How many of my babies will be wooly?

theweirdrabbitgirl · Mar 31, 2016

I recently acquired a mixed breed doe with wool (they have no idea where she got the wool from, I think their bloodline started out with Dutch rabbits...). She was unknowingly bred with her brother, so I'm taking care of her until all the babies find homes and they have room for her again at the farm. Theres 8 babies and they are 9 days old and looking beautiful, but I'm wondering how many will be wooly and how many will have a normal coat. How do coat type genetics work? __________ Thu Mar 31, 2016 9:25 am __________ Obligatory picture of mama chilling with her babies

Dood · Mar 31, 2016

The long fur gene is recessive so this doe has two of them which is denoted "ll"

There is no way to know if her brother has no long fur gene "LL" or one recessive long fur gene "Ll"

If he is "LL" then none of the kits will have long fur and all will be Ll

:doh: ~~If he is "Ll" then 75% should have normal fur (LL, Ll, Ll) and 25% should have long fur (ll)~~

Oops :roll: alforddm is correct and it should be

If he is "Ll" then 50% should have normal fur (Ll) and 50% should have long fur (ll)

:cheesysmile:

theweirdrabbitgirl · Mar 31, 2016

Thanks! I'll check back in with this thread in a few weeks when you can tell which coat type they have, to see if the results line up statistically. The buck had another accidental litter with his mother (their owner isn't the most savvy on rabbit sexing... But they're all separated now so don't worry) and out of 6 it had 1 long haired, which would mean that he DOES have the recessive gene.

alforddm · Mar 31, 2016

If he is Ll then 50% of the kits will have normal fur and 50% will be long haired. The dam has no L to give so LL isn't an option.

It's also possible that he could also be long haired and then all the babies would have long fur.

MamaSheepdog · Mar 31, 2016

Welcome to RT!

What a cute litter! But watch out, they are probably your "gateway rabbits" and you will soon be a rabbit addict like the rest of us here.

I would suggest that you put them in a box- at that age they are likely to crawl away from one another and get chilled before finding their way back. Make sure to only have the heating pad under no more than half of the box so they can move away if they get too warm

FourRingCircus · Mar 31, 2016

Such a pretty mama rabbit, and the babies look so colorful! I tried sticking with REW for meat, but the colors get me every time

theweirdrabbitgirl · Apr 24, 2016

They were in a box from birth to 17 days and then I pulled it since their eyes were getting too crusty in it. In this picture they were out for a health check and mama decided to flop down next to them, don't worry! I'm very pleased with this doe, since the loss of our runt at 8 days we haven't had any mishaps. They leap and binky all over the place now. So fun to watch! __________ Sun Apr 24, 2016 11:49 am __________ Update: they are nearly 5 weeks old and we officially have 6 wooly, 2 normal coated. I think we have 6 bucks and 2 does, but everything is still very tiny and hard to identify.