# Color genetics question.



## Twilite (Apr 26, 2008)

Okay I have a Bay mare and my friend has a black mare, we're going to possibly breed them to a white donkey for a couple of mules (we will be keeping the mules for ourselves), and I was just wondering what the possibilities are for the colors of the foals. I honestly don't know much about the color genetics at all, so any education at all would be great.


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## Harmony_Meadows (Nov 4, 2007)

Hey there! When it comes to horse color, this is one of my favorite sites:

http://www.horsetesting.com/CCalculator1.asp

With donkeys, however, I am not sure about the genetics of their colors. You may want to try a search and see what you get. Or I am sure someone with donkey experience will help you out!

Good luck, and remember...we need baby pictures!!


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## fetch33 (Jan 15, 2010)

http://www.lovelongears.com/about_donkeys2.html



This is an interesting snippet "

Colors in the donkey range from the gray shades of gray-dun to brown, a rare bay (though not as red-toned as in horses) , black, light-faced roan (both red and gray), variants of sorrel (Registry term - RED), the blue-eyed Ivory (also called cream or white-phase), Frosted/spotted White, and a unique Spotted pattern. True horse pinto, horse aging gray, horse appaloosa, palomino and buckskin do not occur in the donkey.
"


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## Otter (Jan 15, 2008)

Horse gray and Appy patterns don't occur in donkeys, but they sure do in mules!! Scroll down to the bottom of this page for some loud Appy mules.
http://www.ranchosantiago.com/
Spots of any kind inherit strangely in mules.

And this is quoted from here;http://www.lovelongears.com/about_mules.html
_The only colors mules do NOT come in is true horse pinto (due to the genetic factoring of these colors, there are some mules who are close to, but not quite, tobiano patterned, and none recorded in overo). Mules from Appaloosa mares often have extremely loud patterns, with spots enlarging or "skewing" in variants of the horse appaloosa. Breeders wishing for a mule with four white feet should try a tobiano mare. The mule will probably have four socks and/or stockings, with the most usual combination being four white feet and a splash of white on the tail. The genes of the mule seem programmed for the unusual, and very strange, loud spotted pinto and appaloosa variants are common. In fact, the best way to produce a spotted mule is to cross a spotted jack to a solid colored mare. The resulting mule may have pinto-like patches in a variation of the donkey-spot pattern. Appaloosa mares crossed to spotted jacks have often produced mule foals that appear to be roan-patched pinto, with dark leopard appaloosa spots over the dark areas_

I've seen pictures of a buckskin mule (pic here; http://mulesmulesmules.spaces.live.com/), but I've never seen a palomino or even a picture.

But with lots of looking, I couldn't find a simple answer to your question. You might ask here;
http://www.ruralheritage.com/messageboard/frontporch/index1.htm
Or maybe get in touch with a professional mule breeder and ask some questions about long-ear babies.


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## Terry W (Mar 10, 2006)

I have access to a spotted jack that will throw mule babies that range from pure white to spotted to black with mealy face markings when bred to Haflingers. When bred to the paint ponies, the babies are generally spotted with the mothers colors. When bred to the spotted jenny, the pair have produced solid colored donkey babies-- so perhaps the spot pattern in Donkeys is/can be dominant over the solid?
Any help?


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## rabbitpatch (Jan 14, 2008)

This site has a lot of excellent information - http://www.equine-color.info/

Most of the info is geared specifically toward horses, but they have a forum and I'm sure you could post your question there.

They do have one section on donkey colors though...and it says that the spotting IS dominant to non-spotting in donkeys.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

I spent all evening looking at pictures of those lovely, LOVELY animals!

WOW!


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## desertshi (Jul 23, 2008)

Nothing to do with genetics but I wanted to share this photo of a beautiful mule! lol. This is my aunt, she and "Ginger" do endurance racing.


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