What A Pleasant Surprise!

Holland Lops are really nothing but surprises. The recent litters has been nothing but surprises and I am really excited about each and every kit in the nest boxes right now. The latest litter produced by Fred and Sibylla is such a huge surprise for me. I have expected some torts or blacks. One was black so my prediction was right. At first I thought the broken colored kit was a broken tort perhaps a darker tone. As days gone by, it seemed to look like a broken chocolate.

Why is it surprising? That brings us to the “B” gene of color genetics. Again, I turn to my favorite blog by Laurie Stroupe to get a better understanding of this gene http://www.thenaturetrail.com/BGene.htm.

Now let’s look into the history of both Fred and Sibylla.

Sibylla is the offspring of Clark and Holly Hope. Holly Hope is a lilac and Clark is a black tort which does not have any chocolate family member up 4 generations. But by breeding him to a lilac, the offspring are chocolate carrier. Sibylla is a chocolate carrier having the “Bb” gene.

Fred is the offspring of Thunder and Java. There is only a squirrel and a black otter up 4 generations. I am guessing that higher up the family tree, there could have been a “b” introduced. But it really surprises me that Fred is a chocolate carrier.

Thus, I have successfully obtain rabbits in the Chocolate Family through using rabbits from the Black Family. The probability is just too high but I am so lucky to get a little chocolate kit!

A pleasant surprise!