anybody else?

[RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN]

Just thinking if anybody else breeds pure bred silver fox's.And if so do you register them?also any ARBA member's. I just signed up.Any tip's?

 

[jani]

I do! Not not registered but I do keep a pedigree. Not showing yet, but I do try to breed to ARBA standard. I am specializing in blues, I know they are exhibition only, but I love them. As far as I know I am the only person for at least 500 miles with SF. I am also hunting around and wanting to get started with show quality lavender beveren. THAT is like looking for a needle in a haystack! But I think it would look cool to have them tractored side by side!

 

[RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN]

So cool do you have any tips for the Silver Fox breed? Also Ive been trying to find a good feed/diet for the breed what do you feed your rabbits?

 

[CedarRidge]

We breed purebred silver foxes. We are ARBA and National Silver Fox Rabbit Club members. Our rabbits are pedigreed, but not registered as of yet. We’re located in North Central Tennessee, and although we’ve only been doing this a few months, love the breed. Great natural mothers, easy to deal with, and super friendly. Our only negative is they’re densely furred, which means they do not tolerate summer heat well. We’ve had to make extensive accommodations to ensure they do not overheat (ie. ice bottles, fans, portable AC units, moving the entire set up into our HVAC supported garage during 90 degree temps.) in about a month we will move them back to our outbuilding, where they will remain until next June or so. This forum is a wealth of info, so feel free to ask me or anyone else about any questions you may have. If I don’t know I’m sure someone here does. Regarding feed, we feed good quality Timothy hay (Standlee premium from Tractor Supply - 50lb bale) and 16%protein pellets from our local farm supply. Supplement our breeders with mixed greens and homegrown herbs in small amounts.

 

[Nibbles]

Please post a photo or two of these beautiful silver fox bunnies.

 

[CedarRidge]

These are the older kits (10 weeks tomorrow). The lilac is our buck.

 

[CedarRidge]

These are our newest litter born on 21 September.

 

[dlynn]

Please post a photo or two of these beautiful silver fox bunnies.

I started with a trio. Black, blue, and chocolate. Now have a colony of lots of fun colors

 

[Alaska Satin]

I started with a trio. Black, blue, and chocolate. Now have a colony of lots of fun colors

That lilac is really pretty! The chocolate is a beautiful color, too, but doesn't seem to have any silvering...?

 

[dlynn]

That lilac is really pretty! The chocolate is a beautiful color, too, but doesn't seem to have any silvering...?

All different ages in those pics silvering starts coming in about 8-10 weeks. Funny to watch. Sometimes it starts as polka dots looks like a little fawn. One black has so much ticking he looks grey with black head. I'll try to get a pic later

 

[Alaska Satin]

All different ages in those pics silvering starts coming in about 8-10 weeks. Funny to watch. Sometimes it starts as polka dots looks like a little fawn. One black has so much ticking he looks grey with black head. I'll try to get a pic later

That's interesting - in Champagnes the silvering starts showing up at around 4 weeks. But they do have quite a lot more silvering than Silver Foxes.
But the chocolate looks like it's one of the adults, or at least older than 10 weeks. The blue (or lilac, hard to tell in this shot) on the other side of the photo has plenty of silvering, but at least in this picture, the chocolate doesn't seem to have any at all.

 

[RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN]

I started with a trio. Black, blue, and chocolate. Now have a colony of lots of fun colors

So pretty! I wish I had those cuties!

 

[RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN]

These are our newest litter born on 21 September.

It's so weird and so cool at the same time how they look like little rats when there born.

 

[RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN]

These are the older kits (10 weeks tomorrow). The lilac is our buck.

So cute!

 

[Nibbles]

I started with a trio. Black, blue, and chocolate. Now have a colony of lots of fun colors

Those are some seriously beautiful bunnies.

 

[Cotton Rabbitry]

Does anyone know what this coloring is called, I tend to have frosted-looking blacks often.

 

[Alaska Satin]

Does anyone know what this coloring is called, I tend to have frosted-looking blacks often.

That looks like silvering, which is found in the Silver Fox, Champagne D'Argent, and Silver breeds. You could probably call it a "black silver." It looks like it also has Vienna markings (white spot on the forehead and possibly on feet as well).

