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Long, long story, but the first two litters have satin angora mothers, and the father is from my astrex project. Angora, astrex, satin, and rex are all recessive, though, so they should have fairly normal coats.

The bottom litter is an astrex project litter, so hopefully at least some of them will have curly coats. Even the ones that aren't curly should still be rex.

In a nutshell, I had been trying to breed the two satin angora does to a satin angora buck, but they weren't having it. Both of them clamped their butts to the ground and wouldn't cooperate. Meanwhile, KickFlip, my astrex buck, was outside the 3-foot-tall pen I had them in, and was clear on the other side of the room.

I decide to call it a night, put the satin angora buck back, and while I'm setting him back in his cage, KickFlip races across the room, scales the pen, and in the twenty seconds before I can get down the stepladder and get in there to get him out, both does had lifted happily for him. One month later? Two mixed-breed litters because apparently Astrex bucks are sexier than angora ones.

Hahahahaha!!!!

When it works out, though, they're spectacular. The buck in this image isn't one of mine, sadly. He's from Goldenspike Rabbitry, iirc.

Fascinating! Good luck with your litters.

That is so fascinating. And that rabbit is so pretty. The coat looks almost poodle like. Are there breeders in the US?

@RipshinCreekFarm

The breeding group working on reviving the breed is mostly scattered around the US and Canada. The Canadian breeders are producing more consistently curled kits than most in the United States, though, with the very best examples coming from Helga Vierich's herd at Goldenspike Rabbitry.

@Haltanny, gotta make a few slight corrections there.

Rex-coated rabbits are extremely common in the US. Mini-rex are actually the most common breed of rabbit in the United States.

From the best evidence we have (based on Helga's very detailed breeding records), the curls of an astrex rabbit are the result of homozygous recessive alleles at three separate loci, not just one. Also, none of these loci are the rex locus.

However, the curls tend to show up better on a rex coat, particularly when the animal is young. So while rex is not at all a prerequisite for curls, and not all astrex are rex, the best examples usually are.

If I recall correctly, the rabbit who's image I posted earlier is not homozygous for rex.

I'll admit I don't know. My rabbitry is temperature-controlled, since I specialize in angoras, so mine never really have to deal with heat.

The only problems I've heard of people encountering with the curls is a tendency in some lines for poor furring on the feet (been struggling with this myself), and in some lines a tendency for the eyelashes to curl down into the eyes instead of away from them (thankfully not present in mine).

You can't really fault me from responding to what you actually posted instead of what you meant to post. I'm not psychic, despite my best efforts.

If they haven't already, encourage your friends who breed Astrex to join the facebook group. I stepped down as admin of it a while back due to time constraints, and haven't been terribly active recently, but it's a great group for networking and comparing notes.

I will say that almost all of the evidence I've seen assembled casts doubt on the "allele at the rex locus" theory. While the alleles that lead to astrex coats are certainly more common in rex populations relative to other breeds, nothing points to them actually occurring on the rex locus itself, or even being linked to it.

Kind of like how the dilution gene is very, very common in some lines of angora rabbits. Surprise blues and lilacs pop up in litters all the time--this doesn't indicate that the dilute allele shares a locus with the gene for long hair or is in any way linked to the gene for long hair, just that the allele for it is common in those particular angora populations.

As a side note--there is even some doubt that the "curly" alleles in question are more common in rex breeds vs other breeds. It's been proposed that because they are more noticable in a rex coat, and because rex breeders are more concerned with coat quality and texture, a kit with wave or curl to it's coat is just as likely to happen in, say, a dutch, but it's more likely to go unnoticed than it is in a rex litter.

I personally do think the curl genes are more prevalent in rex than other breeds, but it's still worth considering that there might be a biased level of reporting.

At any rate, it's a fascinating trait. I wish there were more labs interested in doing genetic studies on rabbit coat genes. Unfortunately, there's just not as much money in it as there is in dogs or horses.

It wouldn't be surprising if it were different. After all, look how many different kinds of "rex" gene there are in housecats. I can't tell them apart visually, but genetically they're quite distinct.