How the Donkey Color Calculator Works

Every compatible genotype, without a frequency guess

Each parent passes one copy at each locus. For every complete parental genotype compatible with your choices, we cross those copies and name the possible foals. A range is the lowest and highest chance across all those scenarios. Upper bounds from different scenarios need not add to 100%. Equal bounds give an exact chance under the model.

A gray-dun can carry red and non-dun. Brown, dark brown and sorrel leave dun open; red leaves NLP open. A black parent or foal proves a non-dun copy. Red or rose dun, NLP and ivory relatives can prove their respective copies. No such foal on record proves nothing; only a test can clear a tested copy.

The teaching pair is a gray-dun jack tested Ed/ed, N/N for light points and N/N for KIT, with a black sire, crossed with a black jenny with the same lab results. Per conception: gray-dun 37.5%, dark (black or brown) 37.5%, rose dun 12.5% and sorrel 12.5%.

At more than 4,096 complete scenario pairs, the full color map waits for a narrowing answer or test. White and spotting shares are still calculated. Recorded animals are read only after owner authorization; corrections in this calculator stay hypothetical. Share links contain entered choices, never an animal identity.

What is established and what is a model

Red Factor (MC1R, ed recessive) has a molecular study and a routine donkey-specific test. No Light Points (ASIP, NLP recessive) has replicated molecular support; NLP is the donkey agouti allele, not a separate pangare gene. On red, NLP may or may not be visible.

Dun (TBX3) is dominant, supported by a genome study and pedigrees. One or two dun copies give the same coat class. Gray-dun is black-based dun; rose dun is red-based dun. A dorsal cross alone does not prove dun because black donkeys can have one too.

The genetic cause of brown is unknown. Offspring with the non-dun black-based genotype are called dark (black or brown); a representative black plate does not settle that distinction. Roan and frosting are descriptive words without a settled predictive gene.

American ivory is a recessive family-record model described by Sponenberg and ADMS, with no identified gene or commercial test. It is used only with matching ivory family history. Pink skin and blue eyes alone cannot identify American ivory: Asinara albino, Baroque dilution and KIT can produce similar appearances. Ivory can retain faint underlying markings.

One KIT locus, with viability named

Normal (N), dominant white (W) and white spotting (Ws) are alternate copies at KIT, not independent switches. Appearance-only spotting uses the stated premise that this is the usual Ws variant. A little white can be N/N or N/Ws. A white donkey of unknown cause needs a W/Ws test and an ivory ancestry check before this calculator assigns a cause.

Two spotting copies (Ws/Ws): predicted lethal. One documented all-white foal with pink skin and blue eyes was born alive and died at about two weeks. This is different from a viable frosted spotted white adult with dark eyes and dark skin spots.

Two dominant white copies (W/W): predicted lethal, never observed. Dominant white evidence includes one white-born case and one Asinara heterozygote. White (W/Ws): viability unknown; it has not been observed. The numbers are per conception, not renormalized to surviving foals.

Enter the lab’s own words

UC Davis VGL reports Red Factor as Ed/Ed, Ed/ed or ed/ed; No Light Points as N/N, N/NLP or NLP/NLP; and KIT as N/N, N/W, N/Ws, W/W, W/Ws or Ws/Ws. A tested normal pair stays distinct from not tested. A result that conflicts with the entered look asks you to correct one of them.

Long Hair uses N, LH1 and LH2 at FGF5. LH1/LH1, LH2/LH2 and LH1/LH2 are long-haired. This evidence concerns Poitou; wooly miniature donkeys are not assumed to share it. Both parents need entered test results for hair-length odds.

Prices checked November 4, 2026: VGL one test $58, two $69, three $74, and the coat and hair-length panel $79 per donkey. Giessen tests the white-spotting variant for €32. There is no commercial donkey test found for dun, brown, roan, frosting or American ivory. Horse color tests do not establish the donkey variants.

References

1. Abitbol, Legrand and Tiret (2014), donkey MC1R red factor, Animal Genetics 45:878–880. doi:10.1111/age.12207
2. Abitbol, Legrand and Tiret (2015), donkey ASIP and no light points. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4389795/
3. Wang et al. (2020), donkey genomes and dun selection. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7723042/
4. Haase, Rieder and Leeb (2015), KIT white and spotting. doi:10.1111/age.12282
5. Fenn et al. (2017), white spotting validation. doi:10.1111/age.12494
6. Tanaka, Grahn and Bellone (2020), homozygous KIT spotting foal. doi:10.1111/age.12983
7. Grilz-Seger et al. (2020), white donkeys and distinct causes. doi:10.1080/1828051X.2020.1790997
8. Sponenberg, Donkey Color Genetics: family evidence and descriptive colors. https://www.ivis.org/library/veterinary-care-of-donkeys/donkey-color-genetics
9. ADMS color descriptions and ivory family records. https://www.lovelongears.com/faq_color.html

How to cite

How the Donkey Color Calculator Works https://creatures.com/donkey-coat-color-calculator/how-it-works. Updated November 4, 2026.

Changes

• November 4, 2026: Rebuilt around donkey-specific evidence, unweighted genotype ranges and explicit KIT viability outcomes.