Genetic calculator
Topic: color genetics
It is always a guess what any two rabbit genetic combinations will produce in the way of color. Sometimes the parent's genes are simple and sometimes (most often)they are not. If you are new at the breeding game, you might enjoy playing with probability calculators, which will show you potential color outcomes of any pair of rabbits mated together.

There's a new website in town, and Mamma Rabbit has such a calculator free on site. I just fooled with it for a bit and was entertained. The downside of any of these calculators (and they are included in most rabbit pedigree software programs, also) is that unless you have the parents' colors properly labeled, they are not even close. This ARBA (American Rabbit Breeder Association) rabbitry breeds show color rabbits, but some colors that pop out in litters are not showable. This is not an issue with fiber rabbits, but it does make the color names tough to settle on, when using an ARBA color list.

Color identification comes with experience, but there are some vital clues exhibited on day four of any angora's life that should not be missed. If you ever have a question about what color you have, feel free to contact me SENDING PICTURES of all sides (at least 6) of the kit and I'll send you MY guess. Then again, once the coat comes in fully, after 4-6 weeks, certain color modifications are evident (the color rings in an agouti coat and the ticking in a steel pattern, for example)and the original guess can be fine tuned.

At the end of the day, knowing the honest history of the colors in the parents, grandparents and great grandparents will be your best guide. Getting rabbits from people you trust will go a long way towards that end. Know thy breeder!

Wool Mites and Harvested Angora
Topic: Wool Mites

I had a wonderful time browsing at Cummington while waiting for the second bunny to arrive, and got a chance to really look over the wares that folks had brought. I bought some fabulous handspun French angora from ELEMENTAL DESIGNS; mohair and mohair dyed locks to play with from Twin Gate Farms; and my usual spinning batts from Spinner's Hill. I love to fiber shop and support small fiber businesses.

It was interesting to see the angora rabbits there, from bunnies too young to be sold (!) to pricey Germans with weepy eyes (!) to delightful Agouti bunnies (I do not keep or breed that color pattern, but someday I may have a few for fun). I acquired my own bunny from Charlene, and Grijsje will make an appearance on the blog this week, as will Lucinda who comes with Shelia and Jen today.

In browsing, I happened to see bags of angora spinning fiber for sale. Those of you with angora rabbits already who buy spinning fiber would do well to treat the fiber as you would a new rabbit. Quarantine the fiber for a while, then treat it for fur mites before you use it, as discussed here before. Fur mites can invade your clothing in 5 minutes when you use infected fiber, and then invade any rabbit you touch or feed in the next few hours. So, just think before you proceed. And, if you are selling fiber, it would be a courtesy to sprinkle the fiber with CARBARYL flea powder before you pack it.

Two new bunnies coming, red angoras and eye color clues
Topic: eye color

The Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Festival is this weekend, and I will spend Saturday morning there browsing, shopping and picking up two new bunnies. I have long wanted a German rabbit from Nancy Benda at The Spinning Bunny, and made connections to finally get one this spring! And Charlene Schultz has another black buck bunny for me that is related to my beloved and lost Zwart, so I will bring him back, too. It seems like 2005 is my year of LOTS of rabbits, for I have 15 bunnies on the ground; a last litter due tomorrow; and the two I have purchased. The barns will be empty no more!

So, a question about the red glow in brown eyes has surfaced. Can it mean that the color red is underneath???? Sadly, no. I had the same question back in the beginning as I was hunting for red signs in my adult stock, so I had an idea who to breed to get red bunnies. The red glow generally means there are modifying "C_c" genes letting only parts of black and yellow color shine through the coat and eyes. Sometimes I wonder if the "D_d" genes put a damper on the full expression of whatever color is in the "B_b" spot. I have not had any full "shaded" rabbits here, but I am told they, too have a red glow to their eyes in the right light. Also, chocolates (and blues I would suspect, but I don't have any!) have a red glow to their eyes in the right light. I have even had chocolate rabbits who have golden tips on their fur around their heads. The golden fur is sunburn (!).

A complete discussion of the "C_c" gene and what it does to eye color is found in an older post here

Red comes from Rufus modifiers ADDED TO a tortoiseshell or fawn pattern
A-B-C-D-ee
aaB-C-D-ee
A-bbC-D-ee
aabbC-D-ee
They are only expressed when the "no B or b showing" rule (ee) lets them shine. Rufus can be shown in degrees, and it is denoted as "+". There are five degrees in a full red rabbit, and breeding a +++ to a ++ you CAN get a +++++.
Rufus modifiers are unmistakable in a red parent, and as far as I can tell, totally masked in other colors although they can be carried along from generation to generation.

Red is always a wild card when you breed for "ee". It's always Christmas morning when I discover it in my rabbits!

Chocolate and Tortoiseshell = ?
Topic: color genetics
I am always entertained by color genetics. I used to be consumed by predicting what color bunnies would be born if I paired certain rabbits. I learned a LOT by going after RED rabbits with French and English angoras for 8 years. [The red factor has been put on a back burner while I go after HEALTH in German crosses (not as easy as I hoped)].

