MamaSheepdog
Well-known member
I bred BF611 back to her sire, the dear-departed Black Floyd, and got an entire litter of Astrex! Whoo-hoo! Here are some pics of the little curly-cuties:
Astrex Popple Brag!
- Thread starter MamaSheepdog
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Jana15
Well-known member
OAF, You better hurry up! MSD is on a role with pictures! :lol:
And lovely babys!
And lovely babys!
MamaSheepdog
Well-known member
I was just thinking "Maybe I should PM my sister." But then the thought of the one pound Toblerone brought me to my senses in time. She was on a roll this afternoon, and I feared I was in terrible danger! But now... not so much. :twisted:
skysthelimit
Well-known member
How old are they? I have a litter that is 6 weeks and none have short, dense Rex fur, I just thought they had prominent guard hairs. They look like the first pict. At what age do you see the curls?
MamaSheepdog
Well-known member
These were born on January 30th, so they are a little over 3 weeks. I am no expert when it comes to anything rabbit related, but I believe you can see a difference at about 2 weeks and maybe earlier. I have some other litters that are about 6 weeks, and some seem a bit too fluffy but they don't look "messy" like the Astrex- they might just have long coats.
I have not seen it myself, but some Astrex go bald at around 2 weeks, and then regrow their fur. There is also the "eclipse coat" at a later age when they appear to have normal fur before once again having a curly coat.
There isn't a lot of data available on Astrex coats that I have been able to find. Breeders just cull them because their coat is "wrong" according to the standards for all of the recognized breeds. I almost culled Go-Fer-It, my first Astrex doe because of that very reason.
My main goal in raising rabbits is meat, but I also want to breed to the SOP, so when I saw this weird coat pop up my first impulse was to cull her. Now I have decided to pursue a Rex line following the SOP and cull the curly kits to my Astrex program, while maintaining the SOP for Rex, but with an Astrex coat.
I have not seen it myself, but some Astrex go bald at around 2 weeks, and then regrow their fur. There is also the "eclipse coat" at a later age when they appear to have normal fur before once again having a curly coat.
There isn't a lot of data available on Astrex coats that I have been able to find. Breeders just cull them because their coat is "wrong" according to the standards for all of the recognized breeds. I almost culled Go-Fer-It, my first Astrex doe because of that very reason.
My main goal in raising rabbits is meat, but I also want to breed to the SOP, so when I saw this weird coat pop up my first impulse was to cull her. Now I have decided to pursue a Rex line following the SOP and cull the curly kits to my Astrex program, while maintaining the SOP for Rex, but with an Astrex coat.
hoodat
Well-known member
Mus be sumpin in the air. I just had my first two astrex in my last litter.
Congrats!!! Man, they are CUUUUTE!
And so very glad you got another litter out of Black Floyd.<br /><br />__________ Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:28 pm __________<br /><br />
By 14 days you'll see ripples and/or chunky, curly lambswool type fur coming in on the kits.
And so very glad you got another litter out of Black Floyd.<br /><br />__________ Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:28 pm __________<br /><br />
skysthelimit":18wv1t3m said:
By 14 days you'll see ripples and/or chunky, curly lambswool type fur coming in on the kits.
Curly fur has turned up in quite a few breeds - New Zealands, Lops, Lionheads, Sable Martens - and the Harlequin breed actually had Astrex as a seperate coat variation written into their standard at one time.
There was a specific breed known as Astrex in the UK. Most sources state that the breed is no more, but if you talk to rabbitries in the UK or to rabbitries that have imported curly stock from the UK, they believe they have it alive and well in their barns. Golden Spike Rabbitry in Alberta, Canada comes to mind.
Visit MamaSheepdog's posts to see how she got her curly bunnies :lol: -- it really does just show up out of the blue. If I may put in a plug for an Astrex Drift (shall we start a seperate post for it MamaSheepdog??) I'd love to get some stock from Golden Spike Rabbitry to work with. Who doesn't?
There was a specific breed known as Astrex in the UK. Most sources state that the breed is no more, but if you talk to rabbitries in the UK or to rabbitries that have imported curly stock from the UK, they believe they have it alive and well in their barns. Golden Spike Rabbitry in Alberta, Canada comes to mind.
Visit MamaSheepdog's posts to see how she got her curly bunnies :lol: -- it really does just show up out of the blue. If I may put in a plug for an Astrex Drift (shall we start a seperate post for it MamaSheepdog??) I'd love to get some stock from Golden Spike Rabbitry to work with. Who doesn't?
