Monte & Carlo - (Pictures)

[Andrea]

here they are Monte my stunning Red Eyed White, and Carlo my adorable Champagne.



I am not a ruby/red eyed animal fan what so ever, but I could not say no to Monte. He is pure white, no tinting or shading just white on white. He has amazing red eyes also.




And little Carlo (you can see what I mean by little, he's tiny!)


Carlo may molt into more of a BEW, which i am hoping for

[Andrea]

a couple more shots -

"Are you My Daddy?" - "Heck No!"


"Hey old Man! come up here and groom me!"

[Hamsters82]

Wow, nice, I've never seen an albino gerbil before. Both are cute!

[Die Fledermaus]

The late Whitey:



I have Alabaster, Ivory, Pinky, and Vanilla and Cotton. All white gerbils.

[andromeda]

Gorgeous..but NOT albino.
The albino gene has never been seen in gerbils, red eyed whites and pink eyed whites are produced by certain combinations of recessive genes.
We do not know what effect the albino gene would have either, it is certainly possible that it could be accompanied by health problems as happens with other animals.
Maybe, therefore, we are quite lucky in being able to acheive this striking effect in other ways

[pinky]

No offense to Monte, but I think Carlo's fur is a very nice color!

[Hamsters82]

Uh, I have a question andromeda....I thought all animals who are white, have pink ears, eyes, nose are albino? Can't the albino gene sometimes pop up even if it's not seen before?

I only ask b/c I've heard dwarfs are never albino, but we had three who were.

[Die Fledermaus]

I know about the "albino" concept. I have here Cloud, whose photos are around. Look for them. All white, pink eyes, FLESH colored ears. "Not albino"? Supposedly. But I have heard there are albino dwarfs (my late Snowball was one; his photo is also around here).

To the best I can figure being considered an albino has more to do with esoterica and detailed tracking of genes from the breeders than appearance.

My late Blanche (photos also around) was a DEW - dark-eared white, and thus obviously not "albino".

[Hamsters82]

I think the gene can pop up in any animal. I've seen your Cloud & Snowball before. Our three dwarfs: Gulliath, Al, and Snowflake were all albino Campbells.

Now is a DEW a white animal, but just has normal eyes, ears, and nose? And what's the DEW stand for?

[Andrea]

As Andromida said, there has been no gene for an Albino Gerbil.
If you look further into gerbil genetics you'll find more information about it I know nothing about Hammies, so i can't comment on them.

LOL Pinky, Ya Carlo is a cutie. He won't stay that colour though, he may end up being a light honey cream, or as I said a Chapange we won't know untill he molts.
Whats neat about Monte is the outter ring around his red eyes are blue.

[andromeda]

Albino in the true sense means amelanistic, or without the pigment melanin.
Now mammals only have one pigment, melanin, while corn snakes for instance have two. Melanin produces the black markings and in snakes yellow is another pigment.
So my two amelanistic snakes where respectively bright orange and off-white with yellow oulines.
Amelanistic mammals though have no pigment. Pigment and pigment distribution have very important parts to play in the body.
One obvious example is that lack of pigment in the eyes affects site. Pink-eyed gerbils can often be seen swaying from side to side, this is because without the pigment they are unable to focus properly and use the motion to get a better picture.
But if you look up albinoism you will find all sorts of problems with albino animals.
Now gerbils are quite complex. the wild gerbil is of course agouti colour. Mutations since the 70s have produced the various colours and colour patterns. Mutations work on loci (bundles of genes) and certain combinations of loci will cause addition or subtraction of colour/colour density.
In the case of white gerbils all the colour has been subtracted.
This is of course a very simplistic explanation. I suggest reading the mutation timeline at www.gerbilshowsuk.org to start with .

[Die Fledermaus]

hamsters82 said:

I think the gene can pop up in any animal. I've seen your Cloud & Snowball before. Our three dwarfs: Gulliath, Al, and Snowflake were all albino Campbells.

Now is a DEW a white animal, but just has normal eyes, ears, and nose? And what's the DEW stand for?

I said in my post directly above - dark-eared white.

[Die Fledermaus]

>> But if you look up albinoism you will find all sorts of problems with albino animals. <<

Yea, sadly the two GPs I have had who died, Lily and Jennifer, were whites (albinos?).

[andromeda]

the thing is pink-eyed white gerbils are generally as healthy as any other gerbil. The eye issue isn't important as sight is not the primary sense for gerbils,
In fact my totally blind gerbil Dan is the first to come out of his home and say hi!!!

Oh and melanin has other effects too. For instance pied gerbils are often very laid back, this seems to be related to the way the cells that have the pigment are clumped along the back and spine!!

BTW DEW stand for dark-eyed white ...a white gerbil with black eyes.

[Hamsters82]

andromeda--very interesting, thank you for teaching me something new!

DF--thanks for telling me what DEW meant. I guessed I just went right on over it as you said it in your post.