Surprise White Boots on Kits

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alforddm

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It was HOT today for March got up to 85. Anyway Mitka's litter jumped out of the nestbox. I was piddling around feeding and some other stuff. When I noticed one of the kits had a white foot! I got to looking at the other kits and three of them have a bit of white on their feet. This is the first time this has happened. This cross has taken place twice before with the only other random white being a pinprick of white on does nose. I doubt I would have even noticed it except I decided to keep her.

Both of the parents appear solid. The dam has scattered white hairs in her coat but no obvious white markings. The sire is a highly marked silver tipped steel, no obvious white.

I'm inclined to blame the dam because of the scattered white hairs. However, if the sire was responsible it would explain those false charlies in the other two litters.

Thoughts? Any idea what white pattern this might be?

This is the most highly marked of the kits.

100_5346.JPG
 
I have a pedigreed Japanese harlequin doe who was a show cull due to having one white foot. It's not broken or vienna. Most breeders agree such white marks are genetic, and should be culled from harlequin lines. I also was warned about breeding magpie to jap partially due to magpies being able to carry such marks invisibly.


It's very possible that your white marks are something different than mine.
 
Bizarre :)

My vienna carriers often have scattered white hairs in their coats and it is odd that it hasn't hapened more often but the vienna gene is a master at hiding :)

I don't know if you want to breed two of the white foots to see if you get any BEW's :mrgreen:
 
I don't know if you want to breed two of the white foots to see if you get any BEW's :mrgreen:

Bleh Dood, I hadn't thought of trying to breed two of the kits together. I do still want to examine some blue eyes. How odd would it be to have it turn up in my own herd lol? I may have to start building more cages....

EDITED: For Grammer
 
Well you have vienna or a new pattern gene so you have to keep them all for breeding. :lol:
 
akane":2aan306g said:
Well you have vienna or a new pattern gene so you have to keep them all for breeding. :lol:

Way to enable, Akane! :p

alforddm":2aan306g said:
I don't know if you want to breed two of the white foots to see if you get any BEW's :mrgreen:



Bleh Dood, I hadn't thought of trying to breed two of the kits together. I do still want to examine some blue eyes.

There ya go- since no-one has been kind enough to send you a blue eye, you'll just have to make your own.
 
I had a Netherland with white toes out of a black doe and a black buck. When I asked on some of the other rabbit boards I was told that it was probably not due to the Vienna (BEW) gene but rather an undesirable "spotting" gene. He was a cute little buck that went to a pet home.
 
MamaSheepdog":2o1sktpy said:
akane":2o1sktpy said:
Well you have vienna or a new pattern gene so you have to keep them all for breeding. :lol:

Way to enable, Akane! :p

Yeah really as if hubby didn't think it was bad enough already :lol: :lol: :lol:

I wonder if the colder weather had something to do with the kits showing more white? I remember reading somewhere that temperature can affect the extent of white markings in horses but I don't' remember where I read it...Might have see if I can find it...
 
Temperature only effects the himi gene and not white spotting by the broken gene or vienna gene.
 
Actually it has been theorized that temperature in the womb may be one of the influences on white spotting and may help to explain why clones of a single horse will always have different white markings than the original. I'm trying to find a source for that information but I haven't found it yet.

Google "Smart Little Lena Clones" to see an example of clones with different white markings.
 
Horse white markings do not have an equivalent gene in rabbits though. Not even in most animals. So far a swiss study has identified 7 gene loci that explain 54% of the possible markings in horses. Another problem is that cloning is not perfect. In fact you can find people on horse forums commenting about how many of the clones have differences in conformation and out of 1 season of Smart little lena clones they managed to end up with 1 fully healthy foal that matched the original. Others died young or had to have surgery for various conformation flaws. Many are still placing the blame for the different white markings on genetics. Genetic damage and mutations happening. Controlled breeding of wild animals towards tame ones, such as the study of foxes that is often mentioned, has turned up a very high rate of mutation for white markings. It evolves quite quickly from nonexistent to extensive when animals are bred closely and culled heavily for domestication. Not even when people are trying to breed for white markings. Animals with controlled patterns which is quite obvious in some dog breeds are carefully selected against white marking mutations. Take a look at a Japanese akita bred for proper urajiro, white that goes up the front legs, chest, and face in a specific pattern, and the development of pied american akitas when urajiro markings were no longer bred for. Stray white pops up and expands within a few generations.
 
I agree with most of what your saying regarding clones, however, white pattern genes are pretty much the same across species. Broken in Rabbits is a KIT gene mutation. This is the same gene that causes more than 22 different white patterns in horses, most likely including classic roan. It also causes white patterns in dogs, cats, mice, alpacas, rats, and I'm sure others. MITF the gene responsible for Splashed White 1, is known to cause piebald in many breeds of dogs, humans, and mice. These two genes along with Pax 3, Pax 6, and ENDRB are the "main" white pattern genes regardless of species. The study that you quoted also found that
MITF and KIT alone account for 26%
. This study also focused on "normal" white markings.

I only found the reference to white patterns being in utero temperature sensitive on forums which is probably why I couldn't remember where I found it. So, it's just one of those theories floating around.
 
As the kits get bigger, I've noticed that two of them also have a bit of white on their nose or chin. I tried to get a picture but it didn't turn out so well, maybe you can see it.

IMG_0023.JPG
 
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