TinysMom
Well-Known Member
First of all - I am NOT a genetics expert by any means. I am fascinated by genetics though and love to think about it, talk about it and study it. (Pam Nock FAR FAR surpasses me when it comes to genetics..).
There are five basic genes that deal with colors - notice I say basic. That's because I'm not including vienna-marked (sport) rabbits, broken rabbits, and dutch rabbits.
The Genes are:
Now let's talk about the A gene....
The A gene has three possibilites - A, at and a.
A - agouti patterned rabbits. This is the dominant gene and if the rabbit has it - it will show up as some sort of agouti rabbit.
at - this is the "tan" family - otters, martins, etc
a - this is the "self" family....black, blue (the dilute of black), chocolate, and lilac (the dilute of chocolate)
If I understand correctly (thinking of lionheads here) - the torts and shadeds are from the "self" family but they have a different "e" gene than a black/blue/chocolate/lilac do.
You should never breed an agouti into the shaded family (and vice versa) because it will mess up your colors.
http://www.threelittleladiesrabbitry.com/colorgenes.php
There are five basic genes that deal with colors - notice I say basic. That's because I'm not including vienna-marked (sport) rabbits, broken rabbits, and dutch rabbits.
The Genes are:
- A gene - the agouti gene. This gene creates rings of color on the individual hair strands.
- B gene - The black/brown gene. This is what determines if a rabbit has a black foundation or a brown one.
- C gene - (the hardest for me) - The Color Saturation Gene - sometimes called the Chinchilla gene. I'll wait and probably do this one last.
- D gene - Dilute gene - this has to do with how strongly the color will appear in individual strands.
- E gene - Extension gene - this gene determines if the hair color goes completely to the end of the hair strand.
Now let's talk about the A gene....
The A gene has three possibilites - A, at and a.
A - agouti patterned rabbits. This is the dominant gene and if the rabbit has it - it will show up as some sort of agouti rabbit.
at - this is the "tan" family - otters, martins, etc
a - this is the "self" family....black, blue (the dilute of black), chocolate, and lilac (the dilute of chocolate)
If I understand correctly (thinking of lionheads here) - the torts and shadeds are from the "self" family but they have a different "e" gene than a black/blue/chocolate/lilac do.
You should never breed an agouti into the shaded family (and vice versa) because it will mess up your colors.
http://www.threelittleladiesrabbitry.com/colorgenes.php
Very smart people. I have only gotten to meet them once though, but not her kids.