At any rate, it struck me last night that Sydney and Neo have created an interesting litter.

Sydney is chocolate (and I while don't have a picture of her at the ready, here is an English angora I had years ago to show the color):

Neo is tortoiseshell:

and from their gene sharing, we got
4 black rabbits and 4 white rabbits:

This is a colorful business!

So here's how it works:
The dominant genes are ABCDE.
The recessive genes are abcde.
There are few moderately dominant and modifying genes, but in this case they do not come into play.

A complete discussion of how color shows itself in a black rabbit is here on the blog:
BareHare January 2004

Neo is aaB-CcD-ee.
Sydney is aabbCcD-E-.

I know what these parents are genetically because:
1. I have bred them before and seen what color bunnies they had. Neo has never had a chocolate bunny, but both his grandmothers were chocolate.
2. I have bred them before and know there are UNDERLYING genes in the "D" and "E" positions...therefore the white bunnies posses wild cards in that department!

In fact, I was SURE Neo had a chocolate gene. And he may have. That does not mean it will come out in any litter, even though the odds were fabulous that IF he had a chocolate gene, it would pair with Sydneys' and produce some chocolate bunnies.

They had black bunnies that are:
aaBbC-D-Ee
And white bunnies that are:
aab-cc--e-

Recessives can cruise along undetected for generations and then express themselves one fine day. But the nice thing about Sydneys' bunnies is that I KNOW each white and black bunny has a recessive "b" chocolate gene from Sydney, a recessive "a" self color gene from either parent, and a recessive "e" gene from Neo. The NEXT generation from this litter will produce those recessive expressions IF I pick the right parent.

Want to read more?
Links for color genetics in angora rabbits:
Island Gems
Kanien

New Bunnies!
Topic: Breeding

Sydney delivered 8 healthy, fat and squeaky bunnies at 8:10 yesterday morning. She is content and eating and they are well fed and simply gorgeous. I am so totally proud of her! Just 5 weeks ago she had a disastrous first litter and was afraid of her own shadow. Now, she has tackled motherhood with a calmness and assuredness that I wonder over.

Her first pregnancy was filled with fear and she ate very little. Her second pregnancy was all about food. She ate 3x the normal ration for a rabbit and put back all her body weight, fed her developing bunnies, and then some. My husband commented that maybe it took the first loss to have her hormones kick in. What ever it was, all systems are "a go" now.

These bunnies, 4 (look to be) black (at this point) and 4 white/torte (can't tell yet!) are Taurus Sun, Cancer Rising, Libra Moon. They will be beautiful, stubborn, home loving, loyal bunnies.

We are very, very pleased with the days events!

Bunny Feet and Good Handling Habits

I love bunny feet. They are simply adorable. PLUS, if you take the time to look at feet every day, you get the wee critter used to being upside down, which makes it easier to groom/clip their bellies later on.

If you have ever seen a bigger (4 weeks) bunny nurse, they scramble under mama and flip over to reach up for the milk faucet. They have to be FAST because unless she chooses to nurse them, she will not tolerate the free lunch for long. So, flipping them over when you hold them is a familar position for this young age...just keep it going with your bunnies and your later grooming chores will be easier on both of you.

Cage Cleaning
Topic: Cage cleaning

Lana wants to know how to get cages spotlessly clean. I am happy to share what I do.

I use a propane torch, wire brushes, and count on the sun to help me. I keep extra cages around whose job it is to sit in the open air out in the field and bleach themselves extra clean.

Years ago I agonized over every case of fur mites that erupted, and I spent a summer using Sevin (a pesticide) on the wood walls of the barns to get every last mite. That helped me for almost 9 months, but then they were back. I decided the chemical dousing was not healthy for anyone and have accepted living with a controlled mite population. However, that experience taught me the value of leaving cages in the sun, which was one tool I used to get the wire ultra clean and mite free.

I feel that after a long and dreary winter, each rabbit deserves to get a (spotlessly) clean cage and a new perspective. So, every rabbit gets one along with a position shift in the barn. I do this again in the fall after bunny season is good and done as we settle everyone down for the winter.

So, here's what happens.

Cage looks dirty and it's time for a change. I pop a new CLEAN cage in a new spot (barns are not crowded...remember that you need air space between the rabbits to keep P. Multocida, Bordatella, etc. at bay!) and put in a clean food bowl (dishwasher sterilized) and a new water bottle (bleach sterilized sipper tubes with brand new plastic 1 liter (former) seltzer bottle). If it is winter time, a plastic (bleach sterilized!) resting board gets clamped in to keep their little paws off the cold wire.

In goes bunny. He/she always gets a handful of hay plopped in the middle of the cage to chomp on while exploring the new home, the new window, and the new neighbors! (Every now and then an uncontrollable urge comes over me to have them ALL face East, or West and they get aligned spots. Very Feng Shui, eh?)

