The Joy of Genetics

Ahh, genetics. The mystery game that people either have the ability to solve or live their life completely oblivious to. I prefer those who don't choose the latter. It makes breeding so much easier not having to guess at colors. If you know whats possible and likely it'll be more fun planning for certain colors! I figured I'd do a series post on the basics of genetics and maybe eventually turn them into articles to put on my website. Once you learn the ins and outs of it, you can figure just about any genetic problem out. Its a lot of fun! So lets begin!

All rabbits have a genetic code called a genotype. The physical appearance of the rabbit is called the phenotype. Of course, the genotype directly controls the phenotype.

The 5 genes that I will cover and the genes most commonly used to define a rabbit are as followed:

A series- Determines whether a rabbit is agouti, tan pattern, or self
B series- Determines whether a rabbit is black or chocolate

C series- Determines where and how much color will be on the hair shaft

D series- Determines whether a rabbit is dense or dilute (

E series- Determines how far the color is extended on the hair shaft

A rabbit's genotype is listed in a-b-c-d-e order. There are several other genes including the vienna gene, pattern gene, steel gene, harlequin gene, and modifiers gene.

Let's begin with the A series.

A rabbit is either
(A)- agouti
(at)- tan pattern or
(a)-self.

The dominance of these genes are in that order. A rabbit at the bottom of the dominance list cannot carry anything above it. Also, any gene is said to be recessive to the gene above it. Therefore, tan pattern is recessive to agouti and self is recessive to tan pattern and agouti. Agouti is dominant over tan pattern and self and tan pattern is dominant over self. Self is dominant to nothing and the most recessive gene.This concept works for all the genes.

Every rabbit has two genes from each series. So a rabbit can be:

A(A)- True agouti, does not carry a different -a- gene
A(at)- Agouti carrying tan pattern

A(a)- Agouti carrying self
at(at)- True tan patter, does not carry a different -a- gene

at(a)- Tan pattern carrying self

a(a)- Self carrying self

Because self (a) is the most recessive and cannot carry another -a- gene, a rabbit that is self always has two (a) genes. Therefore, it is always safe to list a self rabbit's genotype as a(a) because there is nothing else it can be.

Now lets talk percentages! You breed a Chestnut (agouti) to an Otter (tan pattern) and you want to know what the odds are for getting agouti or tan pattern. The easiest way to do this is to make a little chart. Let's say we breed a true Chestnut (not carrying any other -a- genes) to a true Otter. The chart would be as follows:

___A___A

at

at

At the top we have the chestnut's two -a- genes and on the side we have the otter's two a genes. Now we fill it in by pairing up the genes from the side and top. The top gene on the left will be paired with the top gene on the side and the bottom gene on the side. The top gene on the right will be matched the same way. Remember to always list the dominant gene first!

___A ___ A

at A(at) A(at)

at A(at) A(at)

Look at that! All of your offspring from this breeding will be agouti carrying tan pattern. So you'd have 100% Chestnuts that are capable of throwing tan pattern. Why? Because each parent had a 'double dose' of their gene so that's all they had to give. What if we took one of these babies and bred it back to their Otter parent. Let's make another chart!

___A ___ at <--- That's the offspring

at A(at) at(at)

at A(at) at(at)

So we can conclude that from this pairing that the odds are 50% of the offspring will be agouti carrying tan pattern and 50% will be true tan pattern.

STOP!

Just because the odds are 50/50 does not mean that if four kits are born that two will be Chestnut carrying tan pattern and two will be Otter. If you've come to this conclusion you need to back up! We are only finding the chance that a color will occur. Out of this breeding the chance that a self rabbit will pop up is zero. The chance that an otter will pop up is 50%. This means you only have two options: Otter or Chestnut. You could get a litter of four and all of them could be Otter. This is very important to remember! Let's make one more chart to wrap up this lesson.

An agouti carrying self and a tan pattern carrying self are bred together. What are the chances of getting each color? In other words, what is the percentage of chance for each color? Chart time!

___A ___ a

at A(at) at(a)

a A(a) a(a)

Wow! That's quite the variety! Let's break it down. In the first block we have agouti carrying tan pattern, the block next to that we have tan pattern carrying self. In box three we have agouti carrying self and in box for we have self. So, what does this mean? It means there is a 50% chance of getting agouti (with 25% being tan pattern carriers and 25% being self carriers), 25% chance of getting tan pattern, and 25% chance of getting self.

