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Tri-Color Rex the other broken variety
Laurie Statz
First of all I would like to make a statement. Yes, Tri Color Rex can be
shown. I can’t count the number of times that people have walked up
to my grooming table at a show and make some kind of uninformed
statement letting me know that they don’t think I can show that tricolored rabbit. Well, think again, yes you can show them. Their
standard is listed with the rest of the broken variety. It seems to be
hard for some people to see that in the paragraph. In the broken
group description you will read that the color is to include any
recognized breed variety in conjunction with white, or white in
conjunction with one of the following combinations of two colors:
dense black with golden orange; lavender blue and golden fawn; dark
chocolate brown and golden orange; dove gray and golden fawn. In
essence the 4 color versions are (1)black and (2)chocolate with their
dilutes which would be (3)blue and (4)lilac. The verbiage used in the
standard adds a mystique to a variety that is already hard enough
without that mystique.
To my way of thinking the tricolor is unnecessarily complicated. Many
elements of the variety need to be simplified. First confusing, is the
fact that the tricolor does not have a solid colored counterpart on the
show table. The solid color counterpart to the tricolor looks like a
harlequin rabbit but it should be referred to as a brindle. Harlequin is
a breed and has bands, alternations and splits in its standard. The
brindle should not show these features. In my experience, brindle Rex
showing these Harlequin tendencies that may interfere with the
tricolor pattern, making a substandard pattern. We will talk about
selecting brindles to use in a tricolor breeding program later in this
article. Brindles make wonderful breeding stock for tricolor.
Another important element to breeding Tricolor Rex is the fact that if
you are going to breed them, you need to keep them as a separate
breeding group from any other varieties you might be breeding. The
reasoning for this is the fact that the tricolor gene will get into your
other varieties and ruin their coloration. This is because the tri gene
will mottle and swirl colors giving you brindling on other colors where
brindling is not permissible and it will come back to haunt you in
successive generations.
The last element I want to touch on before going into the breeding
information I want to outline, is the fact that the Tricolor rabbit is
notorious for poor quality in type, size and fur. That’s right; the tri has
a reputation for being small, junky and bristly. So why bother?
Because when you work towards the improvement of something, if
you are of that mind set, there is nothing better than bringing
something in a tricolor coat to a big national show and placing them
right up there with the big boys in the top 5 or top 10 in a big class. Of
course whose goal wouldn’t be to win, and we are working towards
that. It isn’t impossible and how special that would be. It’s a science
and an art.
The tricolor rabbit is a form of agouti. So their cousins, genetically, are
the castor, opal, amber and lynx. Red is also an agouti variety that
works well to produce tricolor. Red usually produces first generation
tri because red is more recessive than tri. White that has agouti
genetics in the background is also a good cross with tricolor. In the
black-orange variety the closest agouti is the castor; in the blue-fawn
variety the closest agouti is opal; in the chocolate-orange variety the
closest agouti is amber; in the lilac-fawn variety the closest agouti is
lynx. All of these agouti varieties possess the color ways needed to
create tricolor with their midband color and their dark tipping. The
agouti gene tells those colors to show up in bands and tipping on the
individual hair shafts. The tricolor gene tells the same colors to swirl
and cause brindling. And when the broken gene is introduced, the
broken gene in concert with the tri gene separates the orange and
black (or whichever two colors you are working with) into individual
spots of the colors, in the very best patterns. Pattern is thought to
improve with a few generations of breeding to a tricolor family.
The easiest outcross color to produce tricolor is red. You will usually
get first generation tricolor using red. Agouti colors are the next best
outcross, but will take 2 generations to pull tricolors. Select breeders
from these litters, with the best qualities you need to improve your
tris. You should get some tricolors in the second generation. A close
second and actually one of my favorite outcross colors is white that
has an agouti background. If the pedigree shows only white for many
generations, it is most likely an agouti in genetic color.
Most people prefer the pattern to be balanced between the darker
and the lighter color. The standard does not comment one way or the
other, but eye appeal is pretty important. Haphazard breeding of tris
can produce pattern that is heavy on red or fawn spotting. You might
also see blanket patterns with just a few black spots, streaks and
smears. While these patterns are not disqualifiable, they don’t
present much eye appeal or “Wow Factor”. I find that coat color on
breeding stock with more dark helps get a balanced pattern. I am
speaking to both red and brindle breeding stock. Brindles with a lot of
black or chocolate in the pattern seem to produce a more balanced
pattern. Similarly, smutty reds also produce better pattern than good
clean show table reds do. They have more black or chocolate factor
which is causing that smuttiness. Likewise, heavy tipping on agoutis
also seems to help produce a balanced pattern.
