Chat Anyone know about guinea pig genetics?

My dark-eyed abby had three shorthaired babies, two with red eyes. One of the babies has cream/tan colored fur, which the mom does not have. The mom has some black fur, but none of the babies did. All the babies had at least some white on them, like their mother. From pictures on Petfinder, I *think* the dad was an all brown shorthair. I couldn't see his eyes, but they might've been red.

The mom is on the left in this pic, the surviving daughters are the two on the right. They are all adults now, but the mom is still about 200 grams heavier than the other two.

"found outside"...in Sudbury. That's so sad. They wouldn't have lasted the winter. :sad:
Thanks for giving them a home.

I know absolutely nothing about Guinea pigs genetics but I know that fur color in cats is very complicated, genetically. Some of the fur color genes in cats are sex-linked, which is why calico/tortie cats are always female (or, rarely, a male with genetic abnormalities) and solid orange ones are more commonly male than female. In cats there are also two different genes responsible for white coloring, one of which masks genes for other coloring so the cat is white no matter which other genes it may have. That same gene can cause blue eyes and deafness. Tabby-striping and other patterns are controlled by different genes. The length of the fur is controlled by another set of genes. All of that is just the tip of the iceberg.

With the variety of color, patterns, and hair type that Guinea pigs have, it seems likely that they're pretty complicated, too. With that many genes involved a pup could easily end up looking very different from either parent.

They were actually found outside in Toronto/Mississauga area.... I adopted them from piggles resuce

That's a very interesting color combination @LifeAsItMayBe

and @DewOver I never knew that about cats ... Very good to know

For Luna, the himalyan most likely came from past generations. The mom or dad of the black American mother or the father could have been himi so that's why Luna is himi. Hope I helped a bit

Oh ok I thought maybe it had to be the mother or father who is Himalayan

Guinea pig genetics that dictate coat color and length are definitely complicated. Here is a picture of one of my girls, She is an abbyruvian yet her mom was a short hair, unfortunately her dad is unknown but I do wonder if he had fur like hers.

That's a pretty neat combination of furs...is amazing how things like that happen

I can help a bit. Dad was definitely an abby or some variation thereof, he had rosettes in any case. Rosettes are dominant over smooth coats, so you would expect dad to have rosettes if mum doesn't have them. The himalayan dilution allele is recessive, which means your Luna most likely received one copy from mum and another copy from dad, neither parents have to be himis to pass this on, nor do they necessarily need to have himalayans in their ancestry, carriers will do! From what I know about colour inheritance in piggies, and grossly simplifying everything, your two younger girls are fairly similar in colour, genetically speaking, they're just differing most likely in regards to the himi dilution locus, wherever that is on the cavy genome (as a side note: not a lot is known about cavy genetics at the molecular level, they're not the best subjects for genetics studies, compared to say, mice, who reproduce much faster. That's good for guinea pigs, because the things they do to get a clear understanding of genes and gene function... but, yeah, not so great if you're trying to read up on the molecular mechanisms responsible for cavy phenotypes). A good chunk of info is known about the basics of cavy genetics though.

What did the male that was found with mum look like?

This is the male... They only mention that "they believe him to be the father of Chantels babies" (the other female found with them) they don't mention my girls mom Scarlet though.