What a bummer

[clevername]

Our Silver Fox doe kindled this morning giving us 6 more kits. I was pleasantly surprised when one in particular looked a little different from the rest...

I was waiting until it got a little more fur on him before I made the call for sure but he took a turn for the worst well before that point.

Blue is a formerly recognized variety of Silver Fox and a fairly rare. Both sire and dam were black and their pedigrees reflected this. So getting a blue out of this litter came as a real surprise to me.

Unfortunately the little guy passed on this afternoon-it happens sometimes. It's just a shame I couldn't keep my first blue.

 

[irishbunny]

Aw I'm sorry At least you still have the other little guys!

 

[polly]

Aw I am so sorry always the one you want the most that has problems or doesnt survive

 

[clevername]

At least I now know his mom and dad carry the recessives so I can breed for blues in the future.

Of course I hate to loose a kit, but that's just part of raising rabbits.

 

[gingers_giants]

Im sorry. I hope the others are doing well.

 

[clevername]

Yes, everyone else is doing fine. I'll be surprised if I loose anymore.

Of course, the ones with glaringly obvious show faults seem to be doing the best!

 

[gingers_giants]

How can you tell already that they have show faults? I ask only because I dont raise Silver foxes..so I dont know much about them

 

[clevername]

My mistake, not show fault but DQ. Sometimes Silver Fox are born with a white blaze on their foreheads. Normally they molt out, but if they never do that rabbit cannot be kept for breeding.

 

[gingers_giants]

I get what you mean. I can see the white on their heads. How long does it take for the white to go away if it does?

 

[clevername]

their mom's went away with her first molt.

 

[gingers_giants]

Do they come in any other color besides black?

 

[clevername]

Black is the only excepted variety. Blue used to be recognized but was dropped when the showing numbers got too low. There is someone working on the COD right now to bring them back though.

There is a recessive REW gene floating around in the gene pool but its not very common. I've heard of Himi popping up too but I've only seen one case personally.

 

[clevername]

oh, and someone is trying to develop a chocolate Silver Fox too. Don't know if they have a COD for it yet though.

 

[NZminilops]

We have chocolate solver foxes here and they are really beautiful! I saw a pedigree one for sale for a mere $20 not long ago, simply because people aren't sure about the more uncommon breeds. He was stunning.

Your babies look lovely

 

[clevername]

NZminilops wrote:

We have chocolate solver foxes here and they are really beautiful! I saw a pedigree one for sale for a mere $20 not long ago, simply because people aren't sure about the more uncommon breeds. He was stunning.

Your babies look lovely

Thank you.

I may be mistaken, but don't you refer to our Silver Martens as Silver Fox in New Zealand ? Just wondering if my random bit of trivia is correct or not

 

[NZminilops]

Ahh sort of...colour not breed though, and only some colours, which is confusing! Like a blue silver marten holland lop to you, would be a blue fox holland lop to me if I was looking at it. But sable marten is sable marten here. It's really silly!

A silver fox, the breed, is a silver fox here as well.

 

[clevername]

are you sure?

BRC's Silver Fox Standard
ARBA's breed page