Satin Angora chocolate- Silvering?
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Can you snip a few hairs and lay them on a contrasting color background? That will tell if it is a all-white hair (as in silvering or the mysterious stray white hairs), or a silver tipped hair (as in silver-tipped steel, although to be honest, steel does seem to have a tiny chocolate tip above the silver). If there is color below the whitish part, does the doe have chinchilla in her background? Regular gold-tipped steel is full-color agouti based, while silver tipped steel is chinchilla based.
I'll try and get pics of some cut fur. It's not super long, so hopefully that's okay. I'll also take a look at her pedigree, i can't remember what was in her genetics. I had bought her and 2 of her brothers to add some new blood to my stock, thinking a self color could be handy to have since I no longer had any self colored breeders. So she wasn't personally produced in my barn.
I don't have much experience with wool colors, but that looks like either silvering or copious amounts of excess white hairs (which does happen in brokens). The hairs look white all the way to the tip, without any apparent banding:
The silver allele <si> produces guard hairs that are completely silver (white), like this:
In my experience, the silver allele is at least partially dominant, so even one copy will cause silvering, though it starts to appear later in development than when the rabbit has two copies (6-8 weeks rather than 3-4 weeks). So it would be surprising to have it pop out of nowhere.
Its effects increase over time, with each successive molt resulting in more white hairs. Essentially the melanocytes are becoming prematurely senile, causing the graying you'd normally see in a much older animal.
It can be important to pull individual hairs out to examine them, because silvering is a marvel of optical illusion. Below is the Champagne D'Argent fur from which the silver hairs in the preceding image were pulled. It really looks like white-tipped hairs, but when you pull them out individually, you discover that they're all completely white.
Steel <E(S)> will produce hairs that have the light intermediate band pushed up towards the tip, but not all the way - as @judymac points out, they're not actually silver at the tip, rather there is still a small band of dark pigment left at the tip, like this (this hair is from a gold-tipped steel New Zealand, but you can see the pattern):
The silver allele <si> produces guard hairs that are completely silver (white), like this:
In my experience, the silver allele is at least partially dominant, so even one copy will cause silvering, though it starts to appear later in development than when the rabbit has two copies (6-8 weeks rather than 3-4 weeks). So it would be surprising to have it pop out of nowhere.
Its effects increase over time, with each successive molt resulting in more white hairs. Essentially the melanocytes are becoming prematurely senile, causing the graying you'd normally see in a much older animal.
It can be important to pull individual hairs out to examine them, because silvering is a marvel of optical illusion. Below is the Champagne D'Argent fur from which the silver hairs in the preceding image were pulled. It really looks like white-tipped hairs, but when you pull them out individually, you discover that they're all completely white.
Steel <E(S)> will produce hairs that have the light intermediate band pushed up towards the tip, but not all the way - as @judymac points out, they're not actually silver at the tip, rather there is still a small band of dark pigment left at the tip, like this (this hair is from a gold-tipped steel New Zealand, but you can see the pattern):
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Okay, I got a closer look at individual hairs. The coat is still growing in, like it's barely half an inch, it's why she looks funny, she looks like a broken, but she's actually solid chocolate (save for these sprinkling of white hairs). I couldn't get a clear Pic of the hairs, but the white ones are solid white, no bands or colored tips. When I first got her I noticed a few white hairs on her ears and just a few through her body, but not a ton, so I assumed it was just weird stray hairs. And after that I never paid to much attention, since I would pluck the coat when it molted, so the new coat would already have some length to it. This is the first time I sheared the coat off, letting me see it grow in close to the skin, I was surprised to see how many white hairs there is.
Her pedigree is a lot of self chocolate, a couple agouti, a tort, a rew, but I also saw her Grandma on her dam's side is marked as a black steel-gold tipped.
I added a full Pic of her. She wasn't super cooperative since she just had her litter born today.
Her pedigree is a lot of self chocolate, a couple agouti, a tort, a rew, but I also saw her Grandma on her dam's side is marked as a black steel-gold tipped.
I added a full Pic of her. She wasn't super cooperative since she just had her litter born today.
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I had a lovely black English Angora pull a huge amount of fiber for her nest a number of years back. When the coat grew back in, it had those same all-white guard hairs throughout the coat. I'd never seen that happen before, but she kept those white hairs the rest of her life. There was nothing in the pedigree to suggest anything that might cause it. The parents were black x chocolate, grandparents were red and black. Nothing but red/fawn, black and chocolate farther back, most were at least three generations of my own breeding.
