Izzy

[rabbitgirl]

Maybe a stupid question, but I was just curious!

Izzy is a pedigreed Holland Lop from an excellent breeder. Her color islisted as Siamese Sable, and that's the color she stayed for about twoyears.

After that, her coat turned into a patchwork quilt of browns, grays,and white. Her head and feet remained dark. She also continued to growuntil she hit 6 lbs. (she is thin and big-boned), and developed a largedewlap. The fur is absolutely beautiful (I get compliments on howpretty she is).

Her daughter looks exactly the same, and followed the same growth pattern but is slightly stockier and smaller.

Fenwick stayed a lovely brown with dark sable ears, nose, and feet, but inherited his dad's single erect ear.

And in Bunbun and Tank's litter of Pals, I ended up with one with a white stripe on her head.

My question is: Why?? (genetically)

Is it common to get weird color patterns and major marking flawseven inpurebred litters?

Thanks!

Rose

P.S. I love them all no matter what color they are, just curious as Ihaven't raised enough purebred litters to follow the genetic patternsof coloring. My bunnies--over the years--tend to be rescuedor bought, not bred by me!

 

[Bunny_Mad]

Starsky was purbred, i found out her whole litterwas plain grey, nothing else, then she developed this adorable blondfur on the back of her neck.

 

[pamnock]

rabbitgirl wrote:

Maybe a stupid question, but I was just curious!

Izzy is a pedigreed Holland Lop from an excellent breeder. Her color islisted as Siamese Sable, and that's the color she stayed for about twoyears.

After that, her coat turned into a patchwork quilt of browns, grays,and white. Her head and feet remained dark. She also continued to growuntil she hit 6 lbs. (she is thin and big-boned), and developed a largedewlap. The fur is absolutely beautiful (I get compliments on howpretty she is).

Her daughter looks exactly the same, and followed the same growth pattern but is slightly stockier and smaller.

Fenwick stayed a lovely brown with dark sable ears, nose, and feet, but inherited his dad's single erect ear.

And in Bunbun and Tank's litter of Pals, I ended up with one with a white stripe on her head.

My question is: Why?? (genetically)

Is it common to get weird color patterns and major marking flawseven inpurebred litters?

Thanks!

Rose

P.S. I love them all no matter what color they are, just curious as Ihaven't raised enough purebred litters to follow the genetic patternsof coloring. My bunnies--over the years--tend to be rescuedor bought, not bred by me!

The shaded colors are the most difficult to show as the color is sohard to maintain. As you said, once the rabbit aged, thecolor became very splotchy. This is especially evident is a"dead" coat before and during a molt. The color of blues andchocolates also commonly fades as the rabbit ages. Sunlightand urine can also discolor the coat.

The lopping of the ears is a polygenic (more than one genetic trait)and multifactoral trait (number of factors such as temperature affectthe lopping of the ears).

White stripes are not uncommon on the face (we also see these in wildrabbits). One factor can be the migration of the pigmentcells in utero -- sometimes genetic factors prematurely stop themigration, leaving white areas at the extremities. (pigment cellsmigrate out from the spinal area.) The vienna gene is alsothe culprit in a number of cases for white nose spots, blazes or whitefeet. Damage to the pigment cells can also result in a whitearea. The Dutch gene is responsible for some white spots andthe English Spotting gene with modifiers for extensivecolorcan produce an apparently solid colored rabbit withwhite extremities. You'll sometimes see white blazes inrabbits with the silver gene as well as commonly seeing those littlewhite stripes in agouti color patterns. The white blazes maysometimes molt out as the rabbit ages.

It's not unusual to get those unexpected surprises, even in purebredanimals, especially if other unknown breeds were in the immediatepedigree. We've been linebreeding Hollands for over 14 years,so in our particular strain, a anomaly in color would be highlyunusual. You'll find it far more common when breedingunrelated rabbits together.

Pam

 

[pamnock]

Opps, forgot to address the 6 lb. Hollandissue. The Holland Lops carry the Dwarfing gene, which islethal when inherited homozygously (1 dwarfing gene from eachparent). The desired combination is a "normal" gene from oneparent and a "dwarfing" gene from the other parent.Inheriting a "normal" gene from each parent results in the larger typedanimal, even in purebred Hollands. Linebreeding relatedrabbits will keep the overall size down (even in "normals"), whereoutcrossing to different lines (even in purebreds) will result ininconsistency in size and type.

Pam

 

[rabbitgirl]

Once again, Pam--you're amazing!



I believe Izzy was not a product of linebreeding.

Izzy's offspring are products of an unrelated line. ThusPandemonium weighs about 5 lbs. and Fenwick, 3. They couldn't look anymore different!

Tank and Bunbun are most likely related, but manygenerations back. Bunbun's papers were lost before we bought him.

So I guess that would explain a lot of anomalies!

thanks!

Rose

 

[gjsara]

pamnock wrote:

Opps, forgot to address the 6 lb. Holland issue.The Holland Lops carry the Dwarfing gene, which is lethal wheninherited homozygously (1 dwarfing gene from each parent).The desired combination is a "normal" gene from one parent and a"dwarfing" gene from the other parent. Inheriting a "normal"gene from each parent results in the larger typed animal, even inpurebred Hollands. Linebreeding related rabbits will keep theoverall size down (even in "normals"), where outcrossing to differentlines (even in purebreds) will result in inconsistency in size and type.

Pam

thankkkkkkkkkkkkk you so much when i read the post i was like 6 lbsnooooooo nooo i am so glad you explaned pam because i didnt know. isthat a common thing for some to be larger??? i love my lyla small

 

[pamnock]

The difference in size is normal due to the factthat the genes that produce the desired size are heterozygous (acombination of 2 different genes). Linebreeding helps to seta more consistant size with less variability. It's common tohave the larger size rabbits when breeding rabbits carrying thedwarfing gene(in fact, it can't be avoided). Thegene for normal size must also be present, as the combination ofinheriting 2 dwarf genes is fatal. Approximately 25% of theoffspring will inherit this lethal combination when breeding2rabbits that bothcarry the dwarfing gene.



Pam