We have been working on this project for some years now and are still yet to isolate the gene which we have labeled Dark Matter.
We have however reproduced without fail what we are calling a Dark sun.
We are 99% sure that the Dark matter gene is allelic with Albino/Candy and what we are calling a Dark sun is a visual double het Albino Dark Matter, we have proven this many time to the point where we can guarantee if you breed a Dark Sun to an Albino you will not hatch any normal/classics. You will only hatch Dark Suns or Albinos.
We have also had the same results when breeding Dark suns to Candy’s. (We are calling the Dark Matter Candy double visuals a Dark Nova)
We have so far introduced Black head, Pastel and Cinnamon to the project.
There are quite a few people in the UK who have seen these in the flesh.
Please let us know what you think.
What a cool new gene. How’d you come across it? How does a single-gene Dark Sun super differ in appearence from the double-het Dark Matter? Or a Dark Nova? How do these guys look when they hit adulthood – is there a lot of darkening/browning out or does that bright cream/dark black stay vivid? I’d love to know more.
We have been unlucky on isolating the gene because as of yet we have only done dbl het to dbl het pairings and all seem to be Dark Suns, but we are getting them shed tested to determine if they are het Albino or not.
We have had one come back that looks like it could be the gene on its own and it has come back a negative for Albino, we just want to get a few more tested before we release any pictures.
if you believe them to be allelic with albino wouldn’t breeding a dark sun to a normal(or any gene for that matter that doesnt have albino) guarantee you a single gene dark matter?? you could then genetic shed test the entire clutch for albino, any that come back negative should in theory be het for dark matter and you breed back to a dark sun. Still a bit of a process to be sure but if you have two or three of those animals you should get a visual dark matter by the second generation no??
Sorry for delay in replying, If we breed a Dark Sun with a normal it will not guarantee a single gene Dark Matter. It will guarantee that all the offspring are either het Dark Matter or het Albino, Dark Sun is a visual dbl het like a Crypton or a Candino.
So if you were to breed a Crypton to a normal you get either het Cryptic or het Clown but no visuals.
We have breed a Dark Sun to a Pinstripr Pied and as suspected we produced normals and Pinstripes that are all dbl het Pied Albino or dbl het Pied Dark Matter, we have just proved out one of the males as dbl het Pied Dark Matter in a recent clutch.
You are correct in that we can shed test all the offspring produced from a Dark Sun for Albino and any that come back negative will be het Dark Matter.
We have had a few come back negative for Albino and these are now labeled as het Dark Matter.
we have done Dark Sun to Dark Sun pairings and we have seen a difference in appearance of the offspring but by when we have bred them they have all so far proved out visual double het (just bad luck)
The biggest thing for us this year was producing Dark Suns from pairing a BP Albino to one of the dbl het Pied Albino/Dark Matter offspring and the dbl het proved out to be dbl het Pied Dark Matter, proving that the gene is allelic with Albino/Candy.
