Color genetics... again

Yes, this is yet another color genetics question. :roll:

So, I've been thinking about adding a second breed to my rabbitry this fall and for once I'm actually doing all the necessary research ahead of time! *Yay!* I've finally decided on mini lops. The hardest part so far has been figuring out the color genetics for breeding. It's because I've been raising French Angora and the color names and phenotypes are so drastically different between those breeds it's beyond confusing. :x

Anyway, three weeks and twenty migraines later :wall: this is what I've decided on for my foundation stock. However, I would really appreciate someone checking my work and making sure there isn't a problem with any of the colors I'm aiming for.

First breeding pair:
Broken chinchilla buck
Frosted pearl doe (possibly broken? :shrug: )

Second breeding pair:
Orange/Fawn/Cream buck
Tri doe

The idea would be that the first pair would produce chins and possibly frosties (depending on recessives in the buck) and the second pair could give me harlies, tris, and fawns. And I'm thinking I might be able to breed the Orange buck with the Frosty doe as well?
Whaddya think? Any potential disasters from those breedings? I appreciate any input.

Oops! Edited to add that these are mini lops I'm talking about.

Those pairings should be fine.

One thing you want to make sure is that your chinchilla and frosty are actually dark chinchilla and not light chinchilla. I've seen some shaded agouti marketed as chinchillas but it can really throw a wrench is a chin program.

I'm not 100% on this so take it with a grain of salt but, I would go with a harlequin buck if you can find one rather than a orange one. I think that the modifiers that cause nice dark markings in a tri and harlequin may cause smut in a red. Like I said I'm not 100% sure on that one so maybe someone else will pop in and verify that. You could still bred the frosty and a harlequin and maybe end up with magpies.

alforddm":26vr25kq said:

One thing you want to make sure is that your chinchilla and frosty are actually dark chinchilla and not light chinchilla. I've seen some shaded agouti marketed as chinchillas but it can really throw a wrench is a chin program.

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Oops, never even thought of that. I'll definitely make sure to avoid getting a chin with the cchl gene in its background.

alforddm":26vr25kq said:

You could still bred the frosty and a harlequin and maybe end up with magpies.

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Awesome! I've always wanted magpies! Although that would mean more genetics research... :?

Thanks for the help!

Awesome! I've always wanted magpies! Although that would mean more genetics research... :?

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Not really that much more. A magpie is just a harlequin with chinchilla gene and no full color "C".

Sounds like a plan

I would add that breeding tri/harli/fawn to chin can GREATLY reduce the Rufus/redness in the full colour offspring, producing very "washed out" tri, harli and fawns and conversely, any chinchilla, frosty or magpie offspring can get addition Rufus and be "smutty"

alforddm":1o6yjjg9 said:

Those pairings should be fine.

One thing you want to make sure is that your chinchilla and frosty are actually dark chinchilla and not light chinchilla. I've seen some shaded agouti marketed as chinchillas but it can really throw a wrench is a chin program.

I'm not 100% on this so take it with a grain of salt but, I would go with a harlequin buck if you can find one rather than a orange one. I think that the modifiers that cause nice dark markings in a tri and harlequin may cause smut in a red. Like I said I'm not 100% sure on that one so maybe someone else will pop in and verify that. You could still bred the frosty and a harlequin and maybe end up with magpies.

Click to expand...

Mini lops recognize shaded agouti (as Sable Chinchillas) so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Those breeding pairs sound good. You can breed orange and frosted pearl. The only things I would avoid are that I'd keep the frosted pearl carrier oranges away from the tri since magpie tris aren't recognized... And you will have to deal with harlequins. Tricolor mini lops are also not the easiest variety to find (chestnuts, steels and chins tend to have the best type) but if you know a breeder around you that should work out great. Mini lops don't have many points on color, too, so as long as it isn't blatantly unrecognized, you should be pretty fine.