Graceful Rabbitry
gracefulrabbits
I was wondering how you tell the difference between a tri and Charlie marked newborn rabbit. Is a tri technically a Charlie. I’m very new to colors.
Tri or Charlie
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Great question. A tri is simply a broken harlequin pattern; the kit has both the En dominant spotting gene and the e(j) harlequin gene. Harlequin takes the normal banding of dark (black, blue, lilac or chocolate) and yellowish (fawn, orange, cream, red) on the agouti hairshaft, and instead puts them in patches on the skin. A normal agouti has the dark and orange shades all on one hairshaft, but the harlie has patches/spots of dark and orange on the skin. The broken gene adds white to the dark and orange, which is why they are called 'tricolor', 'tri' for short.
Any color pattern can be broken up with white, so you could have a broken solid black, a broken chestnut agouti, a broken tortoiseshell, or a broken harlie for example. So, look for the traits of the main color first. Harlequins will have patches of dark and orange on the skin. It may be in patches or dots of color, stripes, wide bands, or just all mixed up (called brindle). With the English spotting gene, the dark and orange often appear as dots of color on a white background. So, you're looking for dark and orange dots for a tricolor, especially over the back.
A broken tortoiseshell can mimic a tricolor, as it normally has dark on the face, legs and tail, and orange on the body. So, a mostly white rabbit with dark spots only on the points, and orange only on the body is probably a broken tortoiseshell, not a true tricolor harlequin, even though there are three colors visible.
To have a true tricolor, you will need to have the harlequin gene in your herd. That means somewhere there will be a harlequin, magpie (harlequin with the chinchilla gene, which turns all the orange places to pearly white), brindle or tricolor in the genetics, that can pass on the harlequin gene.
Harlequin is recessive to dominant black agouti (which is rare) that makes the entire hairshaft look dark, steel which gives a dark hair with the middle orange agouti band pushed out to the tips, and normal black extension which gives the typical agouti banding. Harlequin is dominant over the double recessive non-extension ee, which replaces the agouti banding with just the fawn band, giving a main body hair of orange, like the self tortoiseshell or orange agouti. However, harlequin as a recessive coupled with one of the more dominant patterns can still be sneaky, and make its presence known. You might see a normal chestnut agouti kit that would be E, but if it has a recessive harlequin with it Ee(j), there might be some funky spotting or brindling around the ears or where the white agouti eye circles should be.
A Charlie is simply a broken rabbit with an excess of white coloration. Genetically, it has two copies of the spotting gene, EnEn. The Charlie will be mostly white, with just a little Charlie Chaplin mustache (where it gets the name 'Charlie", small eye rings, and often just a few spots dribbling down the spine. Below are two newborn broken rabbits, the top is a true Charlie (the only back spots were clear back by the tail and not visible here), below is a normal broken.
Here's a tricolor just a few days old, the hair has started to grow in. You can see both the dark and yellowish dots on a white background.
Tricolors are called by their color scheme. The tri above has chocolate and the yellowish shade in angoras is called 'fawn', so this is a chocolate/fawn tri. If it had blue dots, it would be a blue/cream tri, because the yellowish parts would also have the dilution gene like the blue does. If you were showing in a breed that uses the word 'orange' to describe the yellowish tone, then this would be a chocolate/orange tri, and the blue example would be called blue/fawn tri (fawn is the name for the dilute orange shade in some breeds).
Harlequins with the chinchilla gene are called magpies, the yellow is replaced with white. So a chocolate magpie would be a pattern of chocolate brown and white. It is not recommended to breed spotting into magpies, as it messes up the magpie pattern and you can't see white areas on white, so it isn't a true tricolor colorwise.
Any color pattern can be broken up with white, so you could have a broken solid black, a broken chestnut agouti, a broken tortoiseshell, or a broken harlie for example. So, look for the traits of the main color first. Harlequins will have patches of dark and orange on the skin. It may be in patches or dots of color, stripes, wide bands, or just all mixed up (called brindle). With the English spotting gene, the dark and orange often appear as dots of color on a white background. So, you're looking for dark and orange dots for a tricolor, especially over the back.
