLg young,
the litter sizeat birth is only three quarters the
"expected" size. The expected ratio of colours from a
Light Grey to Light Grey mating would therefore be two thirds
Light Grey, (carrying "non Light Grey"), and one third
"Non Light Grey", (usually Golden).
Light Grey combines with Cream to produce Ivory and with Cinnamon
to produce Blonde.
| GREY, LIGHT (Lglg) | |
| TOP COAT | Buttermilk-grey, carried approximately one third of the way down |
| BASE COLOUR | Dark slate grey |
| BELLY FUR | Buttermilk, with grey base-colour |
| CRESCENTS | Buttermilk |
| TICKING | Heavily and evenly ticked with dark grey, almost black, shaded as for dark golden |
| CHEST BAND | Dark brown/grey |
| CHEEK FLASHES | Dark grey, almost black (concentrated ticking) |
| EYE COLOUR | Black |
| EAR COLOUR | Dark grey |
| NOTES | |
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