# Painted desert sheep-genetic Color theory



## CapriCoCo (May 7, 2022)

Painted desert sheep are a breed of hair sheep known to come in a variety of colors and patterns- and often times people will tell you that predicting what you will get from a pairing is near impossible, and after studying different pairings, and what resulted, I’ll be documenting my theories here.


*Part 1: genetically distinct colors*

*cinnamon:* brown with a red tint
*chocolate:* a deep brown; can be almost black
*black:* just black; Sun bleaching can cause lighter colors temporarily 
*white: *just white; ticking and roaning can can cause permanent dark colors 
*sable:* brown with gray peppered in, dark faces and extremities 
*red sable:* regular sable toned red
*fawn:* most browns fall under this category; not as dark as chocolate but more saturated than pastel
*pastel:* desaturated colors; extremities, eyepatches, and ears will be lighter than the rest of the body; very characteristic of ’wild’ sheep crosses

*Cinnamon genetics:* when a  sheep inherits one cinnamon gene they will come out cinnamon, however when they inherit two cinnamon genes, they will come out chocolate. This gene bases off of pre-existing brown colors, and hyperpigments the red, so when it is inherits this gene twice the offspring will deepen to a brown due to such a high presence of red pigment. When applied to sable, creates red sable. Ex: cinnamon x cinnamon = chocolate, cinnamon x fawn = 50% cinnamon 50% fawn, chocolate x fawn = 100% cinnamon, cinnamon x chocolate = 50% cinnamon 50% chocolate, cinnamon x sable = red sable, and red sable x sable = 50% red sable 50% sable

*Part 2: genetically distinct patterns*

*Black belly:* as the name implies, a sheep with a black belly, along with black legs, and a partially black neck and face; dominant.
*Mouflon ‘saddle patch’:* rams with close mouflon relations may get a patch of white of their back called a saddle with age
*black dorsal stripe:* a black stripe running along the neck of the sheep; origin is unknown, seems to be dominant. I believe it is a modified version of the black belly gene; sheep can only have one or the other at a time; dominant.
*Doberman:* a reverse black belly; having one gene (carrier) will not express this trait, two carriers must be bred together in order to get a sheep with two copies who will express the gene. Some theorize it’s related to swallowbelly.
*Swallow belly:* similar to black belly, however instead of black it’s cream. Correlated to mouflon. Sheep can have both swallow belly and black belly.

*Part 3: ticking, roaning, and frosting*

*Ticking:* the appearance of small dots on a sheep over time; highly sought after.speed can vary, with some lambs exhibiting ticking immediately and some only being present later in life. Seems to either be dominated or semi-accumulative, at the moment I’m not sure. Dots will always be the same color as the base color of the sheep. 
*Roaning:* the appearance of colors over time, usually on the back of the neck.
*Frosting:* the appearance of white over time.


These are my personal theories and observations thus far, I will probably add more at a later date.


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## Baymule (May 7, 2022)

Painted Desert sheep are pretty. I love all the colors and patterns.


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## CapriCoCo (May 8, 2022)

Baymule said:


> Painted Desert sheep are pretty. I love all the colors and patterns.


I like how “loose” the color can be, it gives me a challenge when deciding pairings lol. I work with mostly cinnamons (you might have been able to tell by the paragraph I wrote about them specifically) and this lambing season was a mess. We thought cinnamon to cinnamon would give us cinnamon, so you can imagine our surprise when the only cinnamons we got were from non cinnamon ewes. I’ve seen this with multiple different pairings and just never made the connection before. Also the reason I didn’t mention all the recognized colors is I’m fairly certain most of them are the same genetically, just a difference in individuals.


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## Baymule (May 8, 2022)

Pictures! Pictures of your colorful sheep!


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## CapriCoCo (May 10, 2022)

Baymule said:


> Pictures! Pictures of your colorful sheep!






King of the hay 

juniper’s twin brother
her story here 

sassy chocolate and white elf ear lamb

 cinnamon and white ram lamb pie


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## Baymule (May 11, 2022)

I love spotty sheep! Many of my Katahdins are white, but I’m trying for color!


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## CapriCoCo (May 11, 2022)

Baymule said:


> I love spotty sheep! Many of my Katahdins are white, but I’m trying for color!


We’re trying for spots and color too. Juniper and her brother are the first generation out of a promising new ram, and so far everything out of him is turning out better than we ever expected.

He has a dorsal stripe and carries one copy of the cinnamon gene, and seems to be carrying a dominant ticking gene from what I can tell based on his babies so far.


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## CapriCoCo (May 13, 2022)

Alright today I have a couple of corrections to make. First off, a correction in the cinnamon portion; chocolate x fawn in theory will give you 100% cinnamon, not 33% each. Second off, I believe the dorsal stripe is a modified version of the black belly gene, so if a sheep has a black bellied appearance, then it can not have a dorsal stripe and vise versa. (These corrections will be added to the original post)


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## Blue Sky (Jun 10, 2022)

Dad. Mom and twins. Where did the black belly come from? (Guessing mom or box of chocolates genes)


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## Baymule (Jun 10, 2022)

Blue Sky said:


> Dad. Mom and twins. Where did the black belly come from? (Guessing mom or box of chocolates genes)


That's a good looking ram! That's just a pretty family! LOL


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## CapriCoCo (Jun 14, 2022)

Blue Sky said:


> Dad. Mom and twins. Where did the black belly come from? (Guessing mom or box of chocolates genes)


Mom looks like she’s blackbelly, dad could also be a blackbelly that’s just hidden by the black.


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