NZ litter oddities - Rex fur type and Chocolate color

[Jaulen]

We breed NZ. Solid blues and blacks. My first 3 rabbits were blues that threw blue and REW....no matter how line bred they were. My original blues have an even coat length with great sheen and fly back. Started getting white nails so brought in a black doe and black buck. They have more stabdard NZ fur (longer guard hairs) and are shiny. Brought in another blue buck.

Finallt got to breeding 2nd and some 3rd generation from these new rabbits.

These litters I got some oddities.
1 litter that was blues and blacks also gave me a chocolate baby. I think the chocolate is a doe, so we'll be using her to breed back to determine what 'foundation' buck has that chocolate gene. (Super pretty color, love it....photo wont upload)

Another litter, sister to the one with the chocolate, but different totally unrelated buck, gave a blue and a black bunny with the only way I can describe is Rex fur. Short, velvety, plush. They also have much broader heads. The blue has great plush fur, but also has weird curly whiskers . The fur on the black isnt as nice.

Interesting to see what can be hiding in the genetic woodpile, even for rabbits that have 6 gen peds that all say NZ. Guessing there is Rex somewhere in the background and or possibly Satin (due to how shiny my NZ fur is)

 

[Ice]

Wow that's strange! I agree that those rabbits might have some satin in there background though!

 

[dfr1973]

I love the Rex fur, and the curly whiskers are often the first clue I get for which have regular fur and which are my beloved plushies. That being said, I've noticed the regular-furred rabbits who carry a Rex gene* tend to have nicer fur than the couple of non-Rex gene outcross parents I've brought in, so it *could* be a hint at carrier status as opposed to a Satin gene.
(*note: there is more than one Rex gene, and I have a mismatch to prove it. Both her parents had lovely Rex fur, but her and her entire litter were regular furred.)
If we lived closer to each other, I would HAPPILY take your blue Rex-furred babies!

 

[hotzcatz]

Obviously, there was a 'c' recessive for albino in some of your original breedstock. Since they were blue (which is a diluted black) - which requires a double recessive on the 'd' gene - which would be 'dd' - then you would not ever see a black rabbit from them even though they have the gene for black. However, the albino is a recessive on a different gene so a blue can throw an albino if the other parent has a matching recessive for albino.

Two blues can't make a black, but two blacks can make a blue.

Two blues can make blue, albino, lilac or a blue/lilac tort. Probably some others depending on recessives, but they can't make an agouti, black or chocolate.

White nails can indicate the Vienna gene, were there little white spots on their faces or feet?

A lot of NZ had Rex and angora bred into them to improve the pelts. A lot of characteristics only show up with a double recessive (solid colors, chocolate, albino, blue, tort, fawn, etc.) so the recessives could hide for generations. Then when line breeding, the recessives can match up and you see oddities.

I've gotten several 'angora' NZs but they never seem to get a true angora coat and it's always been a matted mess since they didn't get the guard hairs to go with the undercoat and they would instantly mat up. So I'm guessing it's more than merely one gene to get the angora coat.