Rex Babies

[Graceful Rabbitry]

Can anyone help me with this… so I breed my mini Rex doe(Miffy) to my Buck with Normal Fur(Aragorn)and here are two of the Rex babies…so these both have rex fur but the fur is different looking and one is just a tad longer.. I don’t know if you can tell in the picture if they are different. I looked up different Rex furs and they don’t seem to be the ones I saw.. please help me out lol

 

[Jackrabbit]

What exactly do you mean? Also they aren’t Rex….

 

[Graceful Rabbitry]

okay I’m sorry for my misunderstanding… can you please tell me what fur type they have.. that was kind of my question they feel like Rex just don’t look it

 

[Hyla]

what type of rabbit is your buck? and as mentioned above, they are not rex rabbits/rex furred even if they feel soft- which is no biggie unless that's specifically what you're aiming for, it looks to me like they're normal fur (rollback)

 

[Alaska Satin]

Yes, those are castor rex coats, though immature and of poor quality. They look like the rex we've produced when crossbreeding mini rex and Polish (on the way to improving teeth in the Polish and to introducing BEW genes into the mini rex), although it usually means a copy of the rex gene is hiding in/being carried by the normal-furred rabbit. There are various qualities of rex coats, and the poorer ones are thinner, longer, and nappy/kinky like that. You may find they lose some of the nappiness as they grow, but they almost certainly won't get the short, thick, plush coats of high-quality purebred rex or mini rex. It takes a few generations of selective rex-to-rex breeding to recover the more desirable rex coat qualities.

 

[Graceful Rabbitry]

Yes, those are castor rex coats, though immature and of poor quality. They look like the rex we've produced when crossbreeding mini rex and Polish (on the way to improving teeth in the Polish and to introducing BEW genes into the mini rex), although it usually means a copy of the rex gene is hiding in/being carried by the normal-furred rabbit. There are various qualities of rex coats, and the poorer ones are thinner, longer, and nappy/kinky like that. You may find they lose some of the nappiness as they grow, but they almost certainly won't get the short, thick, plush coats of high-quality purebred rex or mini rex. It takes a few generations of selective rex-to-rex breeding to recover the more desirable rex coat qualities.

Okay thank you so much the mom I bought was just like them when she was younger.. I don’t necessarily care if they are purebred Rex and for them to look a certain why I just want rabbits.. it isn’t bad is it to breed mixed rexes right? I don’t plan on selling them either! The babies in the picture are just over 4 weeks.. thank you for the explanation

 

[Alaska Satin]

It is fine to breed mixes if you're not worried about show quality; in fact hybrid vigor effects can sometimes make the crossbreeds healthier and more productive.
Here in Alaska the purebred stock of most breeds is pretty slim, and it costs $hundreds to bring them up from the Lower 48, so we do quite a bit of crossbreeding even when we *are* trying to produce show-quality rabbits! Hence our family has Mini Rex/Polish and Californian/Satin crossbreeding projects. It takes patience and several generations to get back to the correct coat type along with the improved teeth//color/body type, but the eventual results are worth it.

 

[Graceful Rabbitry]

It is fine to breed mixes if you're not worried about show quality; in fact hybrid vigor effects can sometimes make the crossbreeds healthier and more productive.
Here in Alaska the purebred stock of most breeds is pretty slim, and it costs $hundreds to bring them up from the Lower 48, so we do quite a bit of crossbreeding even when we *are* trying to produce show-quality rabbits! Hence our family has Mini Rex/Polish and Californian/Satin crossbreeding projects. It takes patience and several generations to get back to the correct coat type along with the improved teeth//color/body type, but the eventual results are worth it.

Thank you for taking your time to explain everything to me.. I would like to get into showing one day. When I have enough money to buy purebred and or pedigree rabbits.. right now I only raise for meat and sell my best rabbits that someone might need to improve their breeding line. Satins are beautiful rabbits.. I don’t see many people who have them..