Not quite opal...

[PSFAngoras]

So I finally figured out that my little sable looking kits were in fact chinchilla steels, and now I end up with this little booger!

Started looking like a perfect opal, and now it's got a completely fawn under color with heavy blue ticking. I love my herd's genetics! :roll:

What would this little thing be? Both in color and genetically?

Again, dad is a self blue chin, and mom is a good tipped blue steel.

Really should have started with a breed other than angoras to try to get a grasp of the colors!

 

[Dood]

Well he's some sort of agouti

If you don't think he's opal, maybe lynx (lilac agouti)?

 

[Zass]

My little opals and lynxes as kits. Just in case it helps to compare them.

(the lynx are the tawnier ones)

(see I HAVE gotten something other than steels...just never when I add a SF to the mix)

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Ok i just got confused... hahaha...

So which is blue and chocolate mix agouti, more blue overall look but spread fur looks very chocolate?

 

[Zass]

Ok i just got confused... hahaha...

So which is blue and chocolate mix agouti, more blue overall look but spread fur looks very chocolate?

The opals(blue agouti) are the one who look mostly blue, and the lynx(lilac agouti) have a softer and more tan color right from the start.

Of course different lighting does weird things (hence the name opal) so they might not look very distinct in some shots, but up close it was always super easy to tell them apart.

lynx - see the lighting difference? In this light the lynx looks bluer than the opals in the above shots. If I had an opal beside him it would be obviously deeper colored and much bluer though.

 

[Cattle Cait]

I vote lynx.

 

[ladysown]

looks lynx to me. if not that, the mostly likely some odd unrecognized colour.

 

[lidtfedtkanin]

Could it be Opal but Wideband? I know that that can mess with the rings on an agouti.

 

[PSFAngoras]

I'm almost wondering if they (both kits look like this now, though one is a bit darker than the other) do have something with the wide band gene going on, but it's not a gene I know very well. They're coats are getting longer, and they are getting a bit of a blue tint to the roots of the hair, but they have a pretty massive amount of tan for an opal.

I was almost thinking good tipped lynx steel, but then they shouldn't have the agouti belly or the heavy blue ticking.<br /><br />__________ Sun Jan 05, 2014 2:16 pm __________<br /><br />I'll try to get more pics today, but everything is snow covered so it might throw the lighting off

 

[skysthelimit]

I'm thinking lynx too. When wideband acts on chestnut agouti, it makes the rufus band wider. There is still black surface color. With an Opal, it would not make the band so wide that the blue would go off the shaft. The band would be longer, but, it would still have a blue surface coat.

 

[Peach]

Lynx

 

[PSFAngoras]

Oops, spaced on the pics last night, I'll try again today, a bit hard to get motivated to get out there in -4 degrees!

On second glance, now they actually do have blue coming in underneath the tan, and the surface ticking is certainly blue and not lilac if you look at the ears, but it's just barely existent. Maybe opal with a wide band gene? It hasn't pushed the blue off the hair shaft, but it's only barely there.

Either way, they're probably not showable, right?

I've made the decision to start selling or keeping only showable rabbit, and unless someone requests a non-showable color they are going in my freezer. Be nice to know if I should even attempt to keep these girls due to the off color or or if I should just sort them into the grow out pens.

As many non showable colors as I get it should give me it might eliminate the need for a meat momma doe and open up more cage space for my angoras

__________ Mon Jan 06, 2014 8:15 am __________

Oh gosh, must have been tired too last night. Just grabbed on to take pics, and though the ears are a bit dark the under color is certainly lilac.

Yup, lynx.

Thanks everybody!<br /><br />__________ Mon Jan 06, 2014 8:24 am __________<br /><br />

 

[skysthelimit]

Unfortunately, genetic lynx is not showable either. Showable Lynx on the table is actually Fawn, showable Lynx needs a cream undercoat. But bred it will give you plenty of showable colors.

 

[Dood]

Unfortunately, genetic lynx is not showable either. Showable Lynx on the table is actually Fawn, showable Lynx needs a cream undercoat. But bred it will give you plenty of showable colors.

WTHeck!

You mean fawn as in a chestnut that is dilute and non-extension (and wideband :shrug: )
A_ B_ C_ dd ee W_ or ww

 

[skysthelimit]

Chocolate agouti (since lynx is chocolate) wideband non extension.

Genetic Lynx has a slate undercoat, like the other non wideband, full extension agoutis, chestnut, opal, chin. Fawn has a cream undercoat, like Reds, non extension, wideband agoutis. I've been told that there are a few Lynx that are wideband but not non extension, and some chestnuts as well. I have a wide band chestnut, but the line had harlie, so I don't know if the ee is present or not.

 

[PSFAngoras]

Ack!

Stupid show rules!

Well, looks like those kits might just have a one way ticket to FC. As much as I'd hate to, momma might too. I love her coat, and her color, but she threw a kit with a white nose, and I suspect it's due to the Vienna gene (mostly because I know of no other gene that will do that). I'm sitting down with a couple who are my best customers this weekend because they want to compare lines so we can start working to compliment each other instead of being competition. If they have any interest in a pet quality line maybe she can go live with them.

 

[skysthelimit]

Oh no.

This is why I am so strict with my color breeding rules. I'm not real good with surprises.

 

[PSFAngoras]

I sometimes hate that I try to hold my rabbitry to such high standards, but I since I'm so small I feel like I have to be able to produce the best show quality rabbits I possibly can to compete with the much larger rabbitries out there.

I'm hoping such strict slecting now will really pay off in the end!

 

[skysthelimit]

I sometimes hate that I try to hold my rabbitry to such high standards, but I since I'm so small I feel like I have to be able to produce the best show quality rabbits I possibly can to compete with the much larger rabbitries out there.

I'm hoping such strict slecting now will really pay off in the end!

After three years, I got the best complement ever. When the breeder came to pick up the bun, I had him look over the litter. He was quite impressed at the litter of Rex. I have culled pretty much for everything, mercilessly, and finally I have something worth putting on the table, something so radically different from what I started out with, it was worth it. I got a huge improvement in shoulder, width and depth. Now my Rex look like meat buns. It will pay off.

 

[PSFAngoras]

I'm very happy to hear that it worked for you, I'm hoping I'll get there eventually too.

Both my mom and a close friend think that I see my rabbits as disposable, which is 180 degrees from the truth. I love my rabbits dearly, and I spend a very large amount of time with each of them to not only evaluate them, but make sure that they're well socialized. Every rabbit in my herd runs to the door when they see me and wants pets and attention, even the ones that were shy to begin with.

Its very painful emotionally when things don't work out. I think just knowing what I need to see out of my herd to compete and keeping up the tough girl image when it comes down to knowing what I need to do to get my herd there has given them the thought that I'm heartless where my rabbits are concerned. It's certainly not the image I'd like them to see, but with all the other Frenchie breeders starting up in the area, if I don't start trying to set myself apart now, then eventually I no one will make an effort to come to me, and all of my kits will end up in the freezer, not just the unshowable ones.