D-locus Rabbit Colors...Interesting read!

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Quote from article: Chestnut agoutis, also called black agoutis (such as castor in Rex) become blue agoutis, sometimes called opals

I had no idea! So... is it a good idea to breed castors to opals?
 
Wow! I really like her website & but I had never looked at this particular page. Imagine my surprise when I saw a picture of MAURICE.He was one of my herd sires. I sent her that picture with an article she asked if she could publish. Didn't know she had used it elsewhere but I guess I'm flattered :)
And in answer to the castor/opal question. It's fine to breed them to each other. That's the only difference between the two, Dense, or dilute.
 
akane":3nrzhanm said:
is it a good idea to breed castors to opals?
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Only if you know what you are doing or you don't care what the castors come out looking like because it will alter the banding of the castor.
http://mr-colors.tripod.com/
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Yep. It will improve your opals and destroy your castors. My castors are out of opals, and I have too much graying and seriously too much black on the top.
 
Breeding dense colour to a dilute colour has nothing to do with ring inheritance or rufous factors. One needs to look at ring definition in the breeding pair if you are breeding for any agouti colour. Rufous must be present in the dilute agouti just as much as it needs to be in the dense agouti. The only time something gets screwed up is when you mix 'pattern' or non extension. That is separate from colour.
 
Devon's Mom Lauren":37f59a3t said:
Breeding dense colour to a dilute colour has nothing to do with ring inheritance or rufous factors. One needs to look at ring definition in the breeding pair if you are breeding for any agouti colour. Rufous must be present in the dilute agouti just as much as it needs to be in the dense agouti. The only time something gets screwed up is when you mix 'pattern' or non extension. That is separate from colour.
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Not the rufus color. The way it was explained is the blue band surface color on the opal is wider than the black band surface color, causing the castor to have more black further down the shaft, making it appear more black.
 
I don't know all the details but breeding opals to castors makes grey castors irregardless of the background of the opal. Most say the band on the opal is bigger and affects the band on the castor. Some say it's the undercolor showing through. That is not separate from color.
 
Castors just show up in my litters, they aren't something I bred for and they aren't listed on the original stock's pedigrees. I think it was you, Akane, that said in another thread that if you want good castors, start with good castors.

So, in what way will it "improve" my opals?
 
Castors give the opals deeper ring colors

Any agouti with the right combination can produce a castor. I got a castor from a chin and a blue. The agouti gene trumped the self gene, the full color gene trumped the chin gene, the non dilute trumped the dilute and walla, a castor.
 
Castor and black are your default colors. If you have agouti it's castor/chestnut and if you don't it's self black. They are often used to darken other colors or recover coat quality in rabbits with special coat types.
 

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