Color questions and breeding outcomes

[ozemba]

Two new French Angoras, a breeding pair, the buck is broken sable chin (AaBbcchlcD_Ee) through test breeding and the doe blue (aaB_C_ddE_) 10 months old, unproven.

The blue doe is out of a blue (aaBbCcddEe) and ST blue steel? (AaBb_cchdddEse)

Questions

1. What would I need to breed her to to find out what she's carrying under that C allele? REW? Then what offspring would I get according to which one she's carrying?

2. Wouldn't the Es be showing through E as codominant if she had it? So we know she's got non-extension then? I could have tort babies!

3. 50% self 50% agouti outcomes right, since aa and Aa?

4. How soon is too soon to fall in love with two rabbits? I'm pretty sure it was at first sight.

 

[SableSteel]

1. Breed her to a rew that is out of agouti lines. If you get chinchillas or ST steel, she's Ccchd. If you get sable chinchillas or ST sable steel, she's Ccchl. If you rews, she's Cc. If you use a rew that is out of self lines, you might get self chins that look just like C_ selfs, so you can't tell whether she carries agouti or not.

2. Steel messes with agouti expression. IF she is really aa, then steel will not show whether she is EsE, Ese, or EsEs (if the blue parent is out of the same lines as the ST blue steel I wouldn't discount it from being a potential hidden steel either). If she's not aa, and A_ instead, she'll show steel if she is EsE, maybe or maybe not if she is Ese and rarely if she is EsEs. Because there is a chance for her to be either A_ or aa, we can't guarantee whether she carries nonextension or not.

3. If she is aa, then you should get 50% self (aa) and 50% agouti (Aa). However, if she is one of those hidden steels (for example, Aa B_ C_ dd Ese) you might get different results. The presence of the steel gene in lines makes it harder to predict agouti stuff.

 

[akane]

REW will mostly show all colors on the c locus. Exception is since self chinchilla appears black (or blue) the rew can't be self. If you lack an agouti gene you may not be able to see the chinchillas. Also an agouti sable vs chinchilla can sometimes be tricky to determine if you get all agouti without any obvious self sables. If it's a possibility there's something on the c locus besides chinchilla for a single rabbit to breed to you'd be best to find a rew that is known to be agouti carrying self (Aa).

The real life odds of a single litter though can skew testing for both dominant and recessive versions at the same time. Sometimes it saves time to just use 2 different rabbits for 2 different test breeding litters so you can prove one set of genes and then the other. In this case expression of agouti and expression of self as 2 separate litters to determine if the doe has agouti, if she has chinchilla, and that you don't have any other c locus recessives.