Harlequin question

[ladysown]

When I breed jack == blue/lilac japanese buck (he's listed as lilac, but he looks blue to me) to anything magpie...I get japanese kits. I'd rather not have Japanese kits at this point. Should I ever want japanese kits I want to then work on Japanese, but right now I'd prefer to do only magpie. So I'm a bit frustrated by how things are progressing at this point.

When I've done the reverse...magpie buck to japanese doe I've gotten mostly japanese but some magpie so why does it work one way but not the other?

WHY?

Is Japanese the dominant gene?<br /><br />__________ Thu Jan 07, 2010 4:52 pm __________<br /><br />hubby says...."it's just to annoy me". fine lot of help HE is. LOL

 

[moonkitten]

Ok, let me try this again since that was in incoherent ramble....

Yes, japanese is dominant, so it is possible to have a rabbit that throws only japanese when bred to a magpie. However, there is apparently incomplete dominance since many breeders have documented where a magpie x magpie cross had produced japanese. I haven't had this occur in hundreds of magpie x magpie crosses, but several other breeders have made this claim.

If your japanese has fathered magpies in the past, then he is probably carrying chinchilla and there should be some magpie kits in the litter. If the japanese has a magpie parent than it is probably carrying chinchilla (unless it is carrying albino) and there should be some magpie kits in the litter.

However not every litter has the ratios predicted by the Punnett Square, so you might toss the dice and get all japanese one time and all magpies the next. It's hard to say without more litters for statistics, but no matter what you WANT, the rabbits will probably do the opposite, just to be funny.

 

[ladysown]

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So...I'll keep the one jap doe that I like from Scarlett...and hopefully get chocolate magpies out of her.

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

when the odds are for 50-50 say, that is for "each kit" and the size of the litter isn't taken into account. The only time the odds will show up is when you get into higher numbers. Like if shes produced 100 or so kits then you might see a pattern..Probabilities are calculated on very high numbers. Also Magpies are "chinchillated"(my word lol) they could be carrying only one set of the chinchilla gene and be passing on the jap(normal)gene.The white areas of a magpie are really the tan/yellow areas of the jap pattern.Continued magpie to magpie may result in some Japs but eventually you will get homozygous magpies (sets of the same gene; in this case the chinchilla gene)

 

[Silver Star Rabbitry]

Try breeding the japanese doe back to a magpie.

Emily

 

[ladysown]

I'll be doing that in the future as I'll be getting a chocolate magpie buck.

 

[Half Caper Farm]

Just thought you'd like to know that that chocolate magpie buck bred his first two does today! Teapot likes girls.

 

[ladysown]

oh good. now...let's hope he works!

 

[Half Caper Farm]

No reason why he wouldn't. Maybe I've just been lucky so far, but I've never had a dud buck yet.

 

[ladysown]

i've had one. Tried him for five months. NADA. very eager, but didn't work at all. Rather frustrating waste of six months feed and purchase price.<br /><br />__________ Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:56 pm __________<br /><br />

 

[Half Caper Farm]

Yes, I can see how that would be frustrating! :x

 

[ladysown]

right now I'm concerned with bluebelle. She was due yesterday. 10 days ago very eager to build a nest, but as of yet...NOTHING in the baby department. ARGH!!!!!!!