sryglet
Member
Hey all! I am a longtime hobby rabbit breeder. I used to breed Flemish Giants and Standard Rex for show, and now I have a small herd of very spoiled Harlequins - one black Japanese buck, two lilac Japanese does, and a mystery freak baby (more on this). I am exploring breeding some type of Angora in the future. I joined the forum because I breed harlequins and got a baby in a litter last year that makes absolutely no sense concerning my knowledge of rabbit genetics. We know the parent's lineage is correct on her pedigree and the color she is makes absolutely no sense!
I will post about the mystery baby in a different thread, but here she is. Her dad is our black Japanese. Her mom is our lilac Japanese, born to our other lilac Japanese. She was back bred to her dad, meaning this baby's father and grandfather are the same rabbit. His parents were a lilac Japanese buck and a black japanese doe. Her mother's parents were black Japanese buck and a lilac Japanese doe.
Her parents' pairing has produced 37 babies, all black and lilac Japanese. Dad has produced over 200 babies and none had any white on them. Dad doesn't have any white on him. There is a zero percent chance that mom has ever been around another buck unless someone snuck a different buck into our rabbit run and he only managed to get one kit into a litter of 9 otherwise very obviously harlequin babies.
This baby was born pure white and developed small light and dark grey spots on her body, ears, and nose by weaning. Her grey spots have come in more and more over time. If that isn't perplexing enough, she has now begun developing fawn markings on her ears, nose, feet, and body at 6 months old (as you can see here), which are rapidly coming in. I am absolutely perplexed about the presence of all three colors on her, as well as the fact that the spots appear and multiply over time.
Any clue as to what's going on?
I will post about the mystery baby in a different thread, but here she is. Her dad is our black Japanese. Her mom is our lilac Japanese, born to our other lilac Japanese. She was back bred to her dad, meaning this baby's father and grandfather are the same rabbit. His parents were a lilac Japanese buck and a black japanese doe. Her mother's parents were black Japanese buck and a lilac Japanese doe.
Her parents' pairing has produced 37 babies, all black and lilac Japanese. Dad has produced over 200 babies and none had any white on them. Dad doesn't have any white on him. There is a zero percent chance that mom has ever been around another buck unless someone snuck a different buck into our rabbit run and he only managed to get one kit into a litter of 9 otherwise very obviously harlequin babies.
This baby was born pure white and developed small light and dark grey spots on her body, ears, and nose by weaning. Her grey spots have come in more and more over time. If that isn't perplexing enough, she has now begun developing fawn markings on her ears, nose, feet, and body at 6 months old (as you can see here), which are rapidly coming in. I am absolutely perplexed about the presence of all three colors on her, as well as the fact that the spots appear and multiply over time.
Any clue as to what's going on?
