New Mini Rex Line...newly updated with kit pics

[()relics]

So , yeah, I know I was going to downsize for winter, As usual....BUT.....A friend of mine, a mini rex breeder, is retiring and selling out....He called me this morning to ask if I wanted to look what he had before he "put them on the open market"....I thought " Why Not?"....Wrong answer....I bought 2 jr. does and 2 jr. bucks....He said I couldn't live without them....and I took his word and now have HIS line that he had been working with....The jr. does are pictured below, 1 is a red the other is a broken red. The jr. bucks are unrelated to the does 1 being a castor and the other a red, as of yet not pictured....He said he was working towards "the perfect broken red" and then a "tricolor"....
So I know nothing about mini rexs except that I now own 4 of them...Along with "way too many Ndwarfs" and maybe someday some of those "french furry ones" ....

....Advice welcomed....Opinions on the jr. does from the professional Mrex breeders out there would be helpful also, sorry the pictures are subpar. Way lot of glare on the broken.....Jr. bucks to follow.

 

[()relics]

Sorry...I should have posted this in the breeds section....BUT...I was reading the Jenna post and just forgot to switch sections....Sorry again...MODS...Move as you see fit....

 

[RabbitMage]

If you could get pics of them posed up in some good lighting, that would be helpful!

 

[JoieDeViveRabbitry]

It's tough to see the markings on the broken red, but the red looks nice to me. Do you know their weights?

BTW: Looks like we are planning to go to the 2011 ARBA convention in Indiana, we could arrange for you to get some of my French furry ones when I'm there. You have nearly two years to think about it!

 

[()relics]

I'll take some....that leaves me plenty of time to figure out where exactly I'll keep them...

 

[()relics]

So I've kept these 2 does all winter and when they/I were ready I bred them to a solid red buck. The broken doe settled after the first breeding and produced this litter, 7 kits. Kindled 4/16/10

although she is what I would consider a mismark her litter had only a few that I would call mismarks, pet quality. She had 4 broken reds and 3 Tri's. They may be a little light colored, leaning towards orange but all were healthy. The tri's are not pictured well.

the solid solid red doe didn't take on her first breeding but settled after the second. She kindled 5/16/10 with 5 kits. 3 solid red and 2 harlequin....

Again I am not a mini rex pro and would like to hear any comments on any of the rabbits/kits...I am having a hard time finding any clear information on the harlequin colored kits...they may be mismarks as far as I know, but would really like an opinion on the kits, as it will affect my rebreeding them with the same buck, using a different buck , or dumping the whole lot of them. I see only 1 of the harlequins made the picture...the other is identical...

If better picture would help; I can do this too...thanks

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

The little one that's sacked out is too darling... Sorry I know nothing about rabbits except that they are too freakin' adorable.

 

[Bunnylady]

Verrrry interesting!

Does this red buck have any black hairs on him, anywhere? How about the red doe? The harlequin gene is dominant to red, which means that it can't hide. If you are getting harlies and tri's from two red parents, one of those parents must actually be a harlie. I had a tri buck once, that I thought at first was a broken red. It wasn't until he was nearly 6 mos. old that I spotted two little black spots, about as big as this letter "o" near one eye. Your broken doe has so little color on her, there's lots of room for harlie patterning to hide. Either your red buck is actually a harlie, or both of your does are.

I've noticed that solid harlie MR's often have larger patches of black, while the tri's tend to get smaller spots. I suspect the broken gene may have a near neighbor that influences the harlie pattern's expression, but I don't know for sure. Harlequin is not a showable color in the MR, although its broken version (tricolor) is showable. Unless you are working with a "Charlie" (double broken), unshowable harlequins are just about inevitable in a tricolor breeding program.

Since your doe has so little color on her, and all of her kits in this litter were brokens, I think it is a fair bet that she's a Charlie. Charlies are homozygous for the broken gene, meaning that they inherited a copy of it from both of their parents. Since broken is dominant, this means that a Charlie can only have broken offspring, even when bred to a solid. Because Charlies often have rather slow-running digestive systems, they are more prone to GI problems. A lot of my fellow breeders don't do broken-to-broken breedings, to avoid producing Charlies.

As to the problem of mismarks, I wouldn't get too hung up about it. As long as a MR has some color around the eyes, some on both ears, some on/near the nose, and between 10% and 50% total colored area on its coat, it's an acceptable broken, and won't be DQ'd. It might be marked down, but that's only a fault, a decider between two otherwise equal animals. While color and pattern are the easiest things to see, they are probably the least important feature when it comes to judging them. As long as the animal is a showable color, size and type are much more important when it comes to deciding which animals are pet vs. breeder/show quality.

Mini Rex is one of the breeds that employs the dwarfing gene to get the animal described in the breed standard. If you have Dwarfs, you have wrestled with this one before! Its extremely unusual for a "false dwarf" MR to be of showable type (let alone weight), learning to recognise their long faces and long ears makes deciding which ones to keep much easier.

Congrats on two adorable litters!

 

[()relics]

the broken doe is cetainly a mismark, she has little color on her nose, leaning towards none...The solid red is as solid and perfectly colored as I have seen, not being an expert. She has no visible black, even tips. While the buck was asolid but after he molted this spring he appears to have a little streak of black, probably making him a mismark, hidden harlequin, also. The broken tri's have small black spots, nearly as many black as red. So 1 doe threw small spotted tri's and the other threw 2 harlequins, meaning the solid buck is really a harlequin (?).....Then I should cull him ? and the brokens from the litter from the charlie doe, will they be considered F1 charlies and therefore should be culled? The harlequins are not recognized should they be culled or can they be developed, say towrds magpie? or is a mismark just a mismark to be culled? I thought I might keep the best broken doe kit, the best tri kit, the best solid kit, and both the harlequin kits...but now I'm leaning towards dumping the whole lot of them, does and buck included.
I am a complete uninformed idiot when it comes to rabbits/rabbit genetics....but ask me about goats....

 

[()relics]

Here are some extra kit pictures, if they help....
broken top view:

tri top view:

harlequin 1:

harlequin 2:

If you are a mini rex person, I would like your advice...Don't hold back, junk is junk....I appreciate your opinions.