White spot

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Mini_stead

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Hello all. I raise silver fox rabbits. Out of a litter of eight, one kit is all black with a white spot on its nose. And one kit is blue. They are three months old as of now.
My question is what would cause the white spot on nose? Is there a such thing as a white silver fox? Could either parents carry a white gene if so? I’m not educated yet on genes/terminology yet so please “keep it where the goats can get it”. Also the mother of that litter is nursing a litter now. She has one blue kit again. What are the chances of her having another kit with a white nose? 334C53AE-425D-4D30-B9F9-FEF160F8661F.jpeg1893CDE9-00A4-4535-868F-A64A0ED42205.jpeg
 
Awwww. It's a little Vianne markIMG_20220317_122951606.jpg
My kit Skunk has one (Not in this shape though, I moved his fur around)

What colors are the parents?
 
Vianne can make the nose white, make a white streak on the forehead, make a whole paw white, and make toes and the bottom of paws white

It is a recessive gene, meaning it can easily masked, but still carried
 
oh, I wish I could remember what I read about silver fox and blue kits.

This might not be exact as I'm going from memory about a year back. Silver fox can randomly pop up blue kits, sometimes they silver and sometimes they don't. It is recessive (as blue is) and doesn't always require blue to be readily apparent on the pedigree. They had a history about it... if you can find a silver fox facebook page they can probably help you better.

About the snippet on the nose. The easiest explanation is the vienna gene at work... but silver fox don't have vienna. So then you need to ask
1. are they purebred silver fox or were you just told they were silver fox?
2. was there someone way off the pedigree carrying vienna and the obviously marked rabbits were bred out, you just got poor luck at the straw grab?
3. or is there something in the silver fox genetics that can cause a white snip? This I remember something vaguely about... but not enough to really remember.

Sorry.
I read things and go... oh that was interesting, but since it doesn't apply to me or my rabbits I don't work at remembering them! :) so vague memories is all I got....
 
According to the ARBA standards for Silver Fox, the kit with the white spot would not meet standard. If standards, for the sake of the breed, are important (and in an endangered breed, it should be important), that particular kit should not be bred back into your herd, but kept only as a pet, etc.

As for the blues, this is a genetic question and it is NOT a problem to have SF blues.

Brief history: Until the 1990s, SF blues were recognized as an ARBA standard coat color for the breed. Blues dropped from the standard for only one reason: lack of breeders breeding and showing blues at ARBA sanctioned shows.

FYI: Chocolate SF were just admitted into the ARBA standards for the breed, for the very first time in the history of the breed. Blues, and hopefully Lilacs, will eventually be reinstated and instated, respectfully.

A little about how Blues and Lilacs are made:

The genes BB and Bb is for the black color. If BB or Bb also has the DD or Dd gene, you get a black rabbit because the D genes control color density, DD and Dd making the color dense. If both gene alleles of the color density gene are lower case "dd", you end up diluted coat color, and black dilutes to blue, so a blue rabbit (in the case of an accompanying black gene) and you will end up with a Lilac rabbit (in the case of an accompanying chocolate gene). Lower case d "dilutes" the color of the coloring gene. There is a bit more to it than this, but I am trying to keep it as simple as possible.

I hope this simplified genetic explanation helps!
 
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