Black Face Black Beauty

Black face black beauties are characterized by a lack of dark eye rings around their eyes.  This gives their face an overall black look.  Their body color and dorsal stripe are often very dark too, but this can vary.  While we refer to very dark gliders with no eye rings as black face black beauties, the black face trait can also be seen in other colors.  A common pairing is black face and mosaic.  These gliders will have no eye rings, but the trait can also be seen in gliders that have overall white faces due to the mosaic trait.  In this case, often the black face is identified not by the lack of eye rings, but by the dark body color and dorsal stripe starkly contrasted with a white patch.  Obviously, these type are a little more difficult to tell.  It is also possible to have gliders that are black face white face.  This can present in a couple of ways. One is a darker face with absent eye rings (indicating black face) and absent under ear bars (indicating white face). Another way is by having a lighter face with no under ear bars typical of a white face but then two little dark marks over their eyes.  This gives the glider an angry looking face.  Black face is a dominant trait, so only one parent needs to visually carry the gene to pass it on to its offspring.  If a glider has a black face parent, but is not black face itself, it cannot pass on the black face gene unless it is paired with a black face mate. 

Pairing a black face to a black face can result in what is called a melanistic glider.  Melanistic gliders have the double dominant dark face gene and are usually very dark.  However, they are not melanistic in the sense that we usually refer to melanistic in the animal world.  ‘Melanistic’ in gliders is actually a coat condition in which they have very thin fur, seemingly missing their undercoat.  They can sometimes have health problems or even infant mortality.  Therefore it is very important to be very intentional about your breeding stock if you plan to breed for melanistic.  Because of the potential issues, we do not personally breed for melanistic gliders.