HaloRabbits- Rabbit Journal

[HaloRabbits]

@Hatties Hoppers I have all the colors listed on the pedigree but no genotypes yet. I currently have a file on the computer where I have all of their genotypes listed. The more breedings I do, the more info I will know. For example I do not know if my doe or buck carry chocolate "b", but if a chocolate baby pops up then I will change B_ to Bb.

I breed for meat, so if I get unshowable/unapproved colors in the midst of my experimentation with colors/genetics it isn't a big deal. I am going to be working to create 2 color lines, reds and blacks. And then I will also have brokens of each color. It is a work in progress as I only got my first rabbits in December, but I am working towards my goal as we speak.

I was going to phase out the self-chins I got from my first breeding but pet-buyers really liked their look. So I may keep a line of them going.

 

[16029]

If you get a chocolate baby how do you know it doesn't come from the buck?

 

[promiseacres]

If you get a chocolate baby how do you know it doesn't come from the buck?

Both would need to carry chocolate, Bb As a chocolate is bb so either might carry but can be unknown.

 

[HaloRabbits]

If you get a chocolate baby how do you know it doesn't come from the buck?

A chocolate rabbit is "bb" so that means both parents have given a "b" to the kit. I know my doe is B_ so I could then change it to Bb. My buck on the other hand is listed _ _ because he is red and comes from a long line of reds; I can't be sure of anything at this moment. He has only been bred once and all kits were black, but since black is dominant that really does not tell me anything since my doe is black. So if I get a chocolate I would change him to b_.

Test breedings are great if you can do it, the results are seen much faster. For example, if I had a chocolate doe and I bred him with her multiple times and got only chocolates I would know he was "bb", if I got a mix of chocoloates and blacks I would know he was "Bb" but if I got only blacks I would know he was "BB".

 

[16029]

thanks, that helps make more sense.

 

[16029]

Black is aaB_C_D_E_enen; broken black is aaB_C_D_E_Enen. Since everything on the buck's pedigree is either black or broken black, you don't know if anybody might be carrying anything else (like dilute, or chocolate, or some other recessive gene) that would fill in any of those blank spaces.

The doe is a REW, that's ____cc________, but her parents were a black and a blue, which are both self colors, so you know she's got two self genes in the A series (aa), since self is the only gene either of her parents have to give. With a black and a blue parent, it's pretty likely that the doe inherited at least one gene for black (B), but since black is dominant, even though there aren't any chocolate colors on the pedigree, you can't be absolutely sure that nobody is carrying chocolate (b), so you have to leave it at B_. Blue is the dilute of black, and dilute (d) is recessive to full color. You know the doe had to get a copy of dilute from her mother; but her father is black, so you don't know whether he might carry dilute. So you know for sure that your REW doe has at least one copy of dilute. The doe has tort on her father's side of the family; tort is ee. Her father isn't a tort, but his father was, so he might have passed an e on to the doe. So, looking at the pedigree, you know the doe is aa, probably B_, cc, d_, can't be sure about the E series but there's a possibility of e_, neither parent is a broken so solid (enen).

A lot of people will pencil in a note on the pedigree about the known genetics of the rabbit. This can help you know which crosses to do if you are looking to produce/improve a particular color, or which crosses to avoid. For example, I had a REW Holland Lop doe whose sire was a broken tort. When bred to a solid buck, she produced broken kits, so I knew she had gotten the broken gene from her father. You couldn't see it, of course, since she was white anyway, but because I knew it was there, I avoided the possibility of creating Charlies by never breeding her to a broken buck. Some things may not show up on the pedigree - offspring, siblings - that can give you a clue as to something that may be lurking that you don't see. For example, on your buck's pedigree, everything there is a black or broken black, but they might all have siblings that were chocolates or some other recessive color that could crop up in later breedings, but there is nothing in the direct line of descent to tell you where it came from.

If I were pencilling in a note about your REW doe's genetics, it would read: aaB_cc_d_(e?)enen.

@Bunnylady
sorry I didn't post this sooner. The baby bunnies colors came out . I had thought there was 1 solid black and 3 broken black. There are actually 1 blue, 1 broken blue and 2 broken blacks. What geno type does the doe carry?

 

[Bunnylady]

aaB_cc_d_(e?)enen.

What geno type does the doe carry?

The presence of blue kits in the litter doesn't change anything we know about the doe; we already knew she had a dilution gene because she has a dilute (blue) parent. Dilute is recessive; for a baby to be born a dilute color, it has to inherit the dilution gene from both parents. Since there are dilute babies in the litter, we know that your buck has to have a copy of the dilution gene, too. Previously, we knew that your broken black buck was aaB_C_D_E_Enen, now we know he is aaB_C_DdE_Enen.

 

[16029]

Is dilute blue? So if a parent is one color does that mean the babies carry that color?

 

[Bunnylady]

A rabbit has the potential to produce two pigments, pheomelanin (yellow/red) and eumelanin (black/brown). All rabbit colors are created with only these two pigments. These pigments are found in the form of granules within the hair shaft. There are a bunch of genes that determine how much of each color are found in the hairs, where within the hair they are found, and where on the rabbit these colors appear. The dilution gene reduces the total number of granules of both types in the hair, and causes them to clump together, letting more light through and so producing a lighter color. Dilute modifies what the other genes code for - black becomes blue, chocolate becomes lilac, chestnut becomes opal, chinchilla becomes squirrel, sable becomes smoke pearl, etc.

The D series is where dilution happens. There are two possibilities in the D series, the full color version (D) and the dilution gene (d). Since dilute is recessive, a rabbit had to inherit it from both parents for you to be able to see it.

 

[16029]

Ok.I am a bit confused.