A broken tortoiseshell can mimic a tricolor, as it normally has dark on the face, legs and tail, and orange on the body. So, a mostly white rabbit with dark spots only on the points, and orange only on the body is probably a broken tortoiseshell, not a true tricolor harlequin, even though there are three colors visible.
To have a true tricolor, you will need to have the harlequin gene in your herd. That means somewhere there will be a harlequin, magpie (harlequin with the chinchilla gene, which turns all the orange places to pearly white), brindle or tricolor in the genetics, that can pass on the harlequin gene.
Harlequin is recessive to dominant black agouti (which is rare) that makes the entire hairshaft look dark, steel which gives a dark hair with the middle orange agouti band pushed out to the tips, and normal black extension which gives the typical agouti banding. Harlequin is dominant over the double recessive non-extension ee, which replaces the agouti banding with just the fawn band, giving a main body hair of orange, like the self tortoiseshell or orange agouti. However, harlequin as a recessive coupled with one of the more dominant patterns can still be sneaky, and make its presence known. You might see a normal chestnut agouti kit that would be E, but if it has a recessive harlequin with it Ee(j), there might be some funky spotting or brindling around the ears or where the white agouti eye circles should be.
A Charlie is simply a broken rabbit with an excess of white coloration. Genetically, it has two copies of the spotting gene, EnEn. The Charlie will be mostly white, with just a little Charlie Chaplin mustache (where it gets the name 'Charlie", small eye rings, and often just a few spots dribbling down the spine. Below are two newborn broken rabbits, the top is a true Charlie (the only back spots were clear back by the tail and not visible here), below is a normal broken.
Here's a tricolor just a few days old, the hair has started to grow in. You can see both the dark and yellowish dots on a white background.
Tricolors are called by their color scheme. The tri above has chocolate and the yellowish shade in angoras is called 'fawn', so this is a chocolate/fawn tri. If it had blue dots, it would be a blue/cream tri, because the yellowish parts would also have the dilution gene like the blue does. If you were showing in a breed that uses the word 'orange' to describe the yellowish tone, then this would be a chocolate/orange tri, and the blue example would be called blue/fawn tri (fawn is the name for the dilute orange shade in some breeds).
Harlequins with the chinchilla gene are called magpies, the yellow is replaced with white. So a chocolate magpie would be a pattern of chocolate brown and white. It is not recommended to breed spotting into magpies, as it messes up the magpie pattern and you can't see white areas on white, so it isn't a true tricolor colorwise.
Graceful Rabbitry
gracefulrabbits
I will put some pictures of the kits.
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Graceful Rabbitry
gracefulrabbits
Thank you, you explained this very well. The mom is a Harlequin Rex and she is a Japanese Harlequin Correct? The dad is a mix and he actually only has two toes on his back foot lol and also, is he technically booted. Then, the two “broken” kits the other two she had were black or agouti. Any ideas on what they are?
A tri is a broken harlequin, a true charlie is a broken rabbit with barely any markings due to getting the broken gene from both parents. Since true charlie often goes hand in hand with a intestinal problem called megacolon, it is not wise to breed broken to broken and for shows brokens with few markings are not accepted.
Harlequin is not a broken color as such, broken means white base + spots or blanket of color. Not two not white colors in one coat.
You definitely have the broken En gene. Since it takes two copies of the dominant spotting gene to make a Charlie, and your doe does not appear to be a broken, I would assume that the kit with less spotting is simply a regular En en broken with extra white, so megacolon should not be an issue with this generation.
Your buck appears to be a booted broken black. The doe definitely has the harlequin gene, you can see it in the mottling in her coat and on her ears. I would call her pattern 'brindle', as there isn't a definite pattern to the dark and light hairs, they're just mostly mixed. Her light color is quite light, lighter than I would expect, but it doesn't seem to be white either, so she probably isn't a magpie pattern. Ideally, they look for a nice bright orange instead of a beige color. Since the buck is a more dominant full extension E-, and the doe is harlequin e(j)-, I'm going to make a few guesses:
True, you want to see a good balance of white and color for show.
True, harlequin simply puts the dark and orange colors in patches on the skin. A broken harlequin is what makes a true tricolor.
