What buck to breed with low rufus BO Harlequin doe?

[arootboundhearth]

I have a 4 mo old Holland Lop that I'd like to breed, with minimal black/black torte kits. Her sire's side is black torte and broken black torte. Her dam's side is blue fawn harlequin, magpie vm, blue, black vm, ermine with heavy vm, bew, and blue magpie vm.

I prefer chocolates, blues, harlequins and magpies of all colors, and Foxes.

I have no idea what color bucks to look for to minimize the number of black kits. Type is, however my #1 priority. I don't know how to pose yet, but my doe is a decent type. I'm sure she could be better, however.

Any advice is appreciated as I try to understand how rabbit genetics work.

 

[judymac]

From the looks of the chocolate on the nose, which is in uneven patches, I think this bunny may already carry a harlequin gene. Tort is recessive to harlequin, so a harlequin buck would work well for you. Since you don't want black kits, why not choose a chocolate harlequin? Your rabbit appears to be chocolate based, which is recessive to black. If you mate to a chocolate based buck, you won't have any black babies, as both parents will only be able to contribute a recessive chocolate gene. You won't get any blues, which are a dilute black, but you won't get any blacks, either.

Magpie is harlequin + chinchilla, which removes the yellow tones from the coat and replaces it with pearl white patches. Mating to a chocolate magpie would eliminate black as a possibility, you may get magpies or harlequins.

Fox is tort + tan a(t), which gives the agouti cream eye rings, inner ears and belly, without the agouti banding on the hairshaft.

 

[Alaska Satin]

I have a 4 mo old Holland Lop that I'd like to breed, with minimal black/black torte kits. Her sire's side is black torte and broken black torte. Her dam's side is blue fawn harlequin, magpie vm, blue, black vm, ermine with heavy vm, bew, and blue magpie vm.

I prefer chocolates, blues, harlequins and magpies of all colors, and Foxes.

I have no idea what color bucks to look for to minimize the number of black kits. Type is, however my #1 priority. I don't know how to pose yet, but my doe is a decent type. I'm sure she could be better, however.

Any advice is appreciated as I try to understand how rabbit genetics work.

Your doe looks like she may be blue tort rather than black tort. (Note the spelling - the word is short for "tortoise." A torte is a dessert. ) If so, she isn't necessarily low-rufus, as the dilute alleles <dd> that turn black into blue also dilute orange into fawn.

A tort is basically a self <aa> rabbit with two recessive non-extension alleles <ee>. So your doe is either black tort <aaB_C_D_ee> or blue tort <aaB_C_D_ee>.

A blue rabbit is a black <B_> with two recessive dilute alleles <dd>. (Similarly, a lilac is a chocolate <bb> with two recessive dilute alleles <dd>.)

A black rabbit may carry one copy of the dilute allele <d>, so it can produce blues with a blue or lilac, or with another dilute carrier.

Going on the assumption that your doe is a blue tort, all you need is another self blue or blue tort and all you'll ever get is blue and/or blue torts. (You may also get lilac/lilac tort if she and the buck both carry the allele for chocolate <b>). Since dilute (blue) is recessive, you won't get any blacks unless you breed the offspring (which will all be <dd>) to a non-dilute rabbit.

Black = B_ D_
Blue = B_ dd
Chocolate = bb D_
Lilac = bb dd

Kind of a side note: if she is a tort <ee> you can feel confident that none of the harlequin <ej> from her forebears will come through in her offspring, so she will not give you harlequins or magpies unless you breed her with one of those. If she is not a true tort but a harlequinized one (her nose marking looks suspicious), she can give you harlies/magpies.

Since she is a solid <enen>, you know she does not carry/will not produce broken <En> unless you breed her with a broken. You cannot be sure that she doesn't carry the vienna <v> or chinchilla <c(chd)> alleles, though.

To get fox, which is a torted otter <At_??C_??ee>, you'd need to find an otter <at_> or otter-carrying <Aat> buck that has at least one copy of the non-extension <e>. To get blue or chocolate foxes, see above; the same rules about color shade apply to otters as to other patterns.

 

[arootboundhearth]

From the looks of the chocolate on the nose, which is in uneven patches, I think this bunny may already carry a harlequin gene. Tort is recessive to harlequin, so a harlequin buck would work well for you. Since you don't want black kits, why not choose a chocolate harlequin? Your rabbit appears to be chocolate based, which is recessive to black. If you mate to a chocolate based buck, you won't have any black babies, as both parents will only be able to contribute a recessive chocolate gene. You won't get any blues, which are a dilute black, but you won't get any blacks, either.

Magpie is harlequin + chinchilla, which removes the yellow tones from the coat and replaces it with pearl white patches. Mating to a chocolate magpie would eliminate black as a possibility, you may get magpies or harlequins.

Fox is tort + tan a(t), which gives the agouti cream eye rings, inner ears and belly, without the agouti banding on the hairshaft.

She is not a chocolate carrier. She's a low rufus black and orange harlequin.

