Albino Breeding

[Bullgreyhound1994 1]

Kept and worked ferrets most of my life but only breed one litter which was for my own use a few years ago...now I've got some new permission waiting ready come winter time so have lined my albino Jill which my old albino hob...this will mean the whole litter would be albino ?

[Mustelid 143]

Yes mate.

[The one 8,452]

Hello and welcome mate . only if there parents are albino and albino or there could be anything in there background and a odd one will show up

[onthehunt 40]

You can get a mixed litter. The albino parents would have to have come from an all albino line for their offspring to be all albino but if this is the case, you can still get 1 or 2 other colours showing up. ferrets have very mixed genes

[Mustelid 143]

This is news to me. I thought albino x albino gave you albino kits. I'm happy to stand corrected.

[Maximus Ferret 2,063]

This is news to me. I thought albino x albino gave you albino kits. I'm happy to stand corrected.

No, you're right mate, two red eyed albinos will only ever produce more albinos.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Maximus Ferret

[pie-eater 377]

You can definitely still get different colours out of an albino to albino breeding because they can still be carrying poley colour genes. For example cross a poley with an albino and possibly get an albino kit in the litter it will still carry the genes of both parents.

Edited May 11, 2014 by pie-eater

[onthehunt 40]

You can definitely still get different colours out of an albino to albino breeding because they can still be carrying poley colour genes. For example cross a poley with an albino and possibly get an albino kit in the litter it will still carry the genes of both parents.

Yep. its all about the carrier genes

[Katsdad 31]

Just spoken to wife,she's an animal geneticist and the albino gene is what's called recessive which means in eejits terms this that gene is the odd one so crossing 2albinos don't mean kits will be all albino they will more likely be what ever the original strong gene was so let's see what we get?

[The one 8,452]

 

This is news to me. I thought albino x albino gave you albino kits. I'm happy to stand corrected.

No, you're right mate, two red eyed albinos will only ever produce more albinos.

 

You want to tell my jill and hob them the last two years ive bred her she had all colours but only one poly in each litter mostly sandies ,silvers and albinos

[pie-eater 377]

2 ferrets Ive got here that I hope to breed from in a few years, jill is albino so were her parents and the hob is polecat coloured his mother was polecat and his father was a silver. I know the colour doesn't realy matter with working ferrets but I am looking forward to seeing how they come out.

[Jamie m 668]

Just spoken to wife,she's an animal geneticist and the albino gene is what's called recessive which means in eejits terms this that gene is the odd one so crossing 2albinos don't mean kits will be all albino they will more likely be what ever the original strong gene was so let's see what we get?

 

Two recessive genes put together makes the said gene highly probable to mean no longer recessive from what I've read ,

[krawnden 1,036]

Bullgreyhound1994 - prior to reading what others have posted I would have sworn blind from my schoolboy biology that albino to albino will only ever produce albino (and in my experience that has always been the case).

 

As already stated, the gene for albino is recessive. What that means is that if it's mixed with any other gene, the other gene will override it and the offspring will not be albino, even though they might carry the albino gene. In order for a ferret to be albino it must have an albino gene from both parents - that way there is no other colour to override it.

 

Ferrets have 2 genes that affect their colour, one from the mother and one from the father. If you have one parent from a pure line of polecat, that has never had any other colour in its ancestry its 2 colour genes will both be polecat - PP. If the other parent is albino its 2 colour genes will both be albino - AA. When the offspring of this hypothetical litter are born they will all be either PA or AP, which amounts to the same thing - they'll all carry the albino gene but will all be polecat coloured (because the albino gene is recessive and overriden by the polecat gene).

 

If those PA/AP offspring are subsequently bred from -

 

# crossing to a pure line of polecats is PA x PP which will give PP and AP - both polecat coloured but only half the litter (statistically) will carry the albino gene

# crossing to another polecat coloured ferret that carries the albino gene is PA x PA, which will give PP, PA, AP and AA. Statistically half the litter will be polecat coloured but carry the albino gene, quarter of the litter will be pure polecat, ie not carrying the albino gene, and quarter of the litter will be albino

# crossing to an albino is PA x AA which will statistically give half the litter as albino and half as polecats which carry the albino gene

 

Because albino is AA, crossing 2 albinos can only ever give albino as there are no other colour genes in the mix.

 

Having said all of the above, I have only ever bred from polecats and/or albinos (and everything I've said has always held true for those colours). But once you start adding silvers, black eyed whites etc into the mix that's obviously going to complicate matters and I don't know which of those genes are dominant. But, in spite of what other people have posted Bullgreyhound1994, I would still be astonished if you end up with anything other than albinos.

[hideandshoot 13]

Well....I guess that clears that up nicely then. I don't think anyone can argue with that.

[onthehunt 40]

Bullgreyhound1994 - prior to reading what others have posted I would have sworn blind from my schoolboy biology that albino to albino will only ever produce albino (and in my experience that has always been the case).

 

As already stated, the gene for albino is recessive. What that means is that if it's mixed with any other gene, the other gene will override it and the offspring will not be albino, even though they might carry the albino gene. In order for a ferret to be albino it must have an albino gene from both parents - that way there is no other colour to override it.

 

Ferrets have 2 genes that affect their colour, one from the mother and one from the father. If you have one parent from a pure line of polecat, that has never had any other colour in its ancestry its 2 colour genes will both be polecat - PP. If the other parent is albino its 2 colour genes will both be albino - AA. When the offspring of this hypothetical litter are born they will all be either PA or AP, which amounts to the same thing - they'll all carry the albino gene but will all be polecat coloured (because the albino gene is recessive and overriden by the polecat gene).

 

If those PA/AP offspring are subsequently bred from -

 

# crossing to a pure line of polecats is PA x PP which will give PP and AP - both polecat coloured but only half the litter (statistically) will carry the albino gene

# crossing to another polecat coloured ferret that carries the albino gene is PA x PA, which will give PP, PA, AP and AA. Statistically half the litter will be polecat coloured but carry the albino gene, quarter of the litter will be pure polecat, ie not carrying the albino gene, and quarter of the litter will be albino

# crossing to an albino is PA x AA which will statistically give half the litter as albino and half as polecats which carry the albino gene

 

Because albino is AA, crossing 2 albinos can only ever give albino as there are no other colour genes in the mix.

 

Having said all of the above, I have only ever bred from polecats and/or albinos (and everything I've said has always held true for those colours). But once you start adding silvers, black eyed whites etc into the mix that's obviously going to complicate matters and I don't know which of those genes are dominant. But, in spite of what other people have posted Bullgreyhound1994, I would still be astonished if you end up with anything other than albinos.

Where did you get your facts from mate? link