This year I bred an ermine doe to a chocolate, not having a unrelated chinchilla buck to use, and hoping for more chinchillas. Instead, I had a litter of chocolate agouti kits, with one runt black doe that kept getting her fur pulled out by her siblings. (Never had that happen before either.) I separated her, gave her a little sweater to keep her naked skin warm, and when the coat grew in, it also had those white guard hairs (sorry, not a great photo, but you get the idea.)
The one thing in common in the two pedigrees is a chocolate buck that I purchased out-of-state. I had him and his sister for years, and never noticed white hairs in either of them, but. . .here are all these white hairs again, only the second time in over 40 years of raising English Angoras that I've seen this. Did it have something to do with trauma to the follicles, or is there something else lurking in the background? @reh do you have any thoughts?
This year I bred an ermine doe to a chocolate, not having a unrelated chinchilla buck to use, and hoping for more chinchillas. Instead, I had a litter of chocolate agouti kits, with one runt black doe that kept getting her fur pulled out by her siblings. (Never had that happen before either.) I separated her, gave her a little sweater to keep her naked skin warm, and when the coat grew in, it also had those white guard hairs (sorry, not a great photo, but you get the idea.)
The one thing in common in the two pedigrees is a chocolate buck that I purchased out-of-state. I had him and his sister for years, and never noticed white hairs in either of them, but. . .here are all these white hairs again, only the second time in over 40 years of raising English Angoras that I've seen this. Did it have something to do with trauma to the follicles, or is there something else lurking in the background? @reh do you have any thoughts?
reh
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I dont know, but with all the fur pulling i thought about missing melanoblasts in hair follicles too.
There is a bulge region where they sit and wait to populate the follicle with new melanocytes for each new hair.
If they are gone (f.e. in silvers) -> white hair.
There is a bulge region where they sit and wait to populate the follicle with new melanocytes for each new hair.
If they are gone (f.e. in silvers) -> white hair.
Thanks to everyone giving input, just when I think I'm getting the hang of genetics, then the extra modifiers come into play and I'm at a loss.
I've been meaning to give some update, but life has been crazy!
So, I have that doe's 2 brothers, and I noticed they we're just about to start growing in their new coats as well. So instead of waiting till they released the old coats, I shaved them like I did with their sister. That way I can get a clear look at their coats better before it gets long. And the result, they have the same white scattering of hairs... so if they indeed are genetically causing the silvering (like that of a silver fox) and not damage from pulling hair, should I note that on their pedigrees? And how would one suggest I write it?
I've been meaning to give some update, but life has been crazy!
So, I have that doe's 2 brothers, and I noticed they we're just about to start growing in their new coats as well. So instead of waiting till they released the old coats, I shaved them like I did with their sister. That way I can get a clear look at their coats better before it gets long. And the result, they have the same white scattering of hairs... so if they indeed are genetically causing the silvering (like that of a silver fox) and not damage from pulling hair, should I note that on their pedigrees? And how would one suggest I write it?
So update, doe (and her 2 brothers) definitely appear to all have silvering. Which is disappointing, since I don't really want to keep that in my herd, so thet will have to be woolers. But I am currently evaluating the doe's litter of 9. I have 4h people reaching out wanting show bunnies, some of the babies are rew, so that's easy. But one of the nicer looking babies is a chocolate... I think I see a few white hairs on her ears... it looks like she is going to be like her mom. How do I put that on her pedigree (and her moms pedigree) for future knowledge? And is silvering showable, is it a fault or DQ?
According to the ARBA Standard of Perfection, scattered white hairs on a chocolate Angora is a fault (not a disqualification). I would make a note of it on the pedigree, be it as 'silvering' or 'stray white hairs'. I don't know the genetics of stray white hairs, so I wouldn't know how to genetically code that accurately.
Thanks! That's good to know the it's just a fault. If any of the 4h families are interested in any of her colored babies to show, I'll be sure to make sure they are aware about the stray hairs.
If it's actually silvering, it'll probably end up being a DQ. Stray white hairs is a fault, but "excessive white hairs in a colored section" is a general (all breed) disqualification. What constitutes "excessive" versus "stray" is up to the discretion of each judge, but silvering is typically so pervasive that most judges would consider it more than stray whites.
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Ah, that's what I was afraid of. Thanks for the clarification. I thinking to stay on the safe side I'll not let anyone choose any of the colored babies, just in case they develop like their mom did. I'd hate for them to get disqualified for it. I have several REWs available, so I'll try to persuade kids to choose them if they really want to try showing angora. It's a lot less stress, lol!
That surely is a heavily silvered coat all right. I always find it surprising when things like this crop up in a breed where it is not a normal color.
Yeah, its a shame, she has a great body and her 2 brothers are exactly the same, in body and color. I ended up culling all her colored offspring. But she threw super nice REWs, so I'll definitely have to do that pairing again
