Fun Videos with Black English Angora

We have seen many discussions of basic color genetics using the black English Angora as the base.  Many of our readers found it interesting that I have had so many black English Angora in the past.   Today we'll take a break from color genetics and enjoy two videos with my two black English Angora being used as models for the promotion of two fantasy books: 

We have seen this photo earlier, her name is Chu's Melania.  She was the model for the following video promoting "Silver Master" 

English Angora as Dust Bunnies: Silver Master

This is Chu's Donovan.  He played "Elvis" to promote "Dark Light"

 English Angora as Dust Bunnies: Dark Light

Basic Color Genetics: Black and Black Tort

Black tort is the non-extended color of black.

As we have learned from the previous posts of: 
Northern California Angora Guild: Basic Color Genetics: Black and Chestnut Agouti (ncag.blogspot.com)
Northern California Angora Guild: Basic Color Genetics: Black and Blue (ncag.blogspot.com)
that black color genes are 
aaB-C-D-E-
The E is the extension gene that allows the black color to cover the entire body. 
This photo is a young black doe Chu's LaNelle. 

This is also black buck Chu's Donovan.   One can see the lighting could affect the color of the photo.   

What if a rabbit in the "black gene B family" does not have an E gene?  Instead it has the recessive e genes, ee.   The black color is not allowed to be spread to the rest of the body, the black only appears on the points.   The rest of the body is beige or tan.   We have a black tort.   Here is a junior black tort English Angora.   The color genes of a black tort is 
aaB-C-D-ee

It is still in the "black gene family", it is still a full colored rabbit, it is still a non-dilute.   The only difference is the non-extension recessive gene ee that restrict the black to the points.   If it were a non-wool breed, you'll see the darker color on the feet.  However with the English Angora wool, the most observable dark colors are on the face and the ears only.   The color of the wool is usually more orangey when junior but turns lighter when the wool grows.  This is black tort senior doe Chu's Annisha. 




 

Basic Color Genetics: Black and Blue

Black and blue are in the same "B" family, the black is the dominant dense color while the blue is the recessive dilute color.   

Here is a black English Angora senior doe with a full coat.   The color genes are:
 aaB-C-D-E-.    
aa shows that black is a "self" color or a "non-agouti" pattern.  aa means it's "self" or "non-agouti".  B means it's in the black family, the - means there maybe another B gene or a b gene which is chocolate (we will talk about chocolate in a different post).    C indicates it's a full color, the - means there maybe another full color gene or some semi-colored gene or even an albino gene (will be discussed in a different post).    D indicates a dense color, the - means there maybe another dense color gene or a dilute gene.   E means the color is extended to the entire body, the - means there maybe another extension gene or a non-extension gene (we will talk about non-extension in another post).      The face keeps the black but the wool is lighter than black, more of a gray than black.   The color of the eyes is brown.

The lighting affects the color in the photo.  It's the same rabbit, Chu's Tamyra, in these two photos taken about the same time but at two different locations in our yard.   

The blue is the dilute of the black.  The color genes are:
aaB-C-ddE-
If you compare the black and blue genes, they are both aa which indicates "self" or "non-agouti", both are in the black family B, both are full colors C, both have extension gene E.  The only difference is at the "D" location.   The black is D- which means dominant, the - mains it could have another dominant gene or a dilute gene; the blue has dd which means double dilute gene thus shows a color that is diluted from black: blue.     The face of the blue rabbit is a dark gray, the body color is light gray and the color of the eyes is gray.    

 

Both photos are taken at the same time but still have a slight difference in color due to lighting.   The name of the rabbit is Chu's Talia.   
Since blue is recessive to black, two blue rabbits cannot produce a black offspring but two black rabbits could produce a blue offspring if both carry a dilute gene d.  

Basic Color Genetics: The Principle

This is an English Angora black junior doe.   
Her photo here is for attention, her basic color genes are:
aaB-C-D-E-   

We made a post on May 24, 2021 comparing Chestnut Agouti and Black.   I received questions about the basic principles.   I'll try to use the layman's terms to make it very simple and very basic.  