Out goes the old cage. It is unceremoniously dumped on the ground upside down. The wire brush makes quick work of whatever is hanging on the bottom, and the inside and sides are quickly brushed to get rid of the majority of hair felted around each wire. Now it gets to sit in the sun for a week upside down. After a week, out comes the wire brush again. Another brushing will get rid of whatever had been lingering. Out comes the propane torch, and the cage gets hung on the outside of the barn so I can stand while I torch every square inch at eye level. That takes about a half hour per cage. Then the cage gets put back in the sun to bleach/weather until the next season.

Once every few days, after feeding everyone, I go around both barns with wire brush in hand and scrape the bottoms of the cages. This takes 10 minutes and has a HUGE payoff as the cage bottoms cannot get truly clumped and matted in the "latrine" corners. This scraping/jiggling spooks some of the rabbits, and I can tell more about their personalities from this maneuver.

To read more: I chatted about some of this a while back here in the blog.

Bunnies at 4 1/2 weeks...the games begin!
The clowns have arrived! This is the prelude to Mom losing all patience; the time when all of the bunnies are mostly weaned; their curiosity is almost at peak and they can have human visitors.

This is the little guy still for sale. He is addicted to hogging the food bowl.
Eight to twelve year old children adore bunnies at this age if they have no fear of small creatures and can hold without squeezing. I am waiting for one of my FAVORITE wee customers to arrive on the 15th to play with the bunnies.

I have a 15 month old Golden Retriever who has become quite a handful. Penny requires daily 2 mile walks to keep her in-line. We are very fond of the show "The Dog Whisperer" and hang onto Cesar Milan's every word. (He is on from 6-7 every night on the National Geographic Channel). Cesar talks alot about how dogs "alpha" humans and this can get households into trouble. One of the things they do is to put themselves, or a paw, over another member, and while we think it is cute, it is a sign of dominance.

I think the bunnies have been taking notes:

Bunnies at 3+ weeks
They continue to charm me.

This little sweetheart (above), daughter of Gretchen and Zwart, will stay here. One of her brothers is going to live with Trish, and one of her brothers (below)will be looking for a new home in 4 weeks.


Grindle's bunnies are all spoken for, and it continues to amaze me that so many tortes were born in that litter. Unreal! The odds of getting that much light color in a litter with one black parent are pretty small.

Gretel and Sydney are both due in two weeks and we'll see how they do. Both are eating like horses. If you will recall, Sydney did not do well last time, but she is a changed rabbit since then and I have high hopes. Gretel is getting on in years, and I expect only one or two in her litter, but who knows?

Dyeing wool
Topic: dyeing
Starting with raw wool fleece is always appealing to me. I love the smell of fresh fleece, probably because I do not have sheep. Washing fleece is a very satisfying task.

Starting with the hottest tap water I can collect, I fill a 5 gallon pail and add about 1/2 cup liquid dish detergent (I use AJAX) and mix carefully with no suds resulting. Then I immerse about a pound of fleece in this water and let it soak for 30 minutes. Then (and this is the fun part) I dump it outside on my deck, letting the dirty water run through the boards, trapping the fleece on the deck.

Years ago, I used to do all this in the kitchen sink, but when the septic tank guy came and saw the 8" thick crust on the inside of the tank, he asked me what the hell I had been dumping down the drain?!? So, now the first two washes get dumped outside, with all the lanolin(!)and the rest of the rinses happen in the sink.

So, back into the house goes the pail (empty) and more hot water is added + detergent a second time if it needs it (and this stuff did). THEN the wet and squeezed out fleece. Another 30 minute soak, and another dump. Then a fresh pail of hotter clear water for a 30 minute soak. Then a second fresh pail of hot clear water for a second 30 minute soak.

The fleece above is the natural charcoal I am using. I repeated this whole process with the WHITE CORMO I planned to dye. Once it was clean enough to dye (get ALL the tips clean!)I proceeded as follows:

I have this great electric roaster that I bought JUST for dyeing. It holds up to 2# of wool. So, I mixed my dye (3/4 CUSHINGS DARK GREY and 1/4 PEACOCK)in water and added it to 2 cups vinegar and about a gallon of warm water in the roaster.
This gets mixed for a minute, and then the wool is immersed, with more water (warmer than the wool feels to prevent felting!) as needed to cover the wool. A slight drizzle of AJAX detergent is added (Tablespoon?) to help with bonding. Then I cooked the lot at 200*F for about 2 hours. The water looks much clearer when the dye has all been absorbed.

(If you use a microwave, this happens faster, but you have to dye in amounts that will fit into your microwave.)

Then I let the dye pot cool for 4 hours until lukewarm...dumped it out on the deck again (look out below!) and washed it in HOT SUDSY water, rinsing in HOT clear water. This final wash is ESSENTIAL to get out extra dye. If your rinse water is not clear, your dye is not set, and you need to start all over again with the cooking and the vinegar and the soap.