 

[arootboundhearth]

Your doe looks like she may be blue tort rather than black tort. (Note the spelling - the word is short for "tortoise." A torte is a dessert. ) If so, she isn't necessarily low-rufus, as the dilute alleles <dd> that turn black into blue also dilute orange into fawn.

A tort is basically a self <aa> rabbit with two recessive non-extension alleles <ee>. So your doe is either black tort <aaB_C_D_ee> or blue tort <aaB_C_D_ee>.

A blue rabbit is a black <B_> with two recessive dilute alleles <dd>. (Similarly, a lilac is a chocolate <bb> with two recessive dilute alleles <dd>.)

A black rabbit may carry one copy of the dilute allele <d>, so it can produce blues with a blue or lilac, or with another dilute carrier.

Going on the assumption that your doe is a blue tort, all you need is another self blue or blue tort and all you'll ever get is blue and/or blue torts. (You may also get lilac/lilac tort if she and the buck both carry the allele for chocolate <b>). Since dilute (blue) is recessive, you won't get any blacks unless you breed the offspring (which will all be <dd>) to a non-dilute rabbit.

Black = B_ D_
Blue = B_ dd
Chocolate = bb D_
Lilac = bb dd

Kind of a side note: if she is a tort <ee> you can feel confident that none of the harlequin <ej> from her forebears will come through in her offspring, so she will not give you harlequins or magpies unless you breed her with one of those. If she is not a true tort but a harlequinized one (her nose marking looks suspicious), she can give you harlies/magpies.

Since she is a solid <enen>, you know she does not carry/will not produce broken <En> unless you breed her with a broken. You cannot be sure that she doesn't carry the vienna <v> or chinchilla <c(chd)> alleles, though.

To get fox, which is a torted otter <At_??C_??ee>, you'd need to find an otter <at_> or otter-carrying <Aat> buck that has at least one copy of the non-extension <e>. To get blue or chocolate foxes, see above; the same rules about color shade apply to otters as to other patterns.

Her pedigree states she's a black and orange harlequin, she's just low rufus with few black patches.

 

[arootboundhearth]

From the looks of the chocolate on the nose, which is in uneven patches, I think this bunny may already carry a harlequin gene. Tort is recessive to harlequin, so a harlequin buck would work well for you. Since you don't want black kits, why not choose a chocolate harlequin? Your rabbit appears to be chocolate based, which is recessive to black. If you mate to a chocolate based buck, you won't have any black babies, as both parents will only be able to contribute a recessive chocolate gene. You won't get any blues, which are a dilute black, but you won't get any blacks, either.

Magpie is harlequin + chinchilla, which removes the yellow tones from the coat and replaces it with pearl white patches. Mating to a chocolate magpie would eliminate black as a possibility, you may get magpies or harlequins.

Fox is tort + tan a(t), which gives the agouti cream eye rings, inner ears and belly, without the agouti banding on the hairshaft.

Thank you for the info. Her pedigree does say she's black and orange harlequin. It's just she has a lot of black torte in her pedigree. Which is why I wanted to minimize the black/black tort kits.

 

[Alaska Satin]

Her pedigree states she's a black and orange harlequin, she's just low rufus with few black patches.

Yes, I believe harlequin rather than tort, especially since her front feet are clear orange rather than dark, which I hadn't noticed before. But I'm not completely convinced she's black. Since she had blues but no chocolates appearing in her pedigree, I didn't think about chocolate, but looking at your photo again, I think @judymac could be right about that; and since it's recessive, chocolate can pop up seemingly out of nowhere.

You can see quite a wide range of color intensity on torts and harlequins, but your bunny's patches really don't appear black on my screen. Here are some black torts in different fur types:



(Holland Lop photos from https://www.gbfarm.org/rabbit/holland-colors-matrix.shtml)

Here's a photo of a black tort (admittedly a dark one) next to a chocolate tort, followed by a single blue tort and a single chocolate tort (all from the same GBF color page):


And here is a black harlequin, and a chocolate harlequin, again from GBF's coat color matrix (no pic of blue harlie):


Pedigrees are dependent on the person filling them out, and we all make mistakes from time to time, especially when a rabbit is a color we're not expecting... Your doe is challenging since she has so few markings, but a very simple way to know if your doe is black or blue is to breed her with a blue: if she's blue, all of the kits will be blue. If, instead, she's chocolate, if you breed her to a chocolate, all of the kits will be chocolate. If you get a single black kit, from either cross, you'll know for sure she's black.

If she is actually black, the same method will work to produce something other than black kits: if you eventually want blues, breed her to a blue buck (self, otter, harlequin, whatever, as long as he's blue). All of the babies will then carry at least one copy of the dilute <d> that turns black into blue, so breeding them back to a blue or blue carrier will give you blue kits; and if she's carrying a recessive copy of <d> there may even be blue kits in the first litter.

If you want chocolates, same approach: breed her to a chocolate. All of the babies will then carry at least one copy of the chocolate <b>, so breeding them back to a chocolate or chocolate carrier will give you chocolate kits; and if she's carrying a recessive copy of <b> there may even be chocolate kits in the first litter.