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(self) Sapphire:  aa Ccᶜʰᵐ D* E* pp Uw*

Sapphire is one of the commonly-found silver coat colors of the Mongolian gerbil.  This color is created when a Black gerbil carrying a chinchilla medium colorpoint gene inherits the Pink Eye gene – and is where the whole coat is silver, including the tummy.

This color is one of three shades of silver-colored gerbils found – using the two most common gerbil color genes – the Agouti gene and Pink Eye gene (see text below).  However, due to most gerbil lines carrying the chinchilla medium colorpoint gene [cᶜʰᵐ], this color is the most common of the three silver shades found in the pet trade.

Lilac is the darkest of the three shades (as it has no colorpoint dilution) followed by Sapphire (the middle shade with middle dilution) then Dove which is the palest as the Himalayan colorpoint gene is present.

However, it is a fine line here with these colorpoint genes, as adding two of them to any silver gerbil and they all bleach out into Pink-Eyed Whites – no silver at all (Image below Sapphire and PEW).

You can’t have a colorpoint Sapphire gerbil.

Sapphires are hard to identify 100% – as they can be colored across such a wide range of shades due to the fickle and fancy colorpoint genes being affected by temperature at birth as well as at the time you are looking at your gerbils.

A dark Sapphire can look like a light Lilac and a dark Dove can look like a light Sapphire.

Spotting makes it worse and can lighten the coat further. Basically they all sort of fade into each other.  Even 2 Sapphires from the same litter can be different shades of Sapphire!

This is why in the gerbil fancy – there isn’t a Sapphire show class – as you can’t ever be sure of pinning the color down.   Basically you just show very dark silver gerbils in the Lilac class and very light silver gerbils in the Dove class – it doesn’t actually matter genetically what they are inside – so you Sapphire line needs to be focused at one or the other end for showing – but it doesn’t matter a jot for your pets. 

Sapphire is the exact genetic [aa] pair to an Argente Fawn which has the same colour and genetic patterns. Lilac is the equivalent of the Argente Golden and Dove that of the Argente Cream.  

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Pink Eyes in the population:

The gene that creates the silver colour – the Pink-Eyed gene – works by diluting all the pigment forming cells in a growing embryo – this results in the black being lost from the eyes (leaving them pink) and in this case it has the effect of removing all the black from the hairs too leaving the gerbils silver – basically a Sapphire gerbil is a black gerbil with all its black pigment missing.

This gene has the same effect on Agouti to create the Argente – it strips out the black from the eyes making them pink and it also strips out the black from the tip of the coat leaving only the gingery color underneath (it doesn’t affect the silver undercoat which you can still see on an Argente by parting the fur).

The actions of this gene is also associated with poor eyesight as these gerbils now have no protection from the sun and you can see straight into the blood vessels and tissues – hence the pink colour. The black pigment in the iris generally blocks out the harmful effects of the sun – but it isn’t there in gerbils with pink, ruby and red eyes.

As a result, over time the effects of sunlight will damage some of the delicate tissues in the eyes which are now unprotected.  This can cause some gerbils to ‘sway’ when they are standing on their back legs.

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I’m not sure it IS Sapphire yet?

Well, as described above, you probably won’t ever be sure without breeding – but for general purposes you are just gauging the darkness of the silver between Lilac (image right) and Dove. 

It may look like another silver gerbil – but Sapphire is so different to other grey gerbils – that even though there are many other silvery gerbils out there – they are almost all able to be told apart from a Sapphire instantly if the gerbil you are trying to identify isn’t spotted. 

Grey Agoutis, Light Grey Agoutis, CP Grey Agoutis, LCP Grey Agoutis, CP Golden Agoutis, LCP Golden Agoutis, Polar Foxes, Light Polar Foxes, CP Polar Foxes, LCP Polar Foxes can all be light grey or have a grey tinge to them – but ALL of them have a white tummy – usually a very obvious white tummy.  So no matter how grey they look – they can’t possibly be a Sapphire.

If in doubt – rub the hair on the body backwards – a Sapphire’s will be silver from top to bottom – all the other gerbils listed above will have different color hair underneath the ticked surface.

There are also Light, CP and LCP Silver Nutmegs to contend with – who are also greyish – and don’t have a white tummy – but you can clearly see the smooth ‘full’ color (image on right) of the Sapphire (and other silvers) – it is unmistakably different and unique.

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You have Sapphire gerbils you want to Breed?

Due to the prevalence of all the common genes needed to create a Sapphire gerbil, this colour is one of the most easily-created gerbil colours in litters along with all the Argente Fawn.  

Genetics-wise, the genes for a Sapphire gerbil are quite ‘strong’ (strong in this instance means prevalent and dominant), that if you mate a Sapphire gerbil to any other non-colorpoint gerbil on the self side, you will probably get Sapphire pups in the mix.  Often a litter of Blacks or Agoutis with one silver pup is often a Sapphire (see image below).

You want Sapphire Pups?

There are loads of different ways to get Sapphire pups in your litters depending on the colours you already have and the genes you already know about.

