Different colours

[TessG]

Are they different coloured Sugar gliders likely to have a shorter life expectancy and more health problems than the ordinary coloured ones. (By different coloured i mean the white or more ginger coloured ones. I don't know the correct terms for them sorry.)

Some sites say that they are a result of inter breeding and so are unhealthy. And some say just look that way because that is the way they ended up but are fine. I'm a bit confused. I really like the white ones but not if they are a result of some kind of forced breeding.

Can anyone shed some light on this please.

[roxyandboys]

I know that any glider which is captive bred comes out grey and white regardless of the parents colour ("Wild" suggies are kinda a browny colour rather than grey)

Personally i'd not want to buy a wild caught glider so all mine are the grey ones.  I am not aware of any other colours around but thing the states are trying colour mutations.

As with all animals, different colours, coats, bodies sizes which are different than the "wild" version is a "mutation" which basically means that an animal which naturally was born with such a mutation is bred with another animal with that mutation and or is interbred in an attempt to isolate and increase the mutation.  Confused?  So am I!

Ok - a good example would be the Cornish Rex Cat.  In the 1950's kitty cat was born in Cornwall called Kallibunker, Kallibunker was born with very curly or wavey hair, this happened very naturally in the same way that we humans are all born with different hair.  Some bright spark thought it would be good to have it as a "breed" of cat, i suspect money was involved.  So what was needed was one male and one female cat that had the same curly/wavey hair.  The problem was that as it was a once in a million chance of finding another cat who had this curly hair what they did was recognise that something about Kallibunkers genetics must have made him prone to curly hair, so they interbred him with his family until another kitten was born with curly hair.  Three generations later another curly kitten was born and Kallibunker and what would have been his great grandaughter has kittens - the resulting kittens with curly hair then had kittens with their family members who had curly hair - resulting in more kittens with curly hair and so this went on.  So all of the Cornish Rex Cats (as defined by the standard) all came from 1 cat, Kallibunker.  Lots of incest going on there!  All "Pure Pedigree animals have followed similar paths.

There is a significant downside to doing this, take the persion cat for example, when you interbreed any kind of animals you of course increase the chances of a particular family trait being present in the kittens (like the curly hair), BUT you also increase the chances of the familys bad traits being in the kitten also - so, in the case of the persion cat, because they are bred to have such long coats and their faces look like they've been squashed flat this has resulted in a lot of persions suffering from something called Epiphora which basically means they produce excessive tears - nothing too life threatening i guess, but also a very common problem in persions is a genetic heart disorder called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and also excessively sensitive skin.  All of these are genetic problems which have been passed down from generation to generation and because of the inbreeding the chances of 2 persions producing kittens who both have the heart disorder are high, thus passing that heart disorder onto the unborn kittens is increased significantly.

So - If there were to be a colour mutation in a sugar, there is the risk of it having health problems.  That being said - how many hundreds of different types of cats, dogs, rabbits, hamsters do you know of?  All of those have gone through the same process and make lovely pets with no problems.

So, a "Breed" is defined as the product of over 20 generations of brother-sister matings, which results in individuals that are 98% identical to each other. After 40 generations of inbreeding, they are 99.5% similar. In other words, they are almost clones - this is where the problem lays, 98% the same, 98% of the same health problems as each other.

In the rodent world there are not different types of Breeds of a species - rats are rats regardless of curly hair, striaght hair, no hair ect - however - these are classified as "strains" - So the Blue Rats (which seem really popular) are a Strain of the species Rattus norvegicus.

I hope this answers the question, but it might not!!  At least you know about genetic interbreeding now!

[Marie]

I have coloured suggies, not quite to the leucistic standard, I have some little white faced blondes (so I'm told) and I have a black beauty.  The joeys that are produced are the same, and it's NOT through inbreeding, they're totally unrelated animals.  The joeys are no smaller, in fact they're whoppers!  I think if I wanted to 'improve' the standard of the colour (which I'm not interested in doing) I'd selectively breed those with the least markings together, which of course would then be inbreeding.  The thing about inbreeding (apart from the ethics) is, if there is a flaw in the genetics then that will be amplified.

[loulou]

I have a BB here as well Marie, and as far as I know hes not from inbreeding but I am not certain of his history as he was a rehome.

[Marie]

The BB's are stunning, and the funny thing is, the joey's are born looking a normal standard grey, it's not until they get older that the fur seems to develop a black hue. 

[roxyandboys]

any photos of different colours?  Would be nice to see the BB

Roxy

[jungleflockmom]

Just like w/white tail tips, I think that the darker colors and chin bars are from geographical differences of their predecessors. There are quite a few variations of length of chin strap, etc. I've been told 2 of my gliders are bb's but I don't think their dark markings are dark enough for that. I really think it's from geographical differences. .. . .

[sugarchin]

Would love to see some pics of the different coloured suggies pleaseeeee

[Amalthea]

This site has some good color mutation pics 

http://www.thepetglider.com/index/component/option,com_gallery2/Itemid,44/?g2_itemId=12

[roxyandboys]

wow - the white one is amazing, although i cant help feeling a bit sorry for the little girl - being so different and standing out against her family so much.  She'd probably not stand a chance in the wild i assume, being so, well, bright.

[Amalthea]

I've always had a soft spot for white animals, so the leu and pew gliders are stunning to me!  Would love one at some point! 

The white tips are actually seen pretty regularly in the wild. 

[Marie]

In a book that I have it actually says that sugar gliders have white tipped tails, that's how they tell them apart (at a glance) from other gliders!

[sugarchin]

Gosh....I never realised there were so many colours
The wee white one is absolutely gorgeous, and I like the mosaics too

Can someone explain, in simple terms, how the wee white one came to be please
Is it a hereditary gene or something?

[Amalthea]

Leucism is a reccessive gene, yes I do believe any animal can be leucistic.  So, both parents have to carry the gene to get the chance of their offspring showing the gene.