# vienna mark or bad dutch?



## zzGypsy (Feb 15, 2012)

hi there,
I've got my first rabbits and they're unknown breeding, but most likely new zealand crosses. 
I've got one that is black and has a very narrow white mark on it's nose/muzzle and white toes on the front feet, and I was thinking that's vienna marked... however I read on another thread here that it can be poor-quality dutch coloring as well... how would I know the difference?
thanks!
Megan


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## bunnylovincowgirl (Feb 20, 2012)

Without knowing their background or what they throw, it's pretty hard to say.


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## Bunnylady (Feb 20, 2012)

Dutch is a very popular breed, and it's an old one; it has been used as a foundation breed for many others. BEW is found as one possible color in several breeds, not just the Vienna. My experience has been that Dutch-based white is very common. There aren't many people breeding BEW anything around here, so my first reaction to just a snip or stripe and a bit of white on the paws would be, "Dutch marking." Most of the animals that are Vienna marked have more white on them, and it tends to be assymetrical. A straight-down-the-middle-of-the-face blaze could be either one, but a blaze that zooms wildly off to one side is much more likely to be Vienna. If you get any babies with crazy blazes, that's a pretty good sign that you have a Vienna gene creating the white. Of course, you can get blue eyes on the heterozygous Vienna's, too (I mean cornflower blue, not blue-gray) so if you see a blue eye, that's a dead giveaway!


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## zzGypsy (Feb 20, 2012)

Bunnylady said:
			
		

> Dutch is a very popular breed, and it's an old one; it has been used as a foundation breed for many others. BEW is found as one possible color in several breeds, not just the Vienna. My experience has been that Dutch-based white is very common. There aren't many people breeding BEW anything around here, so my first reaction to just a snip or stripe and a bit of white on the paws would be, "Dutch marking." Most of the animals that are Vienna marked have more white on them, and it tends to be assymetrical. A straight-down-the-middle-of-the-face blaze could be either one, but a blaze that zooms wildly off to one side is much more likely to be Vienna. If you get any babies with crazy blazes, that's a pretty good sign that you have a Vienna gene creating the white. Of course, you can get blue eyes on the heterozygous Vienna's, too (I mean cornflower blue, not blue-gray) so if you see a blue eye, that's a dead giveaway!


thank you that's helpful info.  the doe with the snip has a 1/8" wide white line from her nose to her lip, not quite right down the middle (none on the bridge between the nose and top of her head).
If I wanted to test for the vienna gene, should I be looking for a vienna-gene-candidate buck to see if we get any BEW kits? 
and of course I'll look for the wild blazes.
do you have photos of the cornflower blue / blue-gray eyes so I can tell what I'm looking at? tell me a little more about the herterozygous vienna with the blue eyes?


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