What color are these?

[CCWelch]

Momma is a pure New Zealand White daddy is supposed to be a pure Checkered Giant(black marked). Daddy was also bred to the sister of this batches momma and produced only Black selfs and Black and white marked babies.

Now this litter, I have 1 self black, 3 black and white marked, one solid blue and then these.......I am thinking black agouti??? But where did it come from?

 

[HappyFarmBunnies]

Looks like a Chestnut agouti or maybe a Steel of some kind.

 

[lelanatty]

Those are Steel babies. I don't know where it could have come from, but do you have pictures of the parents?

 

[CCWelch]

Here is Daddy, he is supposed to be (no papers but tattooed) a Checkered Giant, the one in the box is the mom, the one outside is the sister who bred to the same buck and has now had 2 litters of all black selfs or black/white marked. Both are unpapered New Zealand Whites

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Without knowing the ancestry it's really impossible to say whose line is muddied. Cut kids though.

 

[CCWelch]

I just find it unusual that the 2 does are sisters. 1 has been bred against this male twice and both times produced all solid and marked black/ white offspring.
Pinky's previous litter was against a californian buck and all of the babies looked like californians.
Now this litter she is bred against the same buck as her sister and throws this adorable mess?
I am breeding both against a New Zealand White the end of the month and we will see what comes out of that. The breeder I got the girls from also had dutch and Pinky is a little underweight for a mature New Zealand doe.

 

[pamnock]

They are steels. Steel is very common in New Zealands (even though it's not an accepted variety). Genetically the white doe is an agouti and also has the steel gene.

 

[CCWelch]

Thanks Pam! So I can blame mama for the unexpected but wonderful colors.

 

[HappyFarmBunnies]

Yeah I was going to say that the REW (red eyed white) gene masks other color genetics so it's likely it's the mothers. Makes sense since the same thing happened to the sister. Also remember that black, especially broken black, is very dominant. Steel is a neat color.

 

[CCWelch]

So does this mean if I breed this particular REW to another REW I could get something other than all REW?

 

[MelissaPenguin]

CCWelch wrote:

So does this mean if I breed this particular REW to another REW I could get something other than all REW?

I am really new to the genetics thing, but I'm going to say 'Yes, you could expect something other than REW, or at least not be completely shocked if you ended up with a few of a different color.' =) But I could be completely wrong here lol

 

[Blaze_Amita]

I do know we bred my aunts broken black new zealand to my red buck and got a whole litter of solid and broken steels. neat looking babies, but not what you would expect.