First litter of Silver Fox!

[ek.blair]

We finally have our first litter of full Silver Fox bunnies!!! I had to be out of town overnight last night so the hubs was taking care of them. He wasn't comfortable counting so I did when I got home and we have four blue and three black from a black doe and blue buck don't worry... Picture will be posted soon! I have some questions on them that will require pics. One of the blue babies, has pink skin on one front leg the extends up to the shoulder, I'm hoping this doesn't mean it will end up with white hair there, but I guess only time will tell?

 

[Bandits Bunny Farm]

:congratulations: the one definitely sounds like it's a VM... sorry... but they're for meat anyway, right???


and, so you don't forget, :camera3: :camera: :camera3: :camera: :camera3: :camera3: :camera:

 

[ek.blair]

Yea, they are just for meat. I am just trying to learn as much as possible and hopefully build my lines so that I can sell quality later on down the road
Here is the one in question. (Good GOLLY these little buggers can be hard to hang onto!!)

 

[Sagebrush]

Definitely a VM kit. Adorable btw.

 

[Bandits Bunny Farm]

Definitely a VM kit. Adorable btw.

:yeahthat:

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

VM being vienna marked, correct?

I own a holland whose VM and she's so cute. I'd gladly take that one off your hands! I love vienna marked rabbits. Colorful and random.

Love the pictures. They're so cute! And I love holding baby rabbits, but you're so right, they're impossible to hold! So soft and fuzzy and warm though.

 

[ek.blair]

Thanks! I am excited to watch them grow <br /><br /> -- Fri Aug 29, 2014 9:59 pm -- <br /><br /> Ok, this has me thinkng... What is the difference between VM and broken? I have a very strong horse color background so I understand some of the color stuff but the Vienna has me confused? Also any clue as to where this may have come from. These are pedigreed parents with all SF quite a ways back.

 

[Dood]

These are pedigreed parents with all SF quite a ways back.

:rotfl:
Pedigrees only show the parents colours - your rabbits could have siblings or half siblings or cousins that are blue, chocolate, REW, chestnut :shock: or any of the other rabbit colours. As long as they arent used for breeding and go to freezer camp, or sold as meat mutts the black and silver parents will keep passing on these genes to their offspring and they will keep cropping up in "purebred" rabbits

Just one of my little pet peeves and why I think genotypes should be added to rabbit pedigrees

Just like there are several horse whitening genes - tobiano, overo, sabino, appaloosa etc... there are several rabbit whitening genes - broken, Vienna, silver, Dutch

It is highly likely that tobiano and broken are the same genes but in different animals as both are dominant. And Overo and Vienna are the same as they are recessive and create blue eyes, it has also been found that rabbits with two Vienna genes - called blue eyed whites are more likely to have digestive disorders, similar to OWLS in frame overo's.

 

[Zass]

Silver fox are a riot.

The purebred lines seem to have been contaminated with....just about everything. :roll:

I wouldn't stress over it, since chances are, if you bought new SF from someone else you will see even more kits in odd colors.

and I agree with dood about genotypes on pedigrees, they should be there. Even my mutts have genotyope cards, so that I can keep track of known recessives.


Oh, that kit is going to be beautiful

 

[ek.blair]

I guess I better get used to surprises

 

[Bandits Bunny Farm]

There's also a blaze on the kit.nit looks kinda like a teardrop. Its cute

 

[ek.blair]

All of the babies but one have at least a spec of white on their head it's a good thing they are mostly for meat/fur... If I keep any for breeding they will have to be obviously nicer then any of the parents... I hope to learn as much as I can by evaluating all the kits even the ones that are destined for the freezer due to color oopsies and the like

 

[Zass]

Some SF lines have kits born with a little bit of white on their heads that they outgrow as adults. It's nothing like having a whole white shoulder and leg.


In order for vienna genes to be present, wouldn't one of the parents need to have some amount of white on them?

I suppose it might be hidden by the silvering, but even a small white spot could cause a DQ at show.

I wonder if it isn't something else? Well, there is a rather long history of SF lines throwing blazes that vanish and white spots that don't. It's why most breeder's website's say to cull white spots. Others must have rabbits throwing white spots, but as far as I know, no one has ever seen BEW SF.

 

[ek.blair]

I believe the doe of this litter had a small white spot when I got her at 10 weeks old, but you can't see it anymore. I have heard of a lot of SF with the vanishing white spot

 

[Twobirdsfarm]

Very interesting! I didn't realize the SF had so much color variation!

Dood, excellent comparison to horse color genes! I love them as much as I love my buns. The two species are very similar in a lot of ways.

The English Angora colors can be a mess. Especially with people intentionally breeding for DQ colors :roll: My buck came with a pedigree that includes the genotype of each rabbit for three generations, which is super helpful since he's a REW, lol. I'm going to continue that with my line, although since there's no way to update the pedigrees of rabbits you've sold, buyers may not have the full story. Like if future litters show the dilute gene then it's possible that past litters were carriers but you wouldn't know when you made up their pedigrees....hmmm

Thanks for sharing ek.blair, sooo cute!!!
- TBF

 

[ek.blair]

Very interesting! I didn't realize the SF had so much color variation!

They are not suppose to have so much color variation, but like any purebreds, the rabbits that were bred to produce the Silver Fox pop up occasionally. Also, I knew when buying these that they were not necessarily of the purest stock, but I didn't have any other options other than to travel down to the lower 48. :|