If you want 100% Sapphire pups you are out of luck – Sapphires do not breed true due to them needing two different [c] genes at that locus.  Because they need both [C] and [cᶜʰᵐ] at the same time – when you breed them together they will never only give their offspring these specific genes – they will mix them up.

As a result, breeding together two Sapphire gerbils will give you the following 3 pup colors:

• 50% – Sapphire
• 25% – Lilac
• 25% – PEW

However, to get a large percentage of them in your litter (amongst other colors) you would need to do one or all of the following things:

Only breed gerbils on the self side
Basically do not breed any agouti-based colours or any double-sided colours (colours that could actually be either A* or aa but you can’t tell by just looking) – avoid for example PEWs, REWs or BEWs (unless you definitely know their parentage).

By eliminating the dominant Agouti gene [A] you are doubling your chances of getting Sapphires.

Only breed gerbils with red/pink eyes 
Basically breeding only pink-eyed gerbils means you will be eliminating all the dark-eyed colors (Black, Nutmeg, Polar Fox etc) – this effectively doubles your chances of getting Sapphire pups instantly – so breeding a Sapphire to any Argente gerbil would be perfect percentage-wise.

However, be careful not to use two gerbils with the same sets of other recessives – as otherwise you will only get pups with those (i.e. don’t breed two Creams, or a Cream to a RESN as all the pups will be pink-eyed underwhite gerbils = no Sapphires).

Always breed only one self colorpoint in a pair
If you use two colorpoints you won’t get Sapphires at all, but not using any colorpoints will drastically reduce your chances of getting Sapphires – possibly to zero.

You can use any colorpoint colors for this – you just need to balance out the red eyes with the parents.  Best would be PEWs to another pink-eyed self color – but make sure they are PEWs not REWs (as they aren’t even colorpoints).

If you use an ordinary dark-eyed colorpoint (CP) like Burmese (because light colorpoints (LCP) will give you Doves as well and so ergo, less Sapphires) – and just remember to add in the pink eyes with the other parent and in to further generations to increase your numbers of Sapphire down the way.

Some people like to breed all the silvers together so mixing up your C locus genes can be fun through the generations.  You can get all three in the same litter with a 25% chance of each (using a Sapphire and a Dove as parents) but you will also get 25% PEWs in the mix.

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Don’t have Sapphire gerbils – but want them?

If you don’t have any Sapphire gerbils of your own but still want them – you could try one of the 3 following plans to get them…

1) Breed any 2 red-eyed self-based gerbils (who don’t share genes) together ( – best)

2) Breed any red-eyed self-based gerbil with a Burmese gerbil* ( – could be good)

3) Breed any red-eyed self-based gerbil with an Argente Fawn* ( – could be good)

*Although there is only a 50% chance that the right genes are in the right place (which would be if both the Argente Fawn was [Aa] i.e. had at least one self-based parent; and the Burmese gerbil was [Pp] i.e. had at least one pink-eyed parent – the number of Sapphire colored offspring produced could be high.

For example take the Burmese gerbil: – If you don’t know whether they had a red-eyed parent – it is 50/50 whether they have the right genes for making Sapphires.  Compare the following: a [PP] Burmese with no other recessives would give you no Sapphire pups at all as it can’t inherit the two necessary recessive pp genes; but a [Pp] Burmese gerbil (with at least one pink-eye parent) and no other recessives would mean that around half your litter should be Sapphire.

Either way, after the first round of breeding, you would have all the right genes at your disposal – you would just need to make sure you kept your records in order.

Then you could be in Sapphire Heaven.

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Don’t want Sapphire pups in your litters?

There are several ways you can be sure of NOT getting Sapphire pups in your litter:

Don’t breed gerbils with pink/ruby/red eyes
If neither parent has the pink-eye gene in a double dose – you won’t get first round Sapphires – and if you do – it will only be a 25% chance or less of being Sapphire.  To rid your world of Sapphires completely – you would need to make sure one or both parents were double dominant for the [P] gene – so [PP] (which may need test breeding to determine).

If you only have one parent who is [PP] – there is a chance down the line – even if you only breed dark-eyed gerbils together that a pink-eyed pups could turn up – and it could be Sapphire.

Use pairs of gerbils both carrying the same recessives
This would mean something like breeding two [uwᵈ] gerbils together (like a Cream and a Silver Nutmeg or a Polar Fox and an Apricot).  If both parents do not carry the dominant [Uw] version of this gene – you can’t ever get Sapphire in your litters even if both are [pp].  You will always only produce [uwᵈuwᵈ] colors.  Same goes for breeding two honey gerbils together [ee]; a Sapphire gerbil can’t have two recessive genes at these points so you will never get one in your litters.

Easy, right?

Breed two gerbils that have double dominants in the A or C loci
A Sapphire needs recessive genes at the [a] and [c] locus – so breeding together gerbils who don’t have a recessive copies of these two genes won’t ever create a Sapphire.  Breeding together two gerbils who are both [AA] – can only have agouti-based pups – never selfs – i.e. no Sapphires.

Using any of the techniques above drastically reduces the number of other gerbil colors you could get in your litters too, so record keeping is important if you are planning to only breed certain colors.  Test breeding and planning your line are very important to this.

For more information about Breeding for Color please do read on…

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