Need help. I've been researching glider genetics for some time, and haven't gotten any closer to understanding. Lol. I have a standard grey, Meeko, about 14 weeks oop. The guy didn't tell me much about him, I mean he was feeding him cat food! I'm not sure of any possibility of him producing other colors. I just bought him a mate, Mila, a white face. She's 10 weeks oop. The breeder is USDA licensed and claimed she was 100% Leu het 0.212% COI. Can anybody please tell me what this means?

100% leu het means your glider had one parent that was a Leucistic (White glider with black eyes) which guarantees that your joey received ONE copy of the recessive gene for the leucistic trait.

It requires 2 copies of this gene - one from each parent - to produce a Leucistic glider.

The fact that she is white faced means she has the dominant gene for the white face coloration.

Were you given full lineage for this glider? The COI (Coefficients of Inbreeding) represents the percentage of related ancestors for this glider. You might talk to the breeder for more information on COI.

If you do not have lineage on Meeko - breeding is not recommended because you have no way of knowing if your two gliders have any common ancestors. Gliders are exchanged and sold all over the country for breeding so even if your gliders came from different parts of the US there is no guarantee that they are not related. Gliders from completely unknown origins, such as those from Pocket Pets or other mill breeders/brokers should not be allowed to breed because they may themselves be the product of inbreeding.

It would be best to have Meeko neutered and just love and enjoy them as your treasured pets. It is also best to have a year or more experience in care of your gliders before you jump into breeding. If you decide to breed later, then purchase a pair with known lineage to be sure that you are breeding healthy gliders.

All that said, IF Meeko and Mila are allowed to breed you would get ONLY standard grey or white face joeys. There is a 50% chance that the dominant white face gene would be passed to any individual joey.

100% Leu het means that one of her parents was a leucistic and that she carries the Leu gene with 100% certainties, meaning that if she is paired with a male who is also Leu het, some of their offspring should be Leu.

White face is dominant, meaning that regardless of the male, some offspring are likely to be WF.

0.212 COI is her coefficient of inbreeding (the probability that a pair of identical genes comes from a common ancestor), it is considered as good when under 2%, better under it, ideally, 0 would be best, and breeders strive to reach it but even in a wild population you do not find such.


Now the issue you will face is that you do not know the lineage of your male, which could lead to inbreeding. Many people would conidere irresponsible to use him for breeding, but once again, it's always relative, most of the lines have at some point been inbred (even more here in europe than in the USA), so I do not feel (but it is just a personal view) that it is necessarily negative as long as it is sporadic and that from that point on the lines are kept clean.

ok, candy replied a lot better than I did while i was typing ;)

Thank you for the answers! I will get him neutered.