# Silver Fox Crossing/colors



## Spring Flower (Apr 25, 2019)

Hello everyone. 
I have only breed BB twice both times they were all black. (She is a silver fox)
I was wondering if it is possible for her the throw other colors? Its kinda a stupid question but so far she has had 14 babies total and they all were black.

She was being bred to a satin/NZ. This time a black and white Dutch. Could she throw Dutch? Or other colors?

Sorry I don't know anything about genetics.Thank you.


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## Bunnylady (Apr 25, 2019)

A purebred Black Silver Fox might have genes for dilute or chocolate, which could result in kits of those colors if the rabbit she is bred to also has those genes. 

Dutch is another case. Good Dutch markings require two copies of the gene for Dutch, plus a lot of luck. With one copy (coming just from the father, not the mother in this case), you will probably get some white markings, but they likely won't be the full-on Dutch pattern.


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## Spring Flower (Apr 25, 2019)

Okay thanks.


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## AmberLops (Apr 26, 2019)

It all depends on what colors BB has in her lineage...if she has dilute colors (chocolate/blue/lilac) then she will most likely throw those colors when bred to a buck who also carries dilute colors in his genes.
I have a black buck with pretty much no dilute colors in his pedigree and I bred him to my broken black who also just comes out of blacks/broken blacks...she had a litter of blue babies...no blacks!


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## Bunnylady (Apr 26, 2019)

Ummmm . . . in rabbits, Chocolate is not a dilute color. Chocolate happens on the B locus, Dilute on the D locus - totally separate. Opal, Blue, Squirrel, Smoke Pearl, Lynx; all require two copies of the dilute gene (dd), and are therefore dilute colors.

With mixed-breed rabbits, it can be nearly impossible to be sure about which recessive genes may be lurking. With purebreds, you are _usually_ restricted to the genes responsible for the colors the breed shows in, plus maybe a few that people may be working on getting included as showable colors. I say "usually," because people do outcrosses to other breeds for a variety of reasons, and recessives that get picked up that way can hide for generations before just the right parents provide the combination of genes to show them off. For example: I bought a pedigreed Harlequin from a well-respected Harlequin breeder a number of years ago. She was a very nice rabbit, and passed on a lot of good traits, so I kept a lot of her offspring in my breeding program. A few years later, I had some Ruby-eyed Whites show up in one of my Harlequin nest boxes! I checked the parents' pedigrees, and sure enough, this rabbit appeared on both pedigrees (once as a grandparent, and once as a great-grand, if I remember correctly). Some time later, I mentioned them in a conversation I was having with the breeder, and she asked me, "does she have (a particular buck) on her pedigree?" She did. That rabbit had come from a breeder who also bred New Zealand Whites, and they had done some outcrosses to improve the type on their Harlies (which is something most Harlequins desperately need). While the outcross was far enough back not to appear on the pedigree, the REW gene had been passed on to that buck, then through to my doe, and her offspring, for something like 7 generations, before the right rabbits got bred together and both passed it to some of the same babies.

Dutch show in several colors, but there are some (like "Gray," which is the Dutch version of Chestnut Agouti) that require genes that your rabbit_ probably_ doesn't have. He could be carrying a single copy of the recessives that create Blue, Chocolate and Tortoise, but since the Silver Fox shouldn't be carrying the non-extension gene (which is what turns a Black into a Tortoise), you are probably limited to Blue, Chocolate and Lilac as being colors that_ might_ turn up, with Blue the most likely, and Lilac the least.


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## Spring Flower (Apr 26, 2019)

Okay thanks a bunch!
I was just hoping for some more color. 

On a different note. 
It might be hard to tell because they are so young but I was wondering what color this baby is. Both parents are Dutch. One is the black and white buck and the other is like a Fawn and white.  
First picture is the one In question and the second is for comparison in darkness of color. They are from the same litter.


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## Bunnylady (Apr 26, 2019)

Looks like a Blue.


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## AmberLops (Apr 26, 2019)

It's a blue


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## Spring Flower (Apr 27, 2019)

Oh yay! Ok sorry another color question
WHAT IS THIS!? I have never had any like this before. Almost the whole litter is like this.


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## Bunnylady (Apr 27, 2019)

Looks like a Tort/Tortoise/Tortoise shell (take your pick; different breeds call it different names, but it's the same color).


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## Spring Flower (Apr 27, 2019)

You guys are amazing! We have meat rabbits as well and I decided to breed my dutch buck with my NZ white as well as our other buck... I think he's a satin but maybe NZ and this was the outcome


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## AmberLops (Apr 27, 2019)

It's a tort  That's a nice breeding!


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## Spring Flower (Apr 27, 2019)

Could have the Dutch (I thought he was black at first but now I think he's blue) brought that out or did it just happen that this time we breed them  that Gene showed up?


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## AmberLops (Apr 27, 2019)

Your Dutch buck definitely could throw torts.
Torts carry both recessive (e) genes. If your doe also carries a recessive (e) gene then you'll definitely produce torts. I honestly don't know much about Silver Fox rabbits and their genetics but i'll give you a helpful link 
http://www.kaninchenfarm.com/silver-fox-genetics


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## Spring Flower (Apr 27, 2019)

Thanks alot. I will read that but.. I forgot to say that these torts are from a NZ mama. They were born this morning and I didn't want to create another thread so I just asked here.


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## Bunnylady (Apr 27, 2019)

NZW's can really surprise you when you breed them to something else. Apparently, yours has some Reds in her background.


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## Spring Flower (Apr 27, 2019)

Apparently so! With the pair we have been breeding we usually get harlequin and red eye whites but then we bred her to a Dutch and boom torts!


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## AmberLops (Apr 28, 2019)

Lucky!  They're beautiful!


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