Colors & Breeding Help!

[BellTowerAngoras]

A friend of mine has an agouti with blue eyes & she would like to breed him with her REW doe and hopefully get some BEW babies or colored rabbits with blue eyes, is this possible?

 

[polly]

She would have to breed him to a BEW to get BEW rabbits. The vienna gene which is responsible for the blue eyes is a recessive gene that all rabbits carry it will only become apparent when you put a BEW through the colour which is what gives you mismarks which is what your friend has. To get BEW from that the mismark would have to be mated to a BEW or another mismark though you would get less chance of BEW mating 2 mismarks together

 

[bunnybunbunb]

"that all rabbits carry"

That is wrong... or I took what you said the wrong way

The REW may be a a BEW hiding. The REW genes cover every color, even BEW. Now lets say the REW is not a vienna and does not carry vienna - she will probably end up with some vienna carrier babies. If you took a baby that shows veinna, however some vienna carriers do not show they carry it, and bred back to the vienna carrier parent each baby has 25% chance of being BEW. Most likely she will just havea full litter of carriers but BEWs and non-carriers can come out of it, too.

Hope you can understand my rambling, I am getting sick and feel horrible.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

First, you have to know what color the REW is. When talking genetics, REW is not a "color", it is actually masking a true color. Does the rabbit have a pedigree? If so, what's in it?

Without the pedigree, you will have no idea what the REW can throw or whether it is compatible with BEW.

 

[BellTowerAngoras]

The grandfather is a BEW, he is the only BEW in the pedigree though

 

[clevername]

If the grandfather is a BEW than his offspring would be carriers. So there is a possibility of the recessive "v" being inherited down the line, there is just no way of telling what your REW is carrying for sure until you try breeding them.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

None of the babies will be BEW's.

Blue eyes, I'm not sure about. Most likely, they will all be brown. But I know blue eyes or marbled eyes can pop up.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

"None of the babies will be BEW's."

You can not for sure know that, you do not know if the REW carries veinna or not. It depends if the gene got carried from the parent to the child.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

bunnybunbunb wrote:

"None of the babies will be BEW's."

You can not for sure know that, you do not know if the REW carries veinna or not. It depends if the gene got carried from the parent to the child.

Since the REW in not out of BEW, it won't throw BEW.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

You are still wrong on that. I have heard of the BEW being hidden for 10 generations before it popped back up. The vienna gene does not have to show to be there. When I bred I had a line of Holland Lops that did not have BEW in the close pedigree and they still gave them. The REW's grandparent is BEW meaning the parent carries it. With that we know the REW had a 25% chance of getting the vienna gene.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

Mmhmm...well, good luck with that. lol BEW does not pop up randomly from non-BEW's...it's a recessive.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

"BEW does not pop up randomly from non-BEW's...it's a recessive."

Yes, I never said it popped up randomly. It can hide, I have worked with the gene. A rabbit can be a carrier and show no sign on it. clevername agrees with me, I know what I am talking about. Get Pam, see what she says

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

I don't really have the desire to go after people and discuss it further. My friend works with BEW's and I have looked into them also, after considering starting a line of BEW HL's. So I also know how they work.

I guess we'll just wait and see what happens with this litter.

 

[clevername]

OakRidgeRabbits wrote:

Mmhmm...well, good luck with that. lol BEW does not pop up randomly from non-BEW's...it's a recessive.

right its a recessive so there can be expressers of the gene AND carriers...

So grand dad was a BEW or vv. His offspring (sire or dam) if bred to a non carrier would be Vv , thus a carrier for BEW. After this point there is a chance of the REW in question inheriting a v gene from the carrying parent, but we can't know this is the case by looks alone since REW will cover the veinna markings (or blue eyes). But we can test to see if the REW is a carrier by breeding it back to BEW--which is what I think we are doing.

Of course I have no experience with BEWs...I'm just assuming vienna acts like any other recessive trait.

 

[clevername]

clevername wrote:

But we can test to see if the REW is a carrier by breeding it back to BEW

My bad, we would be breeding it to a BEW carrier. So IF the REW carries a "v" there should be a 25% chance of BEWs (vv)....right?

 

[pamnock]

Vienna is similar to many other recessive traits, however the dominant "V" does not completely mask the recessive "v" in heterozygous rabbits. Thiscan produce a wide range of mismark patterns as well as various eye patterns (blue eyes, blue spots).

BEW to REW generally produces piebalds and other mismark patterns, but as already discussed, the REW may be a BEW carrier in this case, so BEWs may also be produces. (As well as REWs if the BEW is a REW carrier).

Pam

Netherland Dwarf BEW carrier:

 

[Bramblerose]

Just one more point, its not the best idea to cross BEW to REW, yes its done but still your better off keeping those two genes separate. I go to great lengths to keep REW out of my MR lines, its a gene thats really hard to get rid of, and I don't like it. I really don't want it popping up in my BEW line. A fellow BEW breeder did a a BEW to BEW cross, had a nice big litter, no REW in the three gen peds, surprize surprize half the litter had red eyes when they opened, that would really have bummed me out. JMHO

 

[bunnybunbunb]

I bought a great REW min rex buck from Mi Rex nationals... 2 years ago? The one that was in Indianapolis, IN. Anyway, I bred him to a blue doe and fawn doe to figure out what he was... turns out he was a lynx. How chocolate and dilute held on through a pure REW for many generation line amazed me. Sad thing was without seeing it te undrcolor could not had been kep up. He threw horrible undercoloring and he was AA to beat it all. Everything he was bred to threw agouti.

 

[clevername]

I seem to hear about angora breeders crossing REW with BEW more than anyone else. I think this may be because the REW variety in angoras is really well established and their wool is generally nicer/denser. My guess is people are trying to take an animal that already has a lot of great qualities as a white wool rabbit and breeding just to change the eye color.

Its just a theory, but if I wanted BEW angora its something that would go through my head.