An opal mini rex with castor and lilac in pedigree

[TariLynn]

Can anyone tell me if it is bad for an opal to have castor and lilac along with opal in the pedigree?


:bunnyhop:

 

[akane]

The only potential problem is if the opal carries the chocolate from the lilac and you breed to an undiluted color like black or castor. There is a chance you could get chocolate agoutis which are not recognized. You may also get castors that are not properly colored. If you stick with breeding to diluted colors like opal, lynx, lilac, blue and their combinations you will not see any of the colors that might not be accepted or show quality.

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

Why would the castors not be the proper colour? Opal is the dilute of castor they are the exact same colour, but insted of DD in the castor it is now dd for opal... All other things are equal.. Lilac is dilute chocolate and is recessive to black so unless you breed to other chocolate carrier it won't be a problem, Chocolate agouti is not showable but Lynx is, which is the chocolate version of opal. So it shouldn't become a big deal, either you sell them or if they have that great of type you breed them to dilutes. There is nothing wrong with your does "colour" pedigree, everything is compatible, in other words you won't get any strange shagouti colours or anything like that lol!

 

[TariLynn]

Akane - that is good to know because I was thinking about breeding her to my black buck but after reading this, I definitely won't risk that. I will just keep looking for a nice opal buck.

Lauren - Your explanation really helps me too as I have been trying to study some on genetics before breeding. I currently only have two bucks, one black and one red so....I think I will have to wait!

I just wanted to ask because I thought that was strange coloring to be in her background.

 

[akane]

Castors from opal breeding may not carry the right shading and band width.

Breeding to Opal will cause the Castor offspring to carry too much black on the surface color, and be very gray around the lower hind quarters.

Opal is the dilute of Castor, but breeding to castor is not recommended as the blue band of surface color on an Opal is wider than the black surface band on a Castor and breedings usually result in too many of the Castor offspring having way too much black surface color.

you won't get any strange shagouti colours or anything like that

A chocolate agouti is just as much against standard as weird things like shagouti and I know some people don't like to risk producing them because then they have more trouble selling them.

Of course if you don't mind finding homes as pet or brood stock then getting some off color castors or chocolate agoutis is not a big deal. Sticking with dilute colors like blue and lilac or their agouti counterparts would just be the easiest way to not have to deal with any offspring that are by default not show quality before you even get down to the details.