Not real sure what happened here...

[tarheel506]

I picked up a champagne d'argent buck in hopes of getting a doe from the same breeder shortly after. He ran into issues with a litter he was expecting, and I still have no doe. So, after feeding this buck for so long I decided it was time to breed him even if it was only for meat mutts.

Bred him to a rew that was out of a full rew nz and a pointed nz/ca cross. She had six kits, all born jet black. I figured they would do just like dad and grow into a nice gray or champagne coat. Now at 2 weeks old, one of them looks like a cottontail, 2 have large tan patches over their shoulders, and the other 3 are still just black.

My experience in color genetics is very limited...I've been breeding white rabbits up til now (although I do want to learn). That said, I'm having a hard time coming up with how I got so much tan out of this cross. Any thoughts?

 

[shazza]

new zealands, even white ones, carry the chestnut gene, which would be your cottontail kit. not sure about the tan-patched ones. the blacks will likely silver out as they get older, and the others may or may not have some silvering. a friend of mine had a litter of NZR/champagne crosses and most of them were black with 4 or 5 chestnut ones.

 

[Zass]

You may have steel involved, since it's common to champagnes and new zealands. It's basically a gene that extends the black part of a chestnut rabbit's coat. It can vary in amounts of coverage from looking all back to almost all the way chestnut. If your wild looking kit never had a pretty white belly and tail, it's a gold tipped steel.

My favorite example, both of these rabbits are gold tipped steels from the same litter:

 

[SableSteel]

You'll probably still get some silvering later on, it doesnt develop until a few months.

NZW carry agouti & steel, which can make chestnut (wild rabbit colored) and steel (which is a bit darker than chestnut, and is born solid black, while chestnuts are born with a pink belly). The tan patches over the shoulder is likely steel, that's a common place to see the color start developing (likely those will lighten up even more). So the New Zealand had the genes for the orange pigment, but you couldn't see it under the white.

 

[Zass]

 

[FourRingCircus]

Ditto Zass - I have a Creme d'Argent that produces steels when paired with my NZW buck. She has one or two "Creme" colored kits that silver out eventually, and the rest are black that end up gold tipped with some silvering - some more patchy than others. BEAutiful coats though! So silky soft!

 

[tarheel506]

Thanks for the responses, it's very interesting. The cottontail looking one does have a white belly. I really need to just learn the genetics, but the first time I sat down to do so my face probably did this :shock: haha. I'd be open to any recommendations for a starting point!

BEAutiful coats though! So silky soft!

Yes, I have already noticed the coats seem so plush, even compared to the nz kits born the same day as this litter. Very excited to see how they grow out.