Toronto English Angoras

This post is Lesson 4 in our   Rabbit Genetics Illustrated   series.  Wild, tanned, and selfish could easily describe a good number of people. At this time, you can picture who ever you would like who fits that description if that's what it will take for you to remember what lurks here. However we are talking about rabbits. The A Locus is home to not two but three possible coat patterns. They are Agouti (some times referred to as the wild rabbit coat), Tan, and Self.  Let's start with the Self rabbits since that is what we have been using in all of our examples so far. A Self rabbit is covered from the tip of it's ears to the tip of it's toes in one single solid colour. It can be any of our four primary colours: Black, Blue, Chocolate, or Lilac. There should be no spots, no shading, no pattern of any sort imposed over this colour. All you see is that colour.  The Tan gene is responsible for giving us the iconic look of the Otter pattern.  The Tan gene spices up the plai

This post is Lesson 3 in our   Rabbit Genetics Illustrated   series.  The D Locus has only one question on it's mind. How do you like your Vodka? Do you drink it straight, or do you mix it with water? That's because this D stands for Dilution.  The D Locus is home of the Dilution gene. It dictates if you are going to get your rabbit colour straight up at full strength, or if you are going to get a diluted version.  As we learned in the previous lesson, all rabbits can be described as being either Black based or Chocolate based. The Dilution gene transforms those two options into four. The Dilution gene changes Black based rabbits into Blue based rabbits, and Chocolate based rabbits into Lilac based rabbits. This interaction between these two genes gives us what you can think of as the four primary colours that all rabbit colours are based on and often named after. They are Black, Blue, Chocolate, and Lilac.  Both Blue and Lilac appear as different shades of grey. They can at ti

This post is Lesson 2 in our Rabbit Genetics Illustrated series.  Rabbit colours work similarly to the way your printer can print many different colours by mixing the ink from only four ink cartridges (Black, Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta).  Different genes control how colour pigments are expressed, diluted, dispersed within each individual hair or the entire coat, or if they are expressed at all, and that is what gives us the many different colours and patterns. However at the end of the day, all rabbits out there, regardless of what they actually look like, are based in either Black or Brown.  Black or Brown is noted on the "B" portion of our recipe. Each block of letters is called a Locus, and hence we refer to this position as the B Locus. Black is noted with a capital "B" while Brown is noted with a lower case "b". In rabbits, we commonly refer to Brown as Chocolate. Now that you understand that the little "b" stands for Brown, moving forward w

This post is Lesson 1 in our  Rabbit Genetics Illustrated  series.  The recipe for a rabbit's colour is marked by a string of letters, each representing a specific ingredient. The letters will always range alphabetically and in pairs from A to E. That is the standard recipe.  AA BB CC DD EE Every rabbit inherits half of each pair from their mom and half of each pair from their dad. In the example above, the rabbit received A B C D E from mom and they received A B C D E from their dad. On occasion, you may see additional letters added after the last position of EE. Those generally represent additional patterns or qualities which are involved. They are noted if they are important to note for that rabbit, but in general are omitted if they do not apply. More on those later. The first 5 spots from AA to EE are never omitted, though they may be marked as blank if they are unknown.  In some cases, you may not be able to identify one or more of the ingredients in a rabbit's recipe. Wh

In the world of animal breeding, the word "papers" is a slang term for any papered documentation that might accompany an animal. It's a very general term and doesn't really stand for any thing in particular. Papers can refer to a printed copy of a pedigree, a registration certificate, records of any show winnings, even veterinary records, importation documents, or a bill of sale. People some times ask if an animal comes with papers because they don't know what they should actually be asking for. They have heard this terminology before, and assume this some how equates to a quality animal and hence they should be asking for it. "Papers" don't always mean quality, but if you want to ask for them when buying a rabbit, at least know what sort of papers you want to be asking for and why. Here are two examples of the pieces of paper that are most likely to accompany a rabbit, a pedigree and registration, and what they signify.  A pedigree is a summary of t

Some people believe that for a rabbit's pedigree to be considered complete, that simply means that all possible ancestors over the previous 3 generations have to be listed. However that isn't entirely correct. If all you have is just a listing of names, you're actually missing a fair bit of important information and information is where the value of having a pedigree lies. A list of names is next to useless as a breeding tool. You need to know some minimum basic about each of those animals. Additionally, if you want to officially register your rabbit with ARBA (The American Rabbit Breeders Association) and by doing so confirm that the rabbit is at a minimum an adequate representative of it's breed, ARBA has very specific requirements as to what information must be included on the pedigree in order for it to be recognized as part of the application process. In order to be registered with ARBA, a rabbit must pass an in-person physical examination by an ARBA registrar who

A pedigree is a basic summary of an animal's ancestry record. A standard 3-generations pedigree will list the animal's parents, grandparents, and grand-grandparents, as well as some very basic information about each of them. A pedigree is NOT a mark of high quality and does not guarantee that the animal is pure bred. Both purebred and mixed breed animals can and do have pedigrees. Humans have pedigrees, in fact YOU have a pedigree as long as you know the basics of your family history. An animal's pedigree is nothing more then a simplified breeding record and it represents the utmost basic record keeping that should be taking place when breeding. It essentially means that a person put in a few minutes of effort to write down the names of the animals they were breeding.  A pedigree in itself is not a formal registration document, however registration documents do include a copy of a pedigree. A pedigree is always prepared by the breeder. It can be a fancy printout from a comp

There are 5 distinct Angora breeds in North America. They are: English Angora, French Angora, Satin Angora, Giant Angora, and German Angora. The first 4 are recognized by ARBA, while the German Angoras are not. They were considered to be too similar to the already recognized Angora breeds and as a compromise, the Giant Angora breed was created and recognized in their place. The German Angoras have their own national organization called IAGARB which is similar in nature to ARBA (holds competitions, keeps a registry, etc) except it is only for German Angoras. Notice something missing?  Even though some people refer to Lionheads as Angoras, the Lionhead breed is actually not part of the Angora family.  There is no such thing as an Angora Lionhead breed or Angora type Lionhead.  All of the Angora breeds are the result of the same Wool gene, hence they are all considered to be within the Angora family. The Lionhead breed however, even though they appear to have some wool on them, are in fac