Genetics Question?

[Goatherd]

Dad

Mom

Kids

Here's my question...

The kids that were born yesterday favor the mom completely as far as color goes, but seem to have dad's ears (or so I think).

The mom is a percentage Boer and dad is Boer/Nubian. He has lots of body color/pigment, more so than white.

The kids are all white with chocolate heads/w/white and absolutely none of dad's coloring.

Do you think that since he is partially Boer, but doesn't favor the Boer coloring, his genes, combined with mom's, resulted in why the kids look like they do?

I hope this isn't confusing, but it's the best way I can explain it.

 

[helmstead]

The locus for Boer coloration is EXTREMELY dominant, which is why % and PB Boers that are paint or solid are so highly prized - it takes a lot of breeding to get the red or black head out of the picture. I would tend to say that regardless of what you breed that doe to, you're going to get colored head/white body kids a very high percentage of the time.

 

[Goatherd]

Thanks. I think I understand now.

So is what you're telling me the dad has more Boer genes in him even though he's not "visually" typical?

 

[helmstead]

No, what I'm telling you is because of the dam's coloration, it barely matters what the sire's color is. The dam is going to be the dominant color.

I have a light sable doe (also known as caramel in Pygmies - light brown body with black points and facial stripes) who almost always throws light sable kids - sometimes grey with black points. She was accidentally bred to a Boer when I purchased her...despite her color being so dominant, her half Boer kid was red head/white body.

 

[freemotion]

From what I understand from helmstead's answer is that because of the coloring of the doe, no matter what you breed her to she has the dominant genes that will be expressed in the kids most of the time, producing typical Boer coloring. Only if she has recessive genes for other color patterns and the buck has the same will you occasionally get a kid with another pattern, but odds are against this.

Right?

ETA: Cool, I was right! If you only knew how long ago ninth grade biology was.....

 

[Goatherd]

OK, NOW I get it. Thanks.