Going with phenotype first, Bandit looks like a chinchilla - the rings in the fur are kind of a giveaway, as is the black lacing on the ears. (Though the darker fur on his nose, which almost looks like shading, is a little strange for a chin.) Quicksilver isn't chinchilla - no rings at all - but from the photo it looks more like a blue silver-tipped steel than silver fox. It seems that there are silver tips on blue hairs, rather than white hairs scattered among blue hairs. In fact if is it is slivering, there is so much it would be more in the realm of the silvering you'd see in a Champagne d'Argent - but he really doesn't look like a champagne, no nose butterfly etc. Photos of the bellies would be helpful. (I'm guessing a pale belly on Bandit, with Quicksilver's belly being basically the same color as his back...?)
The breeder's buck could have been a poor silver fox, or just a black with scattered white hairs...my guess, though, is that he's got a steel gene -maybe even two copies - which would explain both his having the appearance of a black with scattered white hairs (or are they white-tipped hairs?), and his producing a blue STS son. It could also explain the strangeness of the coloration on Bandit's face, assuming that isn't just a photo artifact.
As for genotypes, if Bandit's a chin, he would be <A_ B_ Cchd_ D_ E_>. If Quicksilver is a blue silver-tipped steel, he'd probably be <A_ B_ C_ dd Es_>.
Incidentally, neither of your bucks looks like they have anything resembling the very unique coat of a silver fox. Of course I only have two photos to go on, but each of them looks like he has a commercial coat to me.
Thank you. Bandit was given his name because he has the dark nose, and sometimes, that dark color shades almost his entire face, while other times it just sticks to the nose. So I am leaning on the shaded gene. He is almost the same color all over, except the underside of his tail and the bottoms of his feet. Those are nearly solid and a slight off-white to white. The topside of his tail looks exactly like Ouicksilver's, and my Chinchilla doe's tail.
Oucksilver was named because he is the same color all over his body. He does have of the shading on his nose too, but it is the almost the same color as the rest of his body. Sometimes it gets a little darker, but not by much. The fact that both my buck have that color change with cooler temps, I am thinking that they have the chinchilla light, or sable gene. To me, that would make sense if they had some Californian in their boodline.
When I pair these guys with my Chinchilla doe, I get only black based rabbits.
Between her and Quicksilver, we got 1 Squirrel, 2 Silver Tipped Steels, and 3 Chinchillas. 5 born black agouti, one born blue agouti. With Bandit we got 1 Silver Tipped Steal, 2 Solid Black, 1 Solid Blue, 1 Agouti Chin, 3 Squirrels.
Oh, according to the breeder, these buck are half siblings to my doe. They share the same sire, if the breeder was honest, that would be the black buck she said was a Silver Fox.
I agree, neither of my bucks have the SF fur type. Both have rather short hair compared to my doe, her hair shaft is twice as long. So far, all the STS produced have the same shorter, softer fur structure as the bucks. All the chins and the black self chins have the long soft fur like my doe. There is one kit that is solid blue, brown eyes, and has a fur type that is almost stiff, but soft, stands up when stroked backwards, and stays up until stroked the other way. Out of 15 kits over two litters, that solid blue one is different.
So I suspect my rabbits are at the very least A_B_Cchd_Dd with my doe and Bandit carrying the self gene. While my doe is EE and my bucks are Es_.
I know they are meat mutts, but I also want to flush out some of the genotypes so I can isolate the steel gene, isolate the dilute gene, and isolate the self gene. They are all so beautiful, I want to produce consistant pelts from each genotype. So knowing what those are will help me understand what I have to do in order to get there.
The colors are all black based with dense and dilute. All the kits, except the solids, are born with obvious agouti dominance. Even the steels, but they darken up fast and always have a spot between the ears that looks different at birth, and goes away as they get the ticking.
You should see my worksheet on this. Science!
Honestly, I feel stupid for trusting the breeder and not getting pedigreed rabbits. However, I am happy with them and have fallen in LOVE with the colors I get.
