New Zealand White coloring question

[natem]

I have a NZ white breeding pair. I want to get some color into my herd. If I get a black NZ buck and cross it with my white doe , what colors would i get? I heard that I would get a mix of white and black, but the white ones will have a black gene. Is this true? Please explain it to me. Thanks! smile

 

[Bunnylady]

Your question is simple enough, unfortunately, the answer to it isn't, lol.

There are several genes involved in producing rabbit coat color; the color of a particular rabbit's coat depends on the combined influence of all of them. NZW's are a color called Ruby-eyed White, which is the most recessive allele in the C series. I call REW "the light switch" because it completely shuts down pigment production to the coat, and you can't tell what the other genes code for in a REW. Without knowing what the other genes are, you can't predict what color might turn up. If the black rabbit carries a REW gene, you could get some white offspring, but it's hard to say what the other possibilities are. Some NZW's carry Steel genes, maybe we could be talking Steels and Blacks here - but I'm pretty much shooting in the dark.

 

[KLKTKR]

While, you may come across steels you are very likely to produce brokens...