# Kits born April 9th



## MultipleAnimals (Apr 27, 2017)

Hi Yall, I Thought I'd Update Y'all on the Lionhead Doe (same size as Cali Buck) being bred to my Cali Buck. She had 7 kits, 3 blacks, 4 whites. Well 1 black died(runt). But anyway, the kits are 18 days today, and the Whites are Pointed and the Blacks are Agouti Black(Silvery/Gray Hair Near Skin). Mom is Agouti Black, does this mean the Pointed Kits are carriers of Agouti?


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## Hens and Roos (Apr 27, 2017)

not sure on the color question but will tag a few others

@samssimonsays @Bunnylady @promiseacres


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## Bunnylady (Apr 27, 2017)

The black kits in that picture look like typical self blacks - no agouti involved (there's actually no such thing as an agouti black). Self blacks are normally a little lighter near the skin. The fact that there are pointed/cali/himi (whatever you want to call the white kits) indicate that your black doe is carrying either REW or Himi.


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## MultipleAnimals (Apr 27, 2017)

Bunnylady said:


> The black kits in that picture look like typical self blacks - no agouti involved (there's actually no such thing as an agouti black). Self blacks are normally a little lighter near the skin. The fact that there are pointed/cali/himi (whatever you want to call the white kits) indicate that your black doe is carrying either REW or Himi.



So Even if the Father was a California, there shouldn't be Pointed Whites?


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## MultipleAnimals (Apr 27, 2017)

Mom
  Mom
  Baby1
  Baby1


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## Bunnylady (Apr 27, 2017)

Your doe is a black. Her fur is a bit faded and stained, but she's a black. 

Cali/Himi/Pointed White occurs in the "C" series. Every rabbit has two genes from the "C" series (one that came from its mother, one that came from its father), though just which ones they are depends on what genes the parents have. There are 5 genes in the "C" series:

C - full color
cchd - chinchilla
cchl - shaded (siamese)
ch - Himilayan (Californian)
c - ruby-eyed white

That ^^ ^^^^ is what is known as a "ladder of dominance." It's a way of showing which genes are dominant to which within a gene series. The one at the top is the most dominant, the one at the bottom the most recessive; each gene is dominant to the ones below it and recessive to the ones above. 

The word "dominant" has to do with expression of the gene, it has nothing to do with how likely a gene is to be inherited. A rabbit could have one copy of the most dominant gene in a series, and one copy of the most recessive (in this case, Cc), and the odds of inheriting either gene is exactly the same, 50/50. The most dominant gene that a rabbit inherits is the one that you will see; if you see one of the more recessive colors, you know the rabbit didn't get one of the genes that are higher than it on the ladder.

For example, your buck is a Californian, so he has the Himi coloration. You know he doesn't have the genes for Chinchilla or Shaded, because if he did, he'd be one of those colors. He's showing the Himi coloration, so he can't have a gene higher on the ladder than the Himi gene (ch). If he's a purebred Californian, he will have gotten a copy of Himi from both of his parents, so he'd be chch. You know that he will give a copy of the Himi gene (ch) to all of his offspring, because that's the only thing he has in the "C" series.

Your doe is black, so you know she has at least one copy of the most dominant gene in this series, the full-color gene (C). Just looking at her, you can't tell what her other "C" series gene is, because the one she's expressing is the most dominant gene in the series. She gave a copy of the full-color gene to the black kits: they have their mother's C and their father's ch . But she also gave birth to those white kits. We know that all of the kits got a Himi gene (ch) from their father; for them to be expressing it, they had to get something from their mother that is no higher than Himi (ch) on the ladder of dominance. So that means that the doe has to be carrying either Himi (ch) or Ruby-eyed White (c).


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## MultipleAnimals (Apr 27, 2017)

Bunnylady said:


> Your doe is a black. Her fur is a bit faded and stained, but she's a black.
> 
> Cali/Himi/Pointed White occurs in the "C" series. Every rabbit has two genes from the "C" series (one that came from its mother, one that came from its father), though just which ones they are depends on what genes the parents have. There are 5 genes in the "C" series:
> 
> ...



Thanks


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