You've asked an interesting question, but the answer is not found in what you can see about the rabbit, but in what is hiding in its pedigree.
REW is caused by a double recessive ‘cc’ on the C locus. Since each parent only gives one copy of each gene, that means both your buck and doe carry the ‘c’ to create REW. To ensure no REW, you’d have to find breeding stock that the breeder knows for sure does not carry the ‘c’.
There are five possible color options on the C Color gene, listed in descending order of dominance. Capital letters are used for dominant genes, lower case for recessive ones. Normal full-color like chestnut agouti or self blue is coded C and it is dominant over all of the other options, chinchilla
c(chd) for
chinchilla
dark, sable/pearl
c(chl) for
chinchilla
light, pointed white
c(h) for
HImalayan pattern
, and albino REW
cc;, and albino REW is the most recessive of all. That means ANY rabbit of ANY other color (excepting something like a
seal that requires two sable genes) could be harboring albino without you knowing it, as it only takes one dominant color gene for a rabbit to look that color. That's why you'll need to look at the pedigree or ask the breeder whether they've bred to REW.
Think of albino as a white sheet over a colored rabbit. It carries all the same color genes, could be an agouti or a tortoiseshell, a harlequin, chinchilla, sable or harlequin. BUT, when a rabbit has two of the recessive albino genes, one from each parent, the rabbit's pigment producing system is shut off, and it can't produce the colors it has the genetics for.
Obviously, both of your rabbits carry the recessive albino REW
c gene along with their full color
C. Any given breeding has a 1 in 4 chance of producing red-eyed whites, a 1 in 4 chance of full-color
CC kits that do not carry albino, and a 1 in 2 chance of colored kits that carry the albino recessive in the background. Of course, Lady Luck has her say in every litter, they could all be REW, or all non-carriers, or any combination thereof, as odds are one thing, but actual outcomes can be very different, ask any gambler.
