Hello from Northwest Ontario

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Ice Box Farm

Ice Box Farm

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2022
Messages
11
Reaction score
9
Location
Fort Frances Ontario Canada
Hello every body,
I have been raising rabbits for several years now. I find it so rewarding to raise animals and rabbits have been especially enriching for my life. I have been raising mutts as a food source for my family. I got some beautiful rabbits over the years and even got a baby with one blue and one brown eye. I am here to learn more about genetics and how it determines physical and behavioural traits. I want to get some purebred rabbits. I was thinking rex because I had a miniature rex and he was the sweetest and gentlest rabbit I have ever met. I hope I can learn about the genes for fur types too. There's so much to read on this site and I am eager to learn it all.
 
Did the rabbit with heterochromia have any white marks?
The blue eye comes from the BEW gene, which when mixed with any other color makes Vianne Marks
 
Welcome to another from Ontario! There are rex in Ontario, but they aren't always easy to find, and some of them have snot issues in the herd. But in the meantime, you share your knowledge and we'll share ours and who knows... maybe we'll learn something in the process! :)
 
ladysown said:
Welcome to another from Ontario! There are rex in Ontario, but they aren't always easy to find, and some of them have snot issues in the herd. But in the meantime, you share your knowledge and we'll share ours and who knows... maybe we'll learn something in the process! :)
Click to expand...
Nice to see another from Ontario too! I did not know they have issues with snot. I will make sure to find rabbits with minimal snot issues. I was most concerned about sore hocks which seems to be a bigger problem with rex compared to other breeds. Thank you for telling me this 🙂
 
Ice Box Farm said:
Wait is it called vianne or vienna? I was not sure.
Click to expand...
Genetically, it's called the vienna gene. There are probably differences in local usage.
Here are some photos of vienna marked Polish: two bucks (black one has blue eyes) and a single doe, who has one brown eye and one blue eye:
Polish Buck Duo.jpg204_2266 (2).JPG204_2265 (2).JPG


Is that a champagne on your post? What a cutie. We just got our first champagnes and I *love* them!
 
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are you sure those are polish? I've never seen a chestnut polish... they come in white, chocolate, black, blue, lilac....
and yes, it's the vienna gene.

If you get rex, yes, do mind you get rabbits with well-furred feet. If you have a chance to see a rabbitry do so, those many breeders have closed herds, and just stand and listen. Listen for sneezing, and then after you have stood a while walk around (no touching) and just look at noses and front legs. You don't want snot in your herd at all. It hurts your herd in more ways than simply respiratorily.
 
Alaska Satin said:
Genetically, it's called the vienna gene. There are probably differences in local usage.
Here are some photos of vienna marked Polish: two bucks (black one has blue eyes) and a single doe, who has one brown eye and one blue eye:
View attachment 33130View attachment 33131View attachment 33132


Is that a champagne on your post? What a cutie. We just got our first champagnes and I *love* them!
Click to expand...
Thank you for the details and photographs. Your rabbits are beautiful. I have actually had quite a few rabbits with the white nose triangle mark. None of them had blue eyes but some had a steel that almost looked blue. They were all big nz mutts and I was under the impression that only dwarf breeds could have vienna. The heterochromic rabbit I have now was from my dwarf mutt line so that is why I thought it was a vienna. So standard rabbits can be vienna which makes sense if I actually think.
The rabbit in my profile picture is just a mutt but holy cow was he the most gorgeous kit. His mom normally gave me all black kits no matter what and then all of the sudden this litter was all deep silvers and rich grays. He was black for the first 10 days roughly. Then his grays came out. Maybe it was steel?
 
ladysown said:
are you sure those are polish? I've never seen a chestnut polish... they come in white, chocolate, black, blue, lilac....
and yes, it's the vienna gene.

If you get rex, yes, do mind you get rabbits with well-furred feet. If you have a chance to see a rabbitry do so, those many breeders have closed herds, and just stand and listen. Listen for sneezing, and then after you have stood a while walk around (no touching) and just look at noses and front legs. You don't want snot in your herd at all. It hurts your herd in more ways than simply respiratorily.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the advice. I will keep all of these things in mind when finding a breeder. I am going to set up a place away from my current rabbits so any new rabbits can't pass some thing on in case I could not see the rabbitry before hand. I will likely do it anyway just in case of parasites and the like.
 
Ice Box Farm said:
The rabbit in my profile picture is just a mutt but holy cow was he the most gorgeous kit. His mom normally gave me all black kits no matter what and then all of the sudden this litter was all deep silvers and rich grays. He was black for the first 10 days roughly. Then his grays came out. Maybe it was steel?
Click to expand...
Rabbits with the silvering gene (Champagnes, Silver Fox and Silvers) are all born solid black, then their silvering comes in over a few weeks/months.
Here is a sequence of our buck from 7 weeks through about 10 weeks:

7 weeks:
Killian 7 wks.jpg
8 weeks:
Killian 8 weeks.JPG
10.5 weeks:
Killian 10 weeks.jpg
Another from 10.5 weeks showing the face (sorry about the poor image quality) and what will be the nose butterfly:
Killian 10 wks.jpg
The reason I thought Champagne d'Argent when I saw your bunny is that not only does he look silvered, but the breed has that very distinctive characteristic dark "nose butterfly."
 
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ladysown said:
are you sure those are polish? I've never seen a chestnut polish... they come in white, chocolate, black, blue, lilac....
and yes, it's the vienna gene.
Click to expand...
Yes, they are Polish from my daughter's line of purebred Polish. The thing is that BEW, like REW, can hide pretty much anything behind the white. When you cross a BEW from a long line of BEWs with a solid color, you never know what you'll get! Although Polish are only accepted in solid colors, she has found that her chestnut-based BEWs are by far the best in terms of body type and coat. She keeps the best VM animals (which tend to be chestnut) and breeds them back to her BEW or VMs, and comes up with one Best in Show BEW after another.
 
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Alaska Satin said:
Rabbits with the silvering gene (Champagnes, Silver Fox and Silvers) are all born solid black, then their silvering comes in over a few weeks/months.
Here is a sequence of our buck from 7 weeks through about 10 weeks:

7 weeks:
View attachment 33134
8 weeks:
View attachment 33135
10.5 weeks:
View attachment 33136
Another from 10.5 weeks showing the face (sorry about the poor image quality) and what will be the nose butterfly:
View attachment 33137
The reason I thought Champagne d'Argent when I saw your bunny is that not only does he it look silvered, but the breed has a very distinctive characteristic dark "nose
Click to expand...
Hmmm I do not think there's silver genes but they are mutts and I don't know much about genetics in general so what do I know. That litter turned their gorgeous silvers and grays much sooner than you're describing too. Closer to 2 weeks old. I really loved the one in my profile picture because he was the only one with the darker butterfly marking. Is that made from a specific gene?

What pretty rabbits you have.! I was actually considering the champagnes because of how beautiful their coats are.
 
Ice Box Farm said:
Nice to see another from Ontario too! I did not know they have issues with snot. I will make sure to find rabbits with minimal snot issues. I was most concerned about sore hocks which seems to be a bigger problem with rex compared to other breeds. Thank you for telling me this 🙂
Click to expand...
Having the right size cage wire base, sturdy so it doesn't bounce with the rabbits weight helps prevent sore hocks. If the wire is coated it is even better to prevent sore hocks. 14 guage with largest hole measurements 1" by 1/2" or less, just wide enough for droppings of adult rabbits to drop through.
 

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