Guard hairs on a Rex, should I use him?

[GBov]

My young black otter buck is just now old enough to breed and to look at him he is a beautiful buck, deep rich color and good shoulders.

But!

I was looking at him really closely yesterday and noticed about 30 hairs, high up on each his front legs, that stand well out from his coat. Worse yet, they are the brown of his belly instead of the rich black of his legs.

As his sire died a month ago I am without a herd sire of any color other than castor so I was really pleased I had kept back this young buck and he was looking so good but now I don't know if I should breed him at all.

Right now I have a broken blackish buck that is growing nicely but is still two months away, at best, from breeding and I have a castor buck that is just now starting to do the job but several of my does are broken opal so I don't think a castor buck is going to do me any favors in that direction.

Any suggestions would be really great, Rex are still so new to me!

 

[Ramjet]

I'd pair him with a doe that has a very good coat ... then save the male offspring from that pairing and possibly replace him if I got one that had good type and coat.


I'm working on a similar project but you are ahead of me a bit ....

I started with a black NZ/Altex doe and a very good Chocolate Rex buck. I kept a blue doe out of that litter , she grew to ~13lbs and looks like a meat brick , great shape to her and a plush coat , much thicker / denser than her mothers tho not Rex.

I bred her back to her sire & she recently delivered a litter of 7 kits , one black , one blue (incredible color) 2 lilac & 3 chocolates. I should see some Rex furred kits from this litter , tho its hard to tell on kits 9 days old.
I'm hoping to get a good Rex furred buck out of this litter and breed it to my lilac doe who is fantastic.

The original intent was to improve the shoulders or my Rex herd along with their size & growth rates with the possibility of adding black & blue to the palette. So far , so good .... this litter should tell me if I'm headed in the right direction.

Here's a pic of the litter now 9 days old. The photo doesn't do the color of the blue justice.

If anyone can tell from the photo which appear to show Rex .... speak up.

 

[GBov]

That is a beautiful litter! I have no idea who will have the Rex coat. You might be in luck though, I once crossed a half rex with a full rex and got all rex kits!

As Serious Black (youngest son named him :lol: ) is my only breeding age buck that I can cross with all my does, other than the castor does, I shall use him and see how it goes but its annoying, esp as the guard hairs have only just showed up.

Perhaps its due to his winter coat coming in? Other than this one flaw he has a dream coat, ultra plush and deep space black.

 

[Ramjet]

That is a beautiful litter! I have no idea who will have the Rex coat. You might be in luck though, I once crossed a half rex with a full rex and got all rex kits!

That was rather lucky as the way I understand it , the possibility is 50% for each kit as the rex gene is recessive taking a gene from each parent to "show" & the half rex has a 50-50 chance of passing that gene to each individual offspring.

Looking at them now , I "think" the black , one lilac & one chocolate will show rex fur , was really hoping the black & blue would. Ideally the black will be a buck which would give me a lot of options when it comes time to breed him and give me a second buck as currently I only have one buck & 6 does. Fingers crossed! Or I'll just rebreed them and try again.
I probably should have started with a black half rex doe instead of the blue if looking for those colors but she was just far and away the best rabbit in the litter & made the choice for me (Not to mention she's my son's favorite rabbit).

As Serious Black (youngest son named him :lol: ) is my only breeding age buck that I can cross with all my does, other than the castor does, I shall use him and see how it goes but its annoying, esp as the guard hairs have only just showed up.

Perhaps its due to his winter coat coming in? Other than this one flaw he has a dream coat, ultra plush and deep space black.

Is it possible he's molting a bit and they aren't guard hairs at all , just loose hairs if they just recently showed up ?!? All of my adults molted recently and some still have a loose hair here and there that look like stray guard hairs but will come out with the slightest tug.


If they are guard hairs , just breed him to a doe with great coat then replace him when you find a good one that doesn't show the guard hairs. This was one of the things I was concerned with in making the cross as I'm told it can take a few generations to get rid of those stray guard hairs.
It might not happen overnight but can eventually be bred out. That means lots of litters & dinner for you! Just have to be ruthless in culling those that continue to show faults .... Keep the best , eat the rest.

 

[GBov]

I tried to breed a few does today but no joy, no one in the mood. But while moving does around I had a good look at both of my bucks and they both have the same kind of guard hairs on their front legs.

Having my doubts even more now about the information given by the breeder about the rex I bought from her, I now think both bucks are closely related as, other than the color, they really are remarkably alike, right down to the sprinkling of guard hairs on their front legs.

Shall bring back my blue buck from 4H and use all three to see if I can get both the good shoulders from these two bucks and the good fur/no guard hairs of the blue.

Its funny but I am only now familiar enough with rex to start seeing past the coats and personalities and to see the flaws to be bred out.

I sure do love rabbits, always something to learn!

 

[Ramjet]

Lost one of the kits night before last , it somehow got out of the nest and likely died due to the cold. The others are fat and healthy , growing like weeds.

It appears that only two will show Rex fur tho I could be wrong , the black & one of the chocolates. Too bad it looks like the blue wont , it has such a brilliant color .... but I'm very happy about the black, I'll likely keep it regardless of its gender , pending any issues / faults that I cant see at this point.
Might keep the chocolate too if its a high quality doe , I have a chocolate doe I intend to put down as she's small and delivered a litter of 13 a week early losing them all after having missed twice before (not related to my buck being heat sterile) , this doe looked great early on but just seems to have fallen apart at the seams and was hard to breed too.
Putting her down leaves me with three empty holes plus two grow out pens .... I have the space for a good animal (hard to believe huh ?!) Doubt I'll keep it if its a buck as my herd buck is an exceptional chocolate , I'd prefer a different color (black / blue / lilac) for a second buck.