Harlequin color genes?

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C

Canlay

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Hey all! So, i am fairly new to rabbit breeding (been doing it since summer) and I have a question about some color genetics.

I have a litter currently whose father is a New Zealand self blue, and whose mother is a magpie harlequin. If I breed a male of the litter to his mother (the harlequin) will she have some babies that are harlequin? I’ve done some research and that is how it would seem according to punnett squares, but i’m still confused about the harlequin Ej gene. If it helps, the baby appears all black, and I don’t really know much about the parents’ genes, except that my harlequin does’ parents were also both magpie harlequins.

I’m not really breeding for color (my rabbits are mostly for meat) but I would be interested to find out if I can produce any more rabbits with coloration like my harlequin doe. Thoughts?
 
if the kit is black
then the parents' genotypes are probably

sire: aaB_C_ddE_

dam: AaB_chd_D_ej_

the kit is most likely

aaB_C_DdE_

if the dam is actually ejej

then the kit would carry ej and could throw harlequin if bred back to mom
even if the mom is eje and and the kit carries non extension instead of ej, it could throw kits that show the harlequin gene from the mom

Since true harlequin is agouti, and the kit is self, and therefore the mom has to carry self, I am not sure what harlequinized self looks like.

If you bred mom to a red buck, you would be more likely to get harlequin, red, and possibly magpie kits, if the red carries albino like many New Zealand do
 
I'm not sure on all the genetics stuff, but since I've bred harlequin in my lines since forever....

Practical application means you'll get about half the litter with harlequin markings bred back to mom.

Bump it another generation and 80% of the litter will be harlequinized.
 
Thanks everyone!

Update on this, I bread the black kit (starpaw) to his magpie harlequin mother (Poppy) and they did end up having a couple of passable harlequin babies, a couple just randomly patterned babies, and a few black. A couple of the babies actually have yellow instead of white fur! Which was a total surprise! Here is a pic of the four surviving babies.
 

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