If two albino mice have offspring, will the babies necessarily be albino?

Question

If two albino mice have offspring, will the babies necessarily be albino?

Answer 1

This is slightly tricky from a genetics standpoint.  BUT:

An albino is one type of pink-eyed white mouse.  It's the most common, but not the only way to get an all white mouse with pink eyes.

Albino mice have no pigment because of a pair of recessive genes at the C locus--an albino is "cc", with two genes for albinism.  If you mate two "cc" mice to each other, all the babies will also be "cc" and will all be albinos.

Where this gets tricky, is that there are some other combinations that can get you a mouse that LOOKS like an albino but genetically isn't.  There is a gene for pink eyes that has an effect on coat color without turning it completely white, so you can have pink eyed mice in light browns, light grays, and even orange.  

There are also other recessive genes at the C locus that have other effects--for example, there's a gene we write "ch" and if a mouse has two of them it will be very light gray, almost white, with a dark nose, feet, ears, and tail just like a siamese cat--it's a siamese mouse!  There are some other C locus genes that make the mouse paler than normal, but not white.  And all the C locus recessives turn any orange part of the mouse to white.  We use these genes sometimes if we have mice with orange bellies (a black tan mouse is black with an orange belly) and we want the belly to be white (a black fox mouse is a black mouse with a white belly--add one of the right c locus recessives to a black tan and you're there).

SO, what can happen is you may have a mouse that is genetically an orange siamese with the pink-eyed gene, and it will be a white mouse with pink eyes that looks exactly like an albino, but the babies may end up not looking like albinos.

Answer 2

It's likely, but not guaranteed because the 'grandparents' may or may not have been PEWs (pink eyed whites) themselves.

Answer 3

Albinism is a recessive trait. So if the mice are true albinos then all the offspring will be albinos. If they are just white mice then it is from polygenic inheritance not a recessive trait and it is likely that the mice will be white but not definate. But if the both have red eyes then they are true albinos and all of their young will be albinos as well  

Answer 4

defidently. thats what happens with my mice. If both parents are albino all the babies will be.