There are three alternative genes that produce silvering (s1, s2, and s3), which can show up on any base color (black, blue, chocolate, lilac, sable, etc.). I only have experience with s3, which is the allele found in Champagnes and is partially dominant, meaning some silvering will show up in rabbits carrying only one copy of the gene (e.g. crossbreeds). Silver rabbits are born solid-colored (unless they're also broken, or Vienna marked as you bunny seems to be), and develop the silvering as they grow, getting lighter and lighter as they age. Champagnes start silvering at about 4 weeks, and according to friends the Silver Foxes start a bit later than that.

Champagnes have the most silvering. They are supposed to look like "old silver" from a distance. Here's an example of a junior Champagne. He still has incomplete silvering on his ears and head; eventually, the entire rabbit is silvered except the dark "butterfly" on the nose:


Here's another Champagne, Rilla, who is an older doe with more silvering. She's right on the edge of too light:


Silver Foxes have less silvering, as do Champagne D'Argent crossbreeds, which as it turns out look a lot like each other. I don't raise Silver Fox, but you could mistake Hot Cross Bun, my Champagne x Satin crossbreed, for a Silver Fox (until you touch him and discover he has a commercial type coat rather than the unique Silver Fox coat):

In that photo he is an older junior. He has continued to develop more silvering, but he will probably never be quite up to the Champagne standard as far as coat color no matter how old he gets. But he is part of a project to bring some other desirable characteristics from my Satins into my Champagne line.

Champagnes come only in black, while Silver Foxes are currently accepted in black and chocolate, with blue being debated and lilac probably not far behind. Silvers (the breed) are accepted in black, brown and fawn. In addition, there are two other less common silvered breeds called Creme D'Argent (orange) and Argent Brun (chocolate), and the national Netherland Dwarf club is considering accepting a champagne variety.

 

[dlynn]

That's interesting - in Champagnes the silvering starts showing up at around 4 weeks. But they do have quite a lot more silvering than Silver Foxes.
But the chocolate looks like it's one of the adults, or at least older than 10 weeks. The blue (or lilac, hard to tell in this shot) on the other side of the photo has plenty of silvering, but at least in this picture, the chocolate doesn't seem to have any at all.

You're right. Think the chocolate was my first buck
Bad pic he did have silvering up close. The blond looking boy was from him and a black doe. So funny to watch which colors pop out. Ash and Aria (chocolate sire) showing off their silver better. Some older kits from Lucky (blond boy) getting in their ticking

 

[Cotton Rabbitry]

That looks like silvering, which is found in the Silver Fox, Champagne D'Argent, and Silver breeds. You could probably call it a "black silver." It looks like it also has Vienna markings (white spot on the forehead and possibly on feet as well).

Thank you Alaska Satain. They do have the Vienna markings as their mother is at least 1/2 Dutch. Momma also has two-tone eyes 1/2 blue, 1/2 brown, she Often throws me these frosted blacks or Whites w/blue eyes. Of course, madam Screech also tossed me my Steel Buck. She is always bred to my Tri-colored 1/8 Flemish. The colors they give have never disappointed in the color guessing game lottery. They only disappointment this time around was size of litter (5 , 1 passed) she has always given me 7 live out of 10 before. She never seems to breed when my other girls do so I am never able to foster her kits out.

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Thank you Alaska Satain. They do have the Vienna markings as their mother is at least 1/2 Dutch. Momma also has two-tone eyes 1/2 blue, 1/2 brown, she Often throws me these frosted blacks or Whites w/blue eyes. Of course, madam Screech also tossed me my Steel Buck. She is always bred to my Tri-colored 1/8 Flemish. The colors they give have never disappointed in the color guessing game lottery. They only disappointment this time around was size of litter (5 , 1 passed) she has always given me 7 live out of 10 before. She never seems to breed when my other girls do so I am never able to foster her kits out.

The VM marks come from a Vienna which come from a BEW, and marbled eyes can also come from Vienne (it might be spelled Vianne)
To my knowledge the Dutch gene is something completely different