English Spots?

Kyle@theWintertime · Jun 12, 2013

I'm curious, what are the genetics of the spot patterning on English Spots? If you bred one to a solid self rabbit, like a plain black rabbit, how long before you could get the patterning back? What would such a pairing produce?

I'm curious because last night I dreampt I had a Mini Rex with the English Spot pattern, and the curiosity of such a delusional hypothetical idea has my attention, LOL.

Not that I plan on doing this, just a "what if" scenario.

Dood · Jun 12, 2013

English spots are bred to black (self) English spots all the time, if you only bred spots to spots you'd end up with 50% Charlie's!

The problem is a black mini rex would not have the secret modifiers that create the unique English spot pattern but a self English spot would since he comes from a long line of English spots.

Just like breeding a Thrianta to some random fawn colored rabbit, the chances of getting a rich dark red in the first generation are slim.

A better example is breeding for show worthy Harlequins. Getting the pattern just right is a P.I.T.A. and entire litters are a wash because the buck and doe were not a good match and produced a bunch of sooty brindles.

Cattle Cait · Jun 12, 2013

I assume that Spots are just like Checkereds in the genetics aspect. Generally speaking, sports (solid marked animals) make good brood animals because you'll get a higher percentage of marked rabbits in a litter. So, like, having a few sport brood does and a well marked buck would be a nice start to a herd.<br /><br />__________ Wed Jun 12, 2013 7:53 pm __________<br /><br />

Dood":3ajzetjo said:
A better example is breeding for show worthy Harlequins. Getting the pattern just right is a P.I.T.A. and entire litters are a wash because the buck and doe were not a good match and produced a bunch of sooty brindles.

Once you get a feel for it, breeding Harlies is easy peasy. It's just like playing mix-and-match.