Question on Broken possibility.

[pnptrapp]

Just got a copy of my pedigrees for my Black Otter rex and my Blue rex rabbits. I want to breed them. Looking at their pedigrees the Black Otter has two broken rabbits on the sire's side, the Blue has 5 broken rabbits sprinkled through out her pedigree, including her dam.

When I put their genotypes into the calculator broken's never come up as a possibility. So I'm just curious what my chances are of having broken offspring. I know that if either of these rabbits were broken I'd have a 50/50 chance of getting brokens, but am not sure what would happen in this case.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Bunnylady]

Broken is a dominant trait - if it's there, you'll see it. Since both of these rabbits are colored, and not broken, they don't have the gene for broken, so unless you breed to a broken, you won't get broken babies.

 

[pnptrapp]

Oh, that makes sense why it wouldn't show up then.

 

[Bunnylady]

The only rabbits that can hide the broken gene are those that are already white, like REW's. I once had a Himi Mini Rex (called a Cali in full-sized Rex) that was a broken. The thing that gave it away was her feet - they were white, and on a Himi, they would be colored. I must admit, I sort of forgot about that at one point, and got a bit confused about some broken babies that she had . . . . I always have been absent minded.

 

[pnptrapp]

That makes sense as well, since one of the "broken" ancestors is a white rabbit.