help! Castor rex bred my tri color doe

K.Briggs

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I have no experience with show rabbits. They have always been just fun pets for my family. My family and I Recently have purchased a few show stock Rex rabbits to get started. Found that My tri color doe is pregnant but I never placed her with a buck. Breeders I bought her from said she got bred by A castor buck. Help?! Is this good or bad?! I understand very basic color genetics.

K.Briggs, 2 minutes agoReport
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Bunnylady

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I haven't a clue if they can be pedigreed. Anyone know?

A pedigree is just the record of the rabbit's ancestors, so OF COURSE they can be pedigreed. Whether they can be registered and/or shown is a different matter. Among the possible colors that can result from such a cross, there is one that definitely would not be showable - a Castor (or Broken Castor) with harlequin markings showing through the Castor. It might not happen, but you need to keep an eye out for it - the belly is the best place to spot such markings (though they wouldn't be there on a broken, of course).

Depending on what other color genes your rabbits have, you may get a bunch of perfectly showable offspring out of this cross, too. Just because a rabbit has a color DQ (disqualification) doesn't mean it has to automatically get consigned to the pet/meat pen, but you need to have a color breeding program that it will work in. Otherwise, you may wind up with a rabbitry full of rabbits that can't produce something showable to save your life.:th
 

promiseacres

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I would ask the seller for the buck's pedigree if possible. If you're planning on raising pedigreed stock.
 

Bunnylady

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I would ask the seller for the buck's pedigree if possible. If you're planning on raising pedigreed stock.

x2. A pedigree is not a guarantee of quality, but a complete pedigree is a plus. You need a complete, 3 generation pedigree in order to register a rabbit, and registration is one of the requirements for a rabbit to become a grand champion. There are a lot of really class rabbits out there with incomplete pedigrees, but it's a bit frustrating to have a show winner that you know can never become a Grand Champion just because part of its pedigree is missing.
 

K.Briggs

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Thank you!! I have 5 generation pedigree on the doe and a 4 generation on the castor buck.
What would be an ideal mate for the castor and the tri?
 
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