So now that you know how to make the charts, go ahead and try it yourself! Stick two -a- genes at the top (In order of dominance! Remember you cannot put a(at) because a self cant carry tan pattern) and two on the sides. Fill in the blanks and tally up the percentages.

"Hey there bunni-

-CARTER! WHY!" That's how it's been going the past few nights I've gone out to feed. For some reason, Carter, a young spunky little buck, insists on somehow removing the arms of the J-feeder from around the wire which causes it to fall from the three story stacker and spill whatever feed was left. Why.

I don't understand. I put it back and make sure both arms are snuggly hooked around the wire and within 2 minutes, it'll be on the floor again. I don't hear it happen, I don't see it happen, I don't even know how he's capable of doing it. He acts SO hungry but yet he's willing to knock his feeder off when he could've just ate the last few pellets like a good hungry bunny would do.

WHY.

Finally!

Finally got a Netherland Dwarf bred on Sunday! Sheesh! Stubborn little things!

Ahh, Friday!

Well, this week went by super fast! I was going to blog the day after my last one but I honestly don't remember what it was going to be about. So I'll just go with what's on my mind right now. Being that its, again, Friday, that shouldn't be too much.

There's a buck out in the barn that I really like right now. He was one of those bucks I got and I was like "Ehh, you're alright." But now, he's like whoa. Is it possible to be jealous of my own rabbit? Well I am. He's a black otter import buck and I can't wait to use him.

Too bad all of my does are in no shape to breed or the bucks don't feel like getting it on. *Rolls eyes*. I'm switching to Big Red so I'm hoping that'll put more flesh on the does.

February 5th is the first show of the year for me. PaSRBA Convention. Have lots of rabbits leaving to their new homes then. After that I probably won't go to anything until ANDRC Nationals in April. Have to save my money since it'll be a big trip. Plus I plan to pick up new stock then so I have to have all the money I can get. No that doesn't mean I plan on snatching up what I can find. It means that I already know who I'm buying from and have to make sure I can still buy from them :P I have to wait until February to find out what I'm getting. Eek! Such a long wait.

I do for sure have one new rabbit coming. A Netherland Dwarf buck. Color to be announced! Don't want to ruin the surprise! It's exciting. So stay tuned.

I'm redoing the Naragon's Xena x Roseart's Grizz breeding. There was a buck in the litter that I didn't pay attention too and the night he went to leave for his new pet home I posed him up and my jaw dropped. So that's in the works.

In news unrelated to rabbits, well. There is none. Oh the life of a rabbit breeder.

That's all for now.

First breeding of the New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I started the year out with a breeding...but not just any breeding. My first time breeding a Locket's doe! Locket's Brooklyn (Spring Lake's Eva x Roseart's Grizz) was bred to Stew's Bristol last night. I'm hoping to get orange and broken orange.

This is a big milestone in my rabbit life. I've waited

almost five years for this and I believe that I actually have the parts to be breeding with my own stock!

In other news, all the hangers from the barn have been removed and I am now officially transitioned over to stackers! Check out the new look:

I'll be adding more stackers soon because with my goals for 2011, I'll need all the space I can get.

That's all for now!

Rabbitry Resolutions

My horoscope is usually right about my life but I was not happy when I woke up to "complete some mundane chores". Instead, I've been spending the day (and the past week) thinking up some rabbitry resolutions for the new year. I wasn't planning on it but with all that's happened the past few months and where I plan to lead myself...I think it's a good idea. I realize that this blog is left unattended for long periods of time so that makes rabbitry resolution #1:

-Update the blog more often!

I did a quick read through of my last post and well, I guess a lot has changed. It was brought to my attention that each time I post the herd has changed in some way. At least that means there's progress! Rabbitry resolution #2:

-No more new projects!

That is, after all the current new projects make it under my roof. THEN there will be no more unplanned projects. No new breeds, no new colors. Which leads me to rabbitry resolution #3:

-BREED, breed, breed the Netherlands!