Use of self colored rabbits such as black, blue, chocolate and lilac is
not advised. Self colored rabbits do not produce nice pattern in
successive generations and in some cases can cause tortoise (shading)
to appear in the color. This “torting” is a disqualification.
Another color problem you might see and should cull immediately is
mottled color in a red or fawn blanket or even within a spot pattern.
That is to say that the red or fawn element of the pattern is of 2
shades. Technically this coloration should be disqualified as it
represents 4 colors. For example, this would be white, black, red and
fawn all included in the color roll call on that rabbit. I do not know
what causes this to happen but it is not pretty and it will set itself into
your rabbit’s color ways. Sometimes you see a stray gray spot on a full
colored rabbit (black or chocolate tri). The stray gray spot is a more
blatant disqualification. Being a 4th color. This is a severe problem if
not culled. The gray spot is the manifestation of a magpie gene as
seen in the Harlequin breed. Magpie would be a bad gene to have
present in a working tricolor breeding herd. You should look long and
hard at the parents that produced a magpie spot on a bunny. This
might be present in your blue and lilac tricolors and it would be hard
to identify.
Ultimately, most points on Rex come from body and fur and not from
color or pattern. There is a whopping 45 points on type and 40 points
on fur. There is just 10 points on color (in brokens that is divided 5
points on color and 5 points on pattern) and finally 5 points on
condition of the animal. The biggest problem I see with breeding
Tricolor Rex is that because of its eye catching, unusual, flamboyant
and pretty color, it has fell victim, in my opinion, to many flash in the
pan breeders, who don’t have the stubbornness of personality that
this variety requires to be successful. Culling is a constantly big and
thoughtful process. Tricolor breeders need to have a large library of
rabbit recipes and you need to eat a lot of rabbit to get anywhere. Or
you need a good rabbit market buyer and possible a pelt buyer. It is
best to not sell culls to other breeders. Other breeders might not be
as diligent as you in keeping their tri stock separate from their other
colors. If you have a friend that also breeds tris and you have a cull
that does not fit your program, but might fit theirs, alright, just so they
know. The culling process needs to view the elements of body type,
size and fur equally because if you drop one element in your criteria,
you won’t make progress.
Culling severely and keeping good records on crosses of tricolors is
something a breeder needs to be prepared for. Use of big, great
bodied, phenomenal furred breeding stock in the compatible colors is
what you need to do. Compatible colors were previously listed. While
this article is about tricolor, it cannot stress enough that the breeder
study and learn to judge type and fur very critically and not be
tempted to keep a small, poorly furred and typed rabbit with a
beautiful color. There are people who would love to get your
beautiful tricolored pelts for crafts and then you can breed on to get
better show table rabbits. Getting rid of rabbits that won’t serve your
breeding program, frees up cage space for your good rabbits. You will
be keeping a few rabbits that are not show table color, but who will
produce improved offspring for you to show. When I keep nonshowable individuals it is because they have something really special
to contribute to my breeding program; great size, great fur,
commercial type, a brindle that is almost all black and has great type
and fur, a Charlie buck to cross on a brindle doe (and they are both
great individuals), sometimes a brindled castor that has everything
else going for it. You will use a lot of cages.
While the old philosophy of breeding tri to tri to tri, for generations, to
get the best pattern, I find that philosophy does not work in today’s
competition. Now we need to get that great big commercial body
type and fabulous dense, properly textured fur. I find it is not
necessary; in fact it might be a detriment, to breed so intensively to
only tricolored individuals. Crossing out to strong competitive
individuals is more desirable at this time.
I hope my article clears up some common myths and misconceptions
regarding Tricolor Rex Rabbits. I hope I might have helped anyone
breeding tricolors or thinking about breeding them. They really are
fun and it is so rewarding to put a Tricolor up on the table that the
judge can’t ignore.
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Shared from FB group Tri Rex Rabbit Breeders files section. Article by Laurie Statz