Occasionally Butterflies
© Copyright 2003 - 2008 - Ruskin Miniature Lops - All rights reserved
| Gene | Name | Description | Examples |
| En | English Spotting | This gene (as it suggests) produces spots or blankets(butterfly patterns). Enen is normal spotting. EnEn causes sparse and sporadic spotting. This gene works in conjunction with the plus/minus modifiers to produce more or less spotting. | Butterflies & Charlies |
| en | Self-Coloured | If this gene is expressed it causes no spotting and will only produce solid coloured rabbits. | |
| Du | Absence of Dutch Marking | This gene works in much the same way as the En gene. Dudu produces partial white patterns and DuDu produces none (solid coloured rabbits) When dudu is expressed we see the dutch pattern. Plus/minus modifiers work with this gene also to produce more or less colour/pattern. | DuDu: Solid colour rabbits Dudu: Hotot (with EnEn and a lot of minus modifiers) dudu: Dutch |
| du | Dutch Marking | See Du for description | |
| V | Vienna White | VV: Normal coat colour. Vv: This combination can cause many different variations of colour from dutch type markings to white patches on the head, ears and feet to a few white hairs and sometimes NO white in the rabbit at all. It should not be assumed a rabbit is NOT a Vienna carrier just because it has no white on it anywhere. |
VV: Solid Colour Vv: Sometimes known as sports (USA) or carriers here in the UK vv: Blue-Eyed White |
| v | Vienna White | vv: Causes no colour to express itself and produces an all white rabbit with blue eyes. | vv: White (BEW) |
| W | Normal Wide Band | Normal Width of the middle yellow or white agouti band | Agouti, Chinchilla etc |
| w | Double Wide Band | Doubles Width of the middle yellow or white agouti band Colours the agouti pattern areas: eye circles, triangle at nape of neck, feet, legs, inside of ears, and belly. |
Red, Thrianta, Tan etc |
The E Series is often very confusing. It is the home to two very annoying genes if you don’t want them in your lines, and on the flip side, wonderful genes if these are your chosen colours. Its best to learn about them early on in your breeding programs though as they can be devils to get rid of if you don’t want them.
Starting from the top we have the Steel gene, Es. A modifier for all intense and purpose but once it’s in your line it is dominant. This is why if you are working with Steels and other colours too, its best to keep the steel gene well away from your other colours as it can be masked out of sight (but not out of the genotype) by the self gene and also the non extension gene (also found in the E series)
The full extension of black pigment (E) means exactly that. It allows the black pigment in the hair shaft to be expressed fully, without interruption from another gene. This gene is found in colours such as Agouti, Black & Sable etc. Turn this to non extension however and you turn all your full extension rabbits yellow. So Agouti’s turn into Oranges, Blacks into Sootie’s and so on.
The gene found between full extension and non extension is called the Japanese gene (ej) and is what is responsible for Harlequins, Tricolours (harlequin butterflies) and Magpies (chinchillated harlequins). Again, this gene can be carried by Es or E and if carried by Es, it can mask the expression of steel, thus pushing both genes out of sight to you, but still in the rabbits make up. Often a very big surprise to find it hiding in the background! ej is best coupled with the agouti gene for the harlequin/magpie to look its best. It has been known to have been coupled with the self gene (giving you a sooty harlequin marked rabbit) and while looking similar to a true harlequin, they are not and do not really conform to the standard as they have sooty shading interspersed with harlequin brindling.
The genes below in the table all follow the same principal of inheritance, and for the purpose of the final article I will use the Vienna gene to demonstrate.
Please see links in the side panel to navigate to the Vienna gene page.
Please see links in the side panel to navigate to the Vienna gene page.
To learn more about the steel gene, please follow the link in the side navigation panel to the steel article I have written
