# Sorry..another post about my mini rex babies



## parkersmom120106 (Feb 1, 2011)

Hey all, 

First I want to thank everyone for all their help so far! I started a new topic because I wanted to make sure people see these pictures and maybe can help me figure out the color on this bunny. I've never seen this before, but I'm sure some of you have. The red baby is now 2 weeks old and the possible blue tort baby will be 2 weeks tomorrow. Their eyes are opened and they are climbing all over in the nest box. The little red one was actually out of it when I checked them this morning. Anyway..I got to really looking at the markings on the little red baby and on it's belly is white with blue splotches along with some red and it has some blue spots on it's feet. Would that be a tri? Are those blue spots going to turn black or could it be some other kind of tri color? Any help would be appreciated! Pics are below! 












The color isn't showing well in the pictures, but on the belly the splotches are grey except for the 2 red patches and the spots are grey also.


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## cattlecait (Feb 1, 2011)

It's a little hard to see with the pictures, BUT it could be one of two things - he could possibly be a blue/fawn tri-color. I think though, because his ears and nose look shaded, he might be what's called a torted tri, means he is a broken tort with tri-color spots, and isn't recognized. OR he could be just a broken tort, but then I can't explain the spots on his foot. 

Maybe this website will help you - http://mr-colors.tripod.com/ It's from Cottonwood Farms Mini Rex, I send it to my 4-H kids and have them study it.


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## Bunnylady (Feb 1, 2011)

I don't see any indication of Harlequin patterning, which is required for a rabbit to be a Tricolor. I don't see it on either parent, either. If the buck has a Tri or Harlie parent, he could be hiding a Harlie gene, so it may be possible there. Red (the doe's color) is recessive to Harlequin; if the doe had a Harlequin gene, she would most likely show it. My guess is that the baby is a straightforward Broken Tort. Tort is one of those freaky colors that can grow in darker or lighter, apparently at the whim of the rabbit. The color a baby is born with is often lighter than what it winds up with; the different amounts of dark pigment may just reflect this baby's growth.

Harlequin markings can be tricky to spot on brokens. The standard calls for the Harlequin markings to be evenly distributed; those of us that have bred Harlies know that is frequently not the case. If a Tri with a lot of white just happened not to have any Harlequin markings in the areas where it had color, it might pass for a Broken Red or Orange. I once had a Tricolor buck that nearly did that; he had two small black spots near one eye that were about this big -> O. He was about 10 weeks old before I realized he was a Tri; before that, the spots were so small, I didn't even see them. 

As I said, I really think this baby is simply a Broken Tort. The Junior coat that a rabbit gets at about 12 weeks old is usually more intensely colored than the first baby coat. If you really think you have Harlequin coloring showing through the Tort, it should be more obvious at that time.


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## cattlecait (Feb 1, 2011)

Bunnylady, I'm confused again lol. Maybe I need clarification.

Harlequins have stripes, but every tri-color I've seen has polka-dots. Do you mean the dots are considered Harlequin markings? I had tri-color Mini Rex for awhile and my Harlie-colored Mini rex buck wasn't striped t all, are they only striped in the breed?


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## therealsilkiechick (Feb 1, 2011)

i agree broken tort.  not sure how that works in tri's in mini rex so i'm learning here to on this one but to answer part of what u asked not just the harli breed is it striped. i have a harli holland lop and she is black/orange  stripeing.


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## Bunnylady (Feb 1, 2011)

The Harlequin gene (ej) creates a situation where a lot of the black/brown pigment appears in the hairs of some areas, and it is pretty much absent in other areas, allowing the red/yellow pigment to be seen. Combine this with the Chinchilla genes, and you get white in the non-black areas, resulting in a Magpie. But I digress. 

The Harlie gene sets the scene, but other modifiers create the pattern. In the Harlequin (breed), the ideal pattern is large patches of color, with the body striped. In the Rhinelander, the black and red appears in small spots, roughly the size of a postage stamp. You can get spots so small, they look more like freckles (I have a MR doe that looks like that, but I haven't the time to get a pic of her right now). I haven't seen anyone state it as a fact, but my observation is that the Broken gene seems to have some interaction with the Harlequin pattern. In my MR, those that have been Tri's have always had spots, not real stripes or patches. I have had harlequin MR's that may have been full siblings of these spotted Tri's (even littermates) that displayed large patches and stripes, just like the big guys. In fact, at one point, the best harlequin pattern in my rabbitry(split face, reverses, the whole 9 yards) was a Mini Rex!


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