Breeding in a color

[IronManRunner]

I had a thought brought on by another thread on pedigrees and am not sure where this question should go but thought this was the best place to ask. If you had a White New Zealand and got a Red Rex, could you breed them together to get a red kit, breed that back to the NZW until you had reddish New Zealands, pedigree them and sell them as Red New Zealands? Same for American Blues and White Rex, or what about a New Zealand and Black Rex? I'm thinking like the Altex looks like an oversized Californian, does this happen in other breeds, or how does color get fixed in/come about?

 

[Random Rabbit]

Odds are pretty good that White NZ and Red Rex would give You Black... ( i know that's how they get Black NZ.... NZW X NZR )

 

[skysthelimit]

We were trying to figure that out in another thread, how I could get sables into my Rex line from another similar breed. Or why there are no torts in Rexes, but there are in mini rex? I'm guessing they got it from the other breeds they were crossed with. It is possible, depending on how close the breed is, how certain colors combine genetically.

 

[akane]

The problem is NZW is a mystery color. It is rew in all other breeds and it covers all colors. Underneath could be black, red, chocolate, brokens... who knows? I've even seen steel NZ lately. You don't know what your NZW truly is because the white is like throwing white paint over a colored wall. When you breed to a rabbit who doesn't have rew (it takes a copy of the gene from each parent) the color underneath shows up and contributes to the result. Odds are that color is just black in NZ but it could be something else. Odds are still even if it's something else that unless you happen to have a red covered NZW you will just get chestnuts and maybe blacks the first generation because red is chestnut with nonextension, a recessive gene that is hidden by other colors, while agouti the chestnut part is dominant. You will get some blacks if the red carries self.

You would be better off to cut out the rew (NZW) and use NZ blacks crossed with red if you need extra breeding stock. Cull all whites. They will only cover the other colors and hide them so you don't know what you are breeding. Black crossed with red will still get you chestnuts and maybe some blacks the first generation but they will all carry red. Then when you cross the offspring to each other or a red you will get reds, blacks, chestnuts, and torts (the self version of red). I would keep the chestnuts to breed to reds since they will carry red to produce more of them and cull the self colors (blacks, any NZW that pop up, and torts) until you are only getting agoutis (chestnuts and reds) and finally when you have a breeding group established cull the chestnuts so you only have reds left. You'll get the odd black, tort, and NZW here and there because they are recessive (hidden by) the agouti colors but it will be fewer and fewer each generation.

Or drive a ways and find some good new zealand reds. Really unless you love genetics and playing with colors majority of the time it's worth just spending the money and time to go get what you want.

 

[curlysue]

I know were the tort mini rex came from.my first ones had Netherland dwarf mixed in.we were using them too get the size down.

 

[Rae]

Like Akane said,we bred our NZW to a red twice and the only colors we got were: REW (7), Black (3) and Chestnut Agoutis (4). We're keeping a black doe and an agoutis buck to use in breeding. Luckily, they're great little meat types. The plan is to save them to breed both back to REW and Red/Broken Red we're picking up in June. I find the genetics very interested, plus nest box surpises are the best.

 

[caroline]

why there are no torts in Rexes, but there are in mini rex?

I actually have black tort, blue tort, and chocolate tort in my standard Rex. I may even have a lilac tort in my latest litter. I know that they aren't "recognized" and would be DQed if shown but they are beautiful and I'm not too worried about that. I'm really enjoying figuring out what genotype each of my rabbits has.

The tort is what happens when a self rabbit also has homozygous non-extension "aa" with "ee"
Red is what you get when you have agouti non extension "A_" with "ee"

In the trio that I bought a couple of years ago, unbeknownst to me, both does were"Ee" The buck that I bought, was sold to me as a broken amber and was actually a broken black tort, aa Bb Cchd Dd ee. So I have a whole rainbow of things in the lines that have come from him. I'm sure that the purists in the standard Rex world would be horrified but I'm actually glad to have the opportunity to see the variety that has appeared.

My goal in my herd, along with meaty rabbits and great producing does, is to have an "all brown" herd. I'm very excited because I now have quite a few amber, several lynx and am looking forward to my first chocolate and lilac kits. I also have hopes of chocolate and lilac otters and chocolate chins [called "beige" in the Rex] within a few months.

 

[skysthelimit]

I would love to have a tort Standard Rex, and I'm ever chasing the elusive sable gene.

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

Tort Mini Rex were around a long time before someone *thought* they could intro Netherland Dwarf into them. In fact Tort and Black were among the first recognized colours when Mini Rex were first accepted back in the early 80"s. All colours potentially exist in each breed, its just a matter of putting together the right parents with the right backgrounds. Also black New Zealands will not automatically come out of a RedXREW cross, first the NZW HAS to be hiding self/full colour and the Red HAS to be carrying self under its agouti. The two self genes MUST then combine to get black MINUS any non-extension which would then get you tort.