Judges and How They Look at Rabbits Differently

I was planning on writing about this after the Gridley show, but I have an English assignment on developing paragraphs by giving examples.

 

As you may recall, we were at the West Coast Classic in May 2014.  That was our first ARBA show and our first experience with multiple shows in a single day.  There we had an eye-opening experience.  

At all our 4-H shows, Snowball was always in the best condition, meaning she always got Best of Breed.  No matter what I did with Ninja or Indy, Snowball always won.  She always had the density and texture.  So I thought that most judges were the same and all was lost for Ninja and Indy.

When we went to the West Coast Classic in May, we all thought Cookie was in the best condition and thought he would win the leg in the youth show.  And indeed, Cookie was favored over Indy in the first show.  The judge detested Indy.  (Indy was a little stressed and it showed, if you know what I mean.)  The next three shows that day, Indy was highly favored over Cookie, to the point where he got the leg in the youth show.  That day I learned that I shouldn’t take only the rabbits I thought were best, but all of them, so I can see what the judges have to say.  The judges all look at rabbits so differently.

At the Truckee Meadows show in July, Snowball won Best of Breed in the first show, beating out her brother Ninja, who still got a leg for Best of Variety.  But surprisingly, in the second show, Ninja trumped and won a second leg for Best of Breed and Snowball got nothing.  

At the Stockton show last month, Muddy was favored in the first show.  He had great wool but lacked a little in density.  He has a great body.  So he got the leg.  However, in the second youth show, Honey got the leg.  The judged was almost drooling over her wool and density.  He was ready to whip out his spinning wheel right then and there.  

So in conclusion, don’t lose heart if your bunny isn’t favored.  He could win a leg in the next show. 

Big Sis's First Post

Becky here, I have yet to contribute to the blog so here I go. (IOW, I'm new so give me a break!)

So if you have been following this blog, you know that Chuck and Lydia have previously bred their rabbits, but I have not. Well, that changed this past Saturday. Cookie (broken chocolate) and Honey (chocolate tort) were bred. Because I'm a chicken I had Chuck do the breeding... I had to pay with my last half of a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Boy is she pricey!

Cookie and Honey

So for nesting boxes you need to have shredded paper and hay. Paper to help with the rabbits' hygiene and hay for mom to graze on and eventually wean her kits. Because of my ability to think ahead, I realized that not two but three girls would be fighting for the free newspaper Dad brings home. So I decided out of the goodness of my heart that I would buy my nesting box materials so that there would be more for my sisters (am I not such a good big sister?). It is a paper-based litter, and I will post my opinion of how well it works after the kits are born. By the way, it's a really colorful array of purple, pink, blue and white.  Guess it will make for cute pictures!

Breeding Fun with a REW (Ruby-Eyed White)

Because you never know what you are going to get

By Lydia

Well, last time we bred Snowball and Cookie, we thought we’d get some brokens and some self chocolates.  Well, if you read some of our early posts, you know how that turned out.  We had a few surprises.  More about that later.

Here are a couple thoughts that might help you in your breedings.

Actually, there are ways to figure out what you might get.  You need to determine your rabbits genotype as best as possible.  But with REWs, this can be hard, because you never know what they might be hiding.  You might a wrong guess, like we did with Snowball.  Actually, it wasn’t us.  The pedigree we got from the breeder indicated she was aa instead of Aa, which she obviously is.  

One way of finding out what colors you may get is using Punnett squares.  It is easy to do, but it can take a long time if your rabbits are very genetically diverse.  

Snowball:  Phenotype--REW; genotype--AaBbccDdE_

The other way is by breeding.  It takes longer to know what your rabbit has, but it’s easier on the brain.  We found out that we should not breed Cookie with Snowball anymore.  Half of their offspring will be unshowable colors, like agouti steels.  Cookie is an absolutely gorgeous broken chocolate.  His parents were both steels.  Cookie is a double steel, but we didn’t realize this--often a double steel cancels out the steel appearance.  It is only by breeding that you can learn whether a rabbit whose parents were both steel is in actuality a double steel. 

Cookie:  Phenotype--broken chocolate; genotype--aabbCCDdEsEs

In this breeding, we also learned that Snowball hides agouti. Since she hides agouti and agouti is dominant, and Cookie is a double steel and steel is dominant, they made steel agouti. Two of their six surviving kits were chocolate steel agouti.  Unshowable.  

