Welcome to the I.G.S. Showcase! 

The main venue for members virtual shows.  At this site our virtual show winners and results are featured. Throughout the year several shows will be announced, some will be fun competitions while others will be of a more serious nature, where recognised coat colour varieties will compete using the I.G.S.  virtual show rules and International coat colour standards. To visit the site and view the entries and winners of the eGerbil July Fun show, either click on the photo link to the left, or click here

Hope you enjoy your visit!

Over the years it has been the mouse coat colour genes that have played a significant role in the understanding of the basic aspects of mammalian genetics. This holds true for the Underwhite locus which encodes for the MATP (membrane-associated transporter protein) protein, which has been used repeatedly as a coat colour marker in gene linkage and mapping studies. For many years, it was the phenotypic marker of choice for locating genes on chromosome 15....

In 1975, the Grey Agouti gerbil was first discovered in a London petshop, it later died out but a couple of years later it appeared again and is now very common in the UK and Europe, although in the USA it is still regarded as a fairly uncommon variety. The coat colour closely resembles the chinchilla mutation of the albino series of alleles (C locus) in mice and other domestic livestock. Research on the mutant showed that this wasn’t the case and in 1985 it led to the publication of this early research in the Journal of Heredity....

New to the eGerbil Cafepress store and ready for 2009 are the eGerbil calendars. After a positive reception to last year’s eGerbil calendar, there are now three different styled calendars to choose from!

The Coat Colour Calendar features a different gerbil colour for each month, such as Siamese and Burmese gerbils for July, and dilute Black (Blue) gerbils for September.

The Informational Calendar is just as it is named, with various snippets of information like housing, handling, and breeding, to name a few.

You may have noticed the little icon at the bottom of this and some other pages.  This is because eGerbil now has RSS feeds enabled on the website.  Basically you can click to subscribe to the pages and you will be notified of any updates that happen on the website.  We also have a new Gerbil News section which is again updated every day from Google on any article that appears on the web that is gerbil related!  Either click this link to go straight to the main page or look for updates in the menu bar on your right ⇒

This is a new section for the eGerbil website and we hope to be adding many articles in the future about all aspects of breeding gerbils.  We have added several articles to get the ball rolling.  Firstly, the sexing gerbils pages have been updated to include three new Flash guides on sexing young pups.  The photos used in the guides are really detailed and were taken by Liz Arblaster. Click here or click on the photo on the left to go straight to the new guides.  Click here to go to the sexing adult gerbils page.

Both male and female gerbils possess a scent gland, which is a hairless, tan/skin coloured, oval patch of skin that is located in the central belly/abdominal region along the mid-ventral line of the gerbil. The male scent gland is slightly larger and he uses it more often, usually to mark his territory. A common problem with elderly gerbils is tumours of the scent gland and they most often occur in elderly males, however they are not unknown in females.  Read More about scent gland tumours in gerbils.

Have a browse at the latest updates on eGerbil's behaviour page.  The content information and pictures showing various aspects of gerbil behaviour has been greatly expanded.  It also now includes informative videos on various behaviours made by Loz Whitmore for eGerbil.

Also linked from this page are instructions on making a burrow system which helps reduce the stereotypical behaviour of burrowing excessively in corners, which you can also reach by clicking here.

New at eGerbil is the coat colour I.D. coat checker.  Built in Flash format, it's ideal for any beginning gerbil keeper or breeder and helps to identify the coat colour variety of your gerbil.

It's very easy to use and is in a question & answer style and takes you along an identification path for virtually all gerbil colours.

Either click the picture on the left or click here to take you straight to the page.

 A new spotting mutation appears

Read all about this probable spotting mutation that has appeared recently in Mongolian gerbils in the informative article by Kira Gysel on the subject.  The article explores its origins and subsequent breeding of the coat colour and explains how it can cause potential health problems.  To accompany the article readers may also find the new article "Further Notes on Spotting Genes in Gerbils" an interesting read.

The gerbil mutation timeline has been revised and updated and now includes more information on each mutation, with an update on the now extinct "hairless gerbil" that appeared in a colony in a research laboratory in 1978 at Birmingham University.

Click the link here or click the picture on the left to go to the Mongolian gerbil mutation timeline.