Your buck appears to be a booted broken black. The doe definitely has the harlequin gene, you can see it in the mottling in her coat and on her ears. I would call her pattern 'brindle', as there isn't a definite pattern to the dark and light hairs, they're just mostly mixed. Her light color is quite light, lighter than I would expect, but it doesn't seem to be white either, so she probably isn't a magpie pattern. Ideally, they look for a nice bright orange instead of a beige color. Since the buck is a more dominant full extension E-, and the doe is harlequin e(j)-, I'm going to make a few guesses:
- The kits all seem to be normal full extension colors, so the buck is probably not carrying harlequin as a recessive. This is a small sample, so he could carry it, but it isn't evident from this litter.
- None of the kits are non-extension fawn (orange, tortoiseshell), it would take that recessive from both parents to make a non-extension kit. This is a small sample, both parents could still carry fawn non-extension ee, but it's not evident from these photos. If the buck had either non-extension or harlequin, the mom's harlequin would become the dominant gene, and there could be tricolors.
- If dad passed along dominant normal extension E to the kits, and mom gave a recessive e(j) harlequin, that would have the kits carry the harlequin gene as a recessive. Mating a broken buck from this litter back to mom would give you a 50/50 chance for tricolor harlequin kits (depending on what else mom carries besides e(j)). Mating a broken doe from this litter to either a tortoiseshell or orange agouti buck, or a harlequin buck, would give a 50/50 chance of a tricolor (with a bunch of other variables).
Those are some really fat healthy bunnies!
At least the bunny in the second two pictures looks like a broken chestnut to me, but of course as it develops it may "change its mind" haha. The kit in the first photo is less obvious.
The harlequin markings can take a while to show up, but I don't see any obvious indication that either is tricolored.
Graceful Rabbitry
gracefulrabbits
Haha, Miffy’s (the mom) kits are usually pretty fat. Especially during morning feed. She seems to have a lot of milk around day 3 her kits have the biggest bellies I was wondering when it first happened lol.Those are some really fat healthy bunnies!
At least the bunny in the second two pictures looks like a broken chestnut to me, but of course as it develops it may "change its mind" haha. The kit in the first photo is less obvious.
The harlequin markings can take a while to show up, but I don't see any obvious indication that either is tricolored.
Graceful Rabbitry
gracefulrabbits
Here are the “broken” kits today!!
I had to step out of the barn to get good pictures. I took a picture of the nest because she pulled even more fur. Miffy is such a great mom
Graceful Rabbitry
gracefulrabbits
You were right the kit in the last two pictures is a broken chestnut the other one is a broken black I’m pretty sure.Those are some really fat healthy bunnies!
At least the bunny in the second two pictures looks like a broken chestnut to me, but of course as it develops it may "change its mind" haha. The kit in the first photo is less obvious.
The harlequin markings can take a while to show up, but I don't see any obvious indication that either is tricolored.
This was helpful for me, the whole charlie thing has confused me. My buck and doe always produce broken blacks and solid chestnut/black. Doe is a NZ/Rex cross and buck is a Cali white. I need to keep a female from this litter to most likely breed to the buck. Would you keep a broken or solid? My doe is almost 2 years old and her numbers in litters keep going down so.... I don't show.
I would keep solid, but i want to avoid the whole broken X broken problem alltogether and retired my one broken buck in favor of a solid son. Show here is not the issue either, i just don't want the health risks coming with broken and not having many breeding animals so it is easier to avoid the risk of breeding myself into a corner having broken patterns among my breeders.
eco2pia
Well-known member
If your buck is a cali white, and you want to keep getting brokens, you should keep a broken. Your buck may not carry broken, likely your doe does.
Yes I think she does. I do like the broken hides but no biggie. I'll make the decision tomorrow morning but learning towards a solid. Thanks.
They both look broken chestnut to me.
Been trying to decide, first I have found a better way to hold/sit them for sexing. Then posing them and looking in ears, nails. All 3 kits behave very well. The broken coats seem to be thicker. I have a few more days to decide. Sure wish someone would buy the other two but I do want to can some meat. Can you tell I am hem hawing around.