Oops, that's right, unless you've been on my facebook or website...you didn't know I had Netherlands! Which also means you don't know that I sold out of Holland Lops. Geez, I really do need to do some more updating. I'm leaving my self with 3 breeding does and 2 breeding bucks for the Hollands. Still working on agoutis, that plan hasn't changed. And in fact, it's doing quite well. Out of all my agouti litters and the sell down, I kept one orange doe. I also have a second generation Locket's doe that I am keeping and her half sister who is first generation. With so few Hollands, a switch from hangers to stackers, and an increase in cage space, I hope to keep a running herd of 20-30 Netherland Dwarfs. Eek! So exciting. Rabbitry resolution #4

-After I pick up my new additions at ANDRC Nationals, no more buying!

I am putting a lot into picking up some new stock at nationals from a/some top breeder(s). This is tied to the previous one as once I finish my foundation stock I'm going to force my self to breed as much as possible! Which means rabbitry resolution #5:

-Learn to cull.

That's going to be a hard one to fulfill since I promised myself that I'd cull hard with the Netherland to increase quality faster. Culling not just in the sense of selling the ones I don't have to keep but culling pet quality if they don't sell fast enough. Rabbitry resolution #6:

-Make a name for myself in the Netherland Dwarf community.

Easier said than done. Hopefully by proving I'm passionate about the breed I'll be able to do so. Culling hard, selling quality, showing the best, keeping juniors, etc. is how I plan to do this. Rabbitry resolution #7:

-Keep a max of 5 Hollands, keep breeding to a minimum, and work on my line.

I know I want to focus on the Dwarfs more than anything so I need to make sure the Hollands have a spot on the back burner. Rabbitry resolution #8:

-Make it to as many shows as possible.

Part of resolution #6. Get my name out there, get points, put legs on homegrowns etc. Rabbitry resolution #9:

-Buy more stackers

Any money that I make off sales will, instead of being used to buy more stock, will be put towards buying more stackers and/or replacing old ones. It's my dream to have all matching cages. And finally, rabbitry resolution #10:

-Win BIS with a homegrown.

I can dream can't I?

So hold me to it. Ten resolutions, 12 months.

That's all for now.

Title here

Wow, have things gotten behind lately. I can't believe the last time I blogged was in February. Maybe I should catch everyone up...

We just moved. Only about 20 minutes from our old house but nevertheless, it was quite the move. The new barn that the landlords so graciously let us built is more or less better than the last one. it's 8 1/2' by 22' as far as usable cage space. I have a 6' x 5' shed that extends the back of the barn for storage (what a God send!). Then there's about a 2' overhang that I plan to use as a patio once we get some stones down. It's pretty nice. I do plan to switch to stackers however much I hate to. It'll save me space and give me more holes eventually.

I'm overwhelmed with babies, juniors, and pregnant does. My total baby count right now, I believe, is 14. All under 5 weeks. I have about 5 keepers as far as my spring juniors go. A handful of pet rabbits that need to leave as well as some seniors. Somewhere around 6-7 does bred due on August 4th..and they all took! Don't know if I mentioned this on here or not but I'm working with agoutis now. That project is going really well. I have one agouti buck from Roseart rabbitry who has produced Chestnuts, Opals, Oranges, and Creams so far! I plan to slowly move more into this project since the Hollands are starting to get stressful. I figured if I'm gonna breed them it might as well be fun. I'm possibly considering selling down to a small amount of blacks and torts and keeping majority agoutis. Lionheads are leaving unfortunately because they aren't priority right now and they are just using space I need.

Have a small project underway that I don't plan to release until it's established. How exciting!

Other than that...there isn't really much going on. Rabbits have been set back on my priority list especially since I've had such a busy summer. With me going back to High School I'm sure my numbers will decrease majorly until I'm sure I can handle it all. Just the one downside to it all is that I can't seem to sell anything. Really makes it complicated and frustrating.

Recent show results worthy of mentioning: Taylorsville, NC (not sure of the date, sometime in early June maybe?) ANR's Brianna granded out with a BOSB leg, DRU Mary's Alice picks up her first leg as a junior for BOSB, and Gavin's Jukebox picks up his first leg for 1st SSB. Don't remember the judges but I was really happy! I received the legs for Juke and Alice but nothing on Bri yet..still waiting!

I have my first batch of homegrowns to show in the fall season. Looking forward to seeing how they'll stand up against the competition.

That's all for now.