Bubbles:  Phenotype--chocolate agouti steel; genotype--AabbCcD_Es_

This go around we are going to identify whether Buddy carries REW.  If he does, half the litter will be REW.  The other colors we are most likely to get are:  agouti, self black, blue agouti, self blue, chocolate agouti, and self chocolate.  The kits are due October 1.

Chocolates into Steels? Or Crazy Rabbit Genetics?

A chocolate kit was born and fifteen days later it turned into a steel. Chocolate steel.  Crazy.

Rabbit color genetics is really hard to understand, especially when you are nine.  My mom says it's not that bad.  She's nuts.

Anyway, both of Cookie's parents are steel, one lilac steel and one a broken chocolate steel.  The genotype for both of them is EsE.  Es (steel gene) is dominant to E.  But!  If you have two Es genes, then sometimes the steel phenotype disappears, and the rabbit appears to be EE.  We believe this is what happened with Cookie, who is very clearly a broken chocolate. A most adorable broken chocolate.

What this means is that all of Cookie's offspring will be steel.  In this case, when bred with Snowball, chocolate or lilac steel.  Every single one. 

So all the chocolate and lilac kits are chocolate and lilac steel, and all the broken chocolate and broken lilac are broken chocolate steel and broken lilac steel.  Except that the brokens aren't looking very steel-like.

We are so confused.

Self chocolate (left) and chocolate steel (right)

The Kits Are Here!

Snowball’s kits started arriving on Sunday, May 25, at dinnertime.  Unfortunately, we had the missionaries over, and we couldn’t run in and out to check the kits without being rude to the elders.  Snowball produced a total of nine kits, and three died.  We gave one of the kits to Tootsie to foster, so Snowball is now nursing five kits.  At four days old, the kits are now little rolly pollies.  Snowball is doing fine.  We have learned a lot. 

Snowball, as you may recall, is a ruby-eyed white (REW).  We bred her with Cookie, who is a broken chocolate.  We believe her kits to be the following colors:  three self chocolates, one self lilac, one broken chocolate, and one broken lilac or blue.

West Coast Classic

Indiana--"Indy"--proud recipient of his first leg

 
(Note:  This should have been posted two weeks ago, right after the show.  Unfortunately, while my sister brought home a new blue pearl doe, I very foolishly brought home a flu bug that knocked me out for two weeks.)

The West Coast Classic held at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno May 2-4, 2014, is the 2^nd largest rabbit show in the country.  Next year’s show will be in Las Vegas.

All of the angora breeders usually stay together and close to the doors so that they can use their blowers on the bunnies.  And it helps keep the rabbits cooler.  It was quieter where we sat, which I liked.

We were the only French angora breeders in the youth contests.  Pretty amazing considering that this is one of the largest rabbit shows.  Because there was only one all-breed show on Saturday, we also entered the open specialty shows for angoras. 

The first angora specialty show was held Friday night.  Cookies and Cream was placed the highest of our rabbits in that show.  Indy was stressed and had a dirty bottom.  Judges don’t look favorably on such a sight.  And the judge for that show very condescendingly said he was giving a gift in not DQing Becky’s newly acquired blue pearl doe for being a “sable point” which he asserted was an unshowable color.  Which is apparently the case with satin angoras, but not with French angoras, as the rest of the show judges and French angora exhibitors confirmed. 

The second and third angora specialty shows on Saturday went much better, if your name is Indy, as both judges favored him over Cookie.  And the youth all-breed show was the best, because Indy won that as well, and got his first leg.

Pregnant Does Can Have Cravings, Too

Lydia writes....

My one and only, very dearest, rabbit, Snowball, was bred with Cookie, my sister Becky's broken chocolate.  For the first few days, everything was fine.  At the West Coast Classic, everything was fine.  Then Charlotte and I got the flu, so the rest of the family was caring for our rabbits.  Snowball suddenly stopped eating her pellets, but she continued to eat her hay and coconut oil oats.  I asked everybody if they had fed her the wrong food.  They replied that they hadn't fed her any pellets at all, since her feeder was still full.  The next morning I asked my mom whether Snowball had eaten.

Again, the answer was no.  So I asked Jared to research the problem.  He found that when rabbits get pregnant, they can start getting picky.  So we fed her some strawberry leaves and bananas.  She did not want any strawberries.  A few days later, she began eating her pellets again.  And sometimes I even find that her bowl is empty by dinnertime.

Tootsie, my sister Charlotte's self chocolate doe who was bred at the same time, did not have the same cravings.  She just ate like normal.  So you never know what will happen.  

By the way, the does are due to kindle in three days.