Hello. Two of my children are involved in rabbits through 4H. They recently bred a broken red doe to a broken black buck. A lot of the broken kits have very little color with the white. I know by the standard that they are supposed to have at least 10% coloring and have color on the ears, nose, and eyes. My question is how much color is enough? Would it be okay to have two pencil eraser sized dots on either side of the nose? Or would one dot on one side of the nose be enough? I\'m having a hard time finding the answer to our questions so any input on how to tell if a rabbit is a show quality mini rex then please let us know.
Also, we would like a mini rex buck either castor or red around Northeast Oklahoma for breeding. If you know where to get one, we\'d appreciate letting us know where.
Thanks!
Breeding Broken to Broken has the potential of producing about 25% Charlies, which are extremely lightly marked Brokens - unshowable. The Brokens that do result from a Broken to Broken mating are no more or less likely to be showable than in a Broken to Self mating. Some lines simply carry the tendency toward light markings or heavy markings.
As you know, to be showable, a Broken Mini Rex needs to carry at least 10% color. Included in this color is: 1) both ears must be colored 2) colored eye markings around each eye 3) there must be some color noted in the area where a butterfly would normally be found 4) some color on the body.
Whether an animal has the required 10% minimum of color is purely a judgement call by the judge, however, most judges will accept an animal as at least 10% colored if the ears are
totally colored, there are balanced nose markings (spots or a butterfly) on
each side of the nose, eye circles are present, and there is a spine marking and at least a couple spots on
both sides of the body. If the rabbit doesn\'t have these minimal markings, chances are good the judge will deem it less than 10% colored and it will be disqualified.
Two small dots on either side of the nose would be preferred over a dot on only one side. If there was a single dot and the rest of the rabbit had adequate color, this would not be cause for a DQ. Preference, however, is always given to evenly balanced nose markings.
I must point out, though, that markings in and of themselves, don\'t make a show rabbit. The proper type and fur have to be there as well. You can have a beautifully marked animal that will never place well if it has poor fur or inferior type. You\'re looking for the entire package.
Hope this helps.
Charlcie Gill
Zodiac Rabbitry
Astoria, OR
http://www.zodiacsatins.com
Thanks for your help! That does give me the information that I need. I know for sure that the fur is excellent and the type so far looks good on the 2 kits in question but I realize that it is hard to know for sure on type until the rabbits are a little older. We\'ve read the ARBA standard, but it\'s hard to know exactly what 10% looks like unless we\'ve seen it before. In comment to the \"charlies\", yes we had several. Out of 7 rabbits, 3 were solid, 2 were \"charlies\", and hopefully these other two are brokens. I guess the only way to know for sure is to let my children show them and the judge will let us know. Thanks again for your information. We\'re still beginners in showing rabbits, but we love it so far!
You\'re welcome and good luck showing your rabbits.
Charlcie
Hi, I showed mini rex rabbits for about 8 years- starting with 4-H and then moving into Open State and National Showing- if you go to my website its still up and has tons of information on the different varieites- how to access type- how to mix a wonderful supplement for show rabbits to give them beautiful sheen and shine when showing- I lived in Calif but am now in Austin Texas- so you are just North of me! I would love to mentor you as much as you need- just pm me for the URL of my website- Be sure to join the National Mini Rex Club- they are online and you can find breeders on line to buy a good buck- I\'ll be glad to point you in the right direction! Remember to line breed - take a Good doe from the kits and breed her back to Dad- and breed a son to mom- whenever I went BIS it was 99% of the time with line bred breedings! Be sure that your core stock (the buck and doe) are of the best breeding and type to begin you line breeding. I used to tell people to buy a Buck and then two does related to him to begin their line breeding program- 1/2 sisters work well!
And breed by the Moon! more does are begat with Full moons- bucks on New Moon! It works!
Thanks for your web address. Actually, my children and I discovered it earlier this year and love it. We have it on our favorites list. The pencil test was great. When we had our first litter of kits a couple of months ago, we used this test on them (when they were a little older, of course). We were able to accurately decide which kits had good body type and which didn\'t. We took them to a youth breeder in our area that has shown for several years and raised quite a few winners and she agreed with our picks. The pencil test was just what we needed. I can\'t wait for my children to show these rabbits to see if we were indeed rights by the judges standards.
That\'s great! that\'s want I wanted- was to help 4 Her\'s
Patty
if you want a good pic of rabbit with less than %10 coloration get the arba standard of perfection and on page 38 is an awesome pic of a rabbit with less than %10 percent and a rabbit with over %50 i hope this helps its a great book to have
We have the ARBA standard of perfection book and I looked at the page. Our kits had more color than that rabbit showing 10%. The thing I wasn\'t sure about was the nose coloring. Our kits had color on either side of their nose but not on the nose itself so that\'s why I wasn\'t sure if they\'d be dq. We finally found a breeder that looked at our kits and explained to us that the nose itself has to be colored. Thanks for everyone\'s input, rabbits are a learning process! I\'m glad I found this board so I\'d have lots of advice!
That breeder is in error concerning the nose marking. While, if all else being equal, I would
prefer the nose itself to be colored, to qualify as a nose marking, the color may appear anywhere in the area where a butterfly marking would naturally occur. Following is a portion of the ARBA ruling as of July 1998...
\"...Color appearing in any area where a butterfly would normally occur satisfies the requirement for nose marking. (Color may be only a small spot on the whisker bed, but that is still considered a portion of the nose marking.)...\"
Charlcie Gill
Zodiac Rabbitry
Astoria, OR
http://www.zodiacsatins.com