Angora crosses?

[Zab]

Sorry, this has probably been asked before.

If I cross a rex with a non-rex the fur will be normal and the offspring has to meet another rex or rex-carrier to produce rex kits.

How does angora work? They need double fur genes to get a different fur? Or will kits get half-fluffy?

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

the kit will get fluffy after the first generation.

 

[Dood]

Long fur is recessive, just like rex, so technically you should need two copies, but occasionally the carrier kits are born a bit fluffier but shed out to a normal coat, sometimes they stay a bit longer in certain areas but not the whole body and most of the time they come out normal looking.

There are many genetically unknown modifiers that give the angoras their lush coats so crossing a carrier to another carrier or even an angora will not give you the wonderfull wool seen on purebred stock but more likely produce thin, short and scraggly looking long coated rabbits.

 

[Zab]

Interesting. . More difficult than Id think then

 

[skysthelimit]

Zab--

That's why I always get on my soapbox when people want to make Rex rabbits. Crossing two "purebred" Rex does not always result in homogenous fur within the litter, so crossing between breeds will take some time to get all of the modifiers right to get the right fur.

Same with Angoras. I had four different Angoras, two from different breeders. Two from the one breeder were at the higher end of the weight class, held their coats past the usual 3 mos and grew them out to 5-8 inches. They had thick dense wool, with medium guard hairs. The other two were smaller, had more guard hairs than wool, and molted every 3 mos.
A cross proved interesting, so I have one buck that has dense wool, less guard hairs, and the litter mate has grown longer wool in that time, more guard hairs but similar density. Both are much smaller than their dam. Somewhere I lost size, kept density and gained more guard hairs.

Now put the normal length gene in there with no wool modifiers and that could really mess things up.

I just got my litter of SF/Angora kits. Unless the SF has a wool gene, I don't expect to have anything useful for at least two years, in which time I will probably replenish my Angora stock and scrap the whole project.

 

[Zab]

Ah

Well I was just figuring that throwing an angora in with my herd would give me cute fluffy kits.
The kits would most probably be meat anyways, I doubt I'd be able to sell anything. And I have no use of wool as I'm not gifted in the crafts of using wool or yarn.

I was also wondering if angora crosses would be like what we call ''teddy'' : http://larseredskaniner.weebly.com/uplo ... 726069.jpg Their coat doesn't grow as long or thick as angoras, but cover more of the body than lionheads.
But I have no idea what genetics they wear, just figured it could sometime be cute with fluffballs in the pens

 

[Bad Habit]

Crossing 2 rex-coated rabbits should always give some form of rex coat for all offspring. Both rabbits must have 2 copies of the recessive to create a rex coat, which means all kits would get 2 copies of the recessive.

If I recall correctly, teddies are simply over-wooled lionheads, possibly from being crossed with angoras at some point.

 

[Zab]

Ok

Yeah, that was my idea of rex as well...

 

[Zass]

I've made 1/2 angora mutt kits.

They don't make wool coats, but they are cute, and have a softer texture then the NZW or FG crosses.
The brokens in the picss are 1/2 french angora.

I personally love the rainbow of colors angora tend to carry

 

[Zab]

Naw.. yes, still very cute Thanks for pics.

 

[dayna]

Long fur is recessive, just like rex, so technically you should need two copies, but occasionally the carrier kits are born a bit fluffier but shed out to a normal coat, sometimes they stay a bit longer in certain areas but not the whole body and most of the time they come out normal looking.

There are many genetically unknown modifiers that give the angoras their lush coats so crossing a carrier to another carrier or even an angora will not give you the wonderfull wool seen on purebred stock but more likely produce thin, short and scraggly looking long coated rabbits.

Not to hijack the thread but I have a question about your post.

I have a rabbit that had longer hair around the neck area when she was a young kit. Two other kits in the litter (not bred by me, I bought her) looked almost like lionheads.

If I bred her with an angora do you think I would have a greater chance of longer fur? The reason I ask this, is that I was looking at doing some crosses to make the bodies more compact and then add in size. But I don't want long fur, so if there is that chance I would NOT want to breed her to an angora?

 

[Dood]

How old was she when she had a mane?

If around 8 weeks, did she have 'feathering' on her back legs / skirt?

The lionhead mane gene is incompletely dominant so two copies creste a double and one copy produces a single mane but again a lack of modifiers can cause that mane to be very scraggly or non existant. The fact there were 3 'maned' kits in the litter makes me think Lionhead rather than angora so breeding to an angora likely will have little effect.

 

[dayna]

She was 6-8 weeks old when I got her, I can't remember if she had feathering on her legs or not. One REW in the litter had a pretty serious mane going on.

 

[Dood]

Then I'd say mane gene 'M_' and not angora (long) 'll'

 

[DogCatMom]

Long fur is recessive, just like rex, so technically you should need two copies, but occasionally the carrier kits are born a bit fluffier but shed out to a normal coat, sometimes they stay a bit longer in certain areas but not the whole body and most of the time they come out normal looking.

There are many genetically unknown modifiers that give the angoras their lush coats so crossing a carrier to another carrier or even an angora will not give you the wonderfull wool seen on purebred stock but more likely produce thin, short and scraggly looking long coated rabbits.

Which describes *perfectly* the coat of the "Angora" rabbit the HRS tried to foist on me last summer. First: her personality was skittish, scared of people, wouldn't let anyone touch her (not even me, sitting there on the floor for over 30 minutes doing nothing but watching their propaganda DVD). Second: her coat was uneven with wisps of longer hair every now and then.

I asked what the volunteers used on her coat when it got ready to shed, "Scissors? Clippers?" and the volunteer was visibly horrified. "Oh, no! We only use a comb and a brush on her." Angora. Right. They didn't know what I meant when I asked about "plucking her coat," either.

Your description is spot-on. (Like so many of your posts. Thank you!)

 

[skysthelimit]

Ah

Well I was just figuring that throwing an angora in with my herd would give me cute fluffy kits.
The kits would most probably be meat anyways, I doubt I'd be able to sell anything. And I have no use of wool as I'm not gifted in the crafts of using wool or yarn.

I was also wondering if angora crosses would be like what we call ''teddy'' : http://larseredskaniner.weebly.com/uplo ... 726069.jpg Their coat doesn't grow as long or thick as angoras, but cover more of the body than lionheads.
But I have no idea what genetics they wear, just figured it could sometime be cute with fluffballs in the pens

Those teddys look a lot like Jersey Woolies, which are Angora x Netherland cross in origin. Considering the larger Angoras are nice meat animals, it may be worth trying just to see the cute fluffies in the F2 generation. What's gonna happen a few years from now when they start popping up with full Angora coats? You're gonna need to buy a spinning wheel

 

[Zab]

:lol: I much doubt that! I don't have space for another buck, so I wouldn't get any second generations

Aaand right now I'm perfectly happy with my plan to breed elegant meat hares :lol: Not sure I'll bring those to second generations either as I do like the hybrid vigor.. but maybe. Probably eventually.

But it's good to know about the coats

(spinning wheel? Bah, I'm a Viking! I make threads from whool with carved sticks that has a hook on the end! :lol: No modern wheels for me!)

 

[dayna]

To the question on how much mane if you look at some of these photos these are relations to my Alice who now looks normal but had long hair around her heck when she was a youngster.

http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/grd/4210467123.html

 

[Zab]

Thanks Sweet buns. Some had some pretty cute fluff