Genetic Color Help/yahtzee *from rabbitgeek notes oct 27 2007 There are a couple of genetic calculators online Here is Welsh's site for the genotype calculator. You can use it to get familiar with genetics. http://www.welshrabbitry.com/matrix.php Here is another calculator http://www.mammarabbit.com/rabbit_genetics.htm It has most of the basics down but not all of the genetics are included such as dutch, steel, and others but may be helpful. Computer genetic calculators are handy, including the Evans program, but they are not perfect. Understanding color genetics will help guide you through the maze. Color genetics is a lot like the dice game Yahtzee. You try to get sets of numbers to fill your scorecard. Sometimes you can "hold" or "fix" some of the variables by holding some dice before the next roll. This is the similar in genetics. You can hold some of the variables by using certain rabbits with known color genetic traits, and the rest is a roll of the dice to see what you actually get in the litters. Some people compare it to playing poker with two decks of cards. Some of our French Angoras were very good at throwing multi-colored litters that we called "party packs." Very exciting to see what kind of colors developed. The skin color when born can often turn into something unexpected and all we could do was wait for the kits to grow into their coats. I can recommend a little book called "Color Genetics of the Netherland Dwarf Rabbit" by Bobby Schott. This little book takes you through many of the basic color genetic principles in easy to understand language with lots of good examples and some simple pictures. Although the book is written for Netherland Dwarfs, the color genetics are the same for most breeds of rabbits. There are variations in color names in different breeds. Pam Nock has a website with lots of color charts to help get used to the color genetic codes used. http://nockrabbits.com Here is a yahoo group where color geeks hangout http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/rabbit_genetics That should keep you busy for a few hours. Have a good day! Franco Rios Rabbitgeek notes http://www.therabbitgeek.blogspot.com General rabbit info http://www.rabbitgeek.com

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