Genetics - Black Otter Kits

[grey_brindlebuck]

Hello everyone,

This is my first litter of otter mini rexes I've ever had (had other colors of mini rexes, just not otter). Mom is a broken black otter, dad is a black otter, with only those two colors in the last 3 generations. The babies are 11 days old and the black otter ones appear to have little 'boots' of color on their legs - like scattered light hairs that go up them (sorry, I couldnt get a good picture yet)

Does anyone know if these go away when they molt or as they grow up a bit? I just thought that they'd have their 'adult' color look and be all black except for the otter markings.

Also, if I wanted to eventually get away from black otters, what could I breed to the black otter buck to get what? What can you use black otters for?

 

[EnglishSpot]

I know that some blacks carry white hairs in their genetics. My self black MR buck, who came from a litter of solids and brokens, has three patches of four hairs or less of white. Trooper's daughter, Heaven, is black and is 1/2 NZR and (obviously) 1/2 MR. She also carries a few patches of white hairs in her solid black coloring in four different spots. I've seen on the boards here discussion about how the white patches on a black rabbit are not carried on the B locus, but elsewhere on the gene strand. I don't know if any in depth study has been done on it. I do know the white patches can be DQ on the show table.

Anybody else (Dood?) have anything to add?

scattered-white-hairs-t14802.html

 

[Dood]

It's normal for young kits to have scattered brown or cream hairs to be noticeable near the points of otters and blending into the black (or blue or chocolate or lilac) areas and they should moult out of it but some don't and you'll see otter breeders plucking these stray hairs out with tweezers :mrgreen:

 

[skysthelimit]

Some of my otters used to have a bit of what looked like brindling on the feet as babies up to sr prim sometimes. The color is not as clean, but I still showed them, and it wasn't a dq, but it's not the best thing. As long as it's contained to the feet and not scattered white hairs or white spots.

My Otters all came from Castors bred to Otters, and the Castor line was harlequinized among other issues.

When you decide to do something else, you can breed Otters to self or Castor.