Question about colors

[Tre3hugger]

So I am expecting a litter in about a week. The mother is a Black tortoise shell (I am 99% sure) New Zealand. Here she is very pregnant.

The dad is an american chinchilla

My question is, what colors might I expect from this mix? Thanks!

 

[promiseacres]

Kim's Rabbit Hutch

Rabbit Website for all ages. This site is for rabbit breeders and pet owners. It includes information about ARBA, breeding and showing, and making cages etc. Lots of useful information, people come by often

www.ephiny.net

Has a decent predictor.
Do you know parents colors? If you don't it's really hard to know what you may get. Tort in NZ isn't a normal or approved color. Most likely you will get a bunch of blacks & chestnutts. The chin needs to carry the tort gene and the tort needs to carry "c" or "Cchd " to get any that look like the parents.

 

[Bunnylady]

The highest probability is Chestnut. Since someone has been blending colors with the NZ, it's possible she might be carrying REW (c), so you might get Chinchillas. If your buck is pure a purebred Am Chin, that's about as much variability as I'd expect to see; if someone has done some outcrossing, you may get some surprises like Black or REW.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Thank you both for the info. The calculator shows 40 different possibilities! Most do seem to revolve around chestnut though. Guess I will just have to wait and see. A week from today!

 

[Bunnylady]

Well, that calculator is taking into account almost every recessive trait known to rabbitkind. If you were dealing with Netherland Dwarfs, or Holland Lops, or some other breed that people breed in all colors willy-nilly, some of those genes might be lurking; the calculator is working on color, not breed. But since you are dealing with breeds that have a very limited range of colors, the odds of most things (chocolate, for example) goes down to nearly nil. That said, I once had a line of Harlequins that occasionally threw REW's because somewhere in their murky past, someone had done an outcross to a NZW. So I had animals with nothing but Harlequins on their pedigrees for many generations, that were were white, with pink eyes . . . I called them my "paint-by-number Harlequins."

 

[Tre3hugger]

Well, that calculator is taking into account almost every recessive trait known to rabbitkind. If you were dealing with Netherland Dwarfs, or Holland Lops, or some other breed that people breed in all colors willy-nilly, some of those genes might be lurking; the calculator is working on color, not breed. But since you are dealing with breeds that have a very limited range of colors, the odds of most things (chocolate, for example) goes down to nearly nil. That said, I once had a line of Harlequins that occasionally threw REW's because somewhere in their murky past, someone had done an outcross to a NZW. So I had animals with nothing but Harlequins on their pedigrees for many generations, that were were white, with pink eyes . . . I called them my "paint-by-number Harlequins."

It is basically a lottery. The dad (pure, pedigreed) American Chinchilla seems to have a pretty well documented and pure genetic history. This tortoise shell NZ on the other hand...no pedigree. MAYBE pure NZ but I can't say I really know.

 

[Tre3hugger]

All the buns from this litter are for the soup pot anyway. MAYBE if I get a super fast growing boy I will hold him back for my meat line goals, but in that case color wouldn't really matter.