(1) The basic color components are shown in five letters: ABCDE.   When it's written in upper case, that means it's a dominant color.  If you see the lower case letters of abcde, then we are talking about recessive color.   

(2) Each rabbit takes a copy of the color gene from each of the two parents.   If the parents do not have certain color genes, the babies cannot have these genes.

(3) The dominant color is visible while the recessive color may or may not be visible.

(4) Here are the 5 basic color genes:

A: Agouti pattern, a: non-agouti pattern or self.  A is dominant of a.  If at least one parent is an agouti pattern, the offspring may be agouti patterned.   If neither of the parents has the agouti gene, the offspring cannot be agouti pattered.     The post on May 24 Northern California Angora Guild: Basic Color Genetics: Black and Chestnut Agouti (ncag.blogspot.com) is a discussion of this topic by comparing chestnut agouti and black.

B: Black.   b: brown (chocolate in rabbit terms).   Black is dominant of chocolate, one or two black parents may produce chocolate offspring if both black parents carry the recessive chocolate gene b.  Two chocolate parents cannot produce a black offspring.   

C: full color gene.    c(chd); dark chin gene, or just called the chin gene.     c(chl): light chin gene or the sable gene.     c(h): himi gene or the pointed white gene.     c: albino gene, or the REW gene. (REW: ruby eye white).    The order listed above is in the order of dominance, C is the most dominant and c is the most recessive where the chin gene, the sable gene and the himi gene rest between C and c.    The chin gene, the sable gene and the himi gene are partial color genes.   c albino, no color or white.

D: Dense gene or the non-dilute.    d: dilute gene.

E: Extension gene.     e: non-extension gene.

We will return to using photos to compare the color genes starting tomorrow.  

(6) Eyes:  The Dense (non-dilute) gene D results in brown colored eyes.  The dilute gene dd results in gray colored eyes.   If you are having doubts, look at the eyes.   

Podcast Hosted by Briony and Allen

Briony and Allen have started a podcast a few months ago.   There have been 11 episodes in the past few months, they are interesting and have been very popular.     It's very kind of Briony and Allen to have invited me to be the guest for Episode 12.    The link is at the following:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=143961954449508&id=112657980913239

 

 

Basic Color Genetics: Black and Chestnut Agouti

The black and the chestnut agouti are in the same "black" family.   The black is "non-agouti" pattern and the chestnut agouti is the "agouti" pattern.   

The most basic color in the wild rabbits is the chestnut agouti: A-B-C-D-E-
The upper case letters show that these are the dominant genes, the - indicates that there may be another dominant gene or a recessive gene at that location but it's not obvious from the rabbit's appearance.   The photo above is a chestnut agouti English Angora.   "A" shows it's an agouti pattern,  characterized by the banded undercoat and chestnut tipping, white or tan circle around the eyes and under the nose, the tummy is light tan or whitish.  "B" indicates that it's black based.  "C" indicates it's full colored.  "D" indicates it's a dominate color thus the rabbit should have brown eyes. "E" indicates that the color is extended to all over the body.   

This is the same rabbit under the sun.   The color looks lighter but it's due to the light reflection.

The chestnut agouti babies are born solid black on the back and head without the tips.  The inside of the ears are pink and the tummy is also pink.   The tips will develop when the hair/wool starts to grow, the pink turns into tan or white.

This is black rabbit.  The difference between a black and a chestnut agouti is only by the pattern:
aaB-C-D-E-
If you compare the color genes of the chestnut agouti and the black, the difference is in the location of A.   The black is non-agouti, which indicates that there is no white or tan circle around the eyes or under the nose, no tipping.    The black color is all over the body.    aa is recessive.    Two black parents cannot produce a chestnut agouti offspring but two chestnut agouti parents may produce a black offspring if both carry the recessive "a" gene.

This is also a black rabbit but due to the sun the color is lighter.

The black babies are born solid black from the back to the tummy.  No pink anywhere.   The face will keep the black color but the rest of the body will turn gray when the wool grows.  

 

Joanna Enjoys Beautiful Outdoors

Weather is wonderful in the great Bay Area, not too hot, not too cold, blue sky, clean air.  

Joanna enjoys a outdoor photo op.

She is enjoying the session...

... and behaving well.