Mary Allen
In addition to the widespread normal hair, there are also rabbits with velvety short hair, fluffy long hair, shiny satin hair, or a lush beard.
The first hair mutation to appear in domestic rabbits was that of long hair. The first rabbits with longer hair may have appeared in the middle of the 16th century. At that time they were probably still wildly colored; the coveted white Angoras were only bred out of long-haired animals and albinos in the 18th century through combination breeding. The mutation is recessive, it is referred to as v. F1 animals with normal hair V and Angora hair v always have normal hair, only in the F2 generation do long-haired animals appear again.
The hair follicles have an internal rhythm with alternating active hair-producing phases and resting phases in which the hair matures and falls out. The mutation to angora hair causes the active phase to be lengthened, making the hair longer. Fox rabbits go back to a combination breeding between Angora and Havana and also carry the mutation to v.
It took a while until the next hair mutation, but this mutation hit like a bomb: In France in 1919, in two litters from the same doe, young animals appeared that were hairless for much longer as nestlings and whose fur also remained much shorter later. The village priest took care of the strange young animals and continued to breed them, but many of the offspring died so he had to include normal-haired animals in the breeding to consolidate the breed. In 1924 he exhibited the new breed under the name Castorrex in Paris. Castor is the scientific name of the beaver and the new breed was reminiscent of its precious fur; it is the “fur of the future”. No rabbit breeder wanted to be left behind, and huge sums were soon being paid for Rex rabbits, even those that were deformed. At the beginning of breeding, the young animals were very susceptible to illness, their first change of coat was stormy, during this time the losses were particularly high.
Shiny and Soft
Today such a breed would probably be banned from breeding, but the breeders managed to put the breed on a healthy footing so that Rex rabbits are now as vital as any other breed. They are called rex and are recessive to normal hair.
In the 1920s and 1930s, short hair was obviously the trump card, because nature invented the Rex fur not just once, but at least three times. In 1931, wavy-coated Rex rabbits appeared in England, a mutation that was itself recessive to the standard Rex. The new breed was referred to as the Asterix or Astrakhan Rex. The skins were nice on rabbits – they reminded me a little of Persian skins – but were usually damaged during tanning. Interest in the curly Rex, therefore, remained low and the breed died out. However, the genes are not all gone; in the USA attempts are now being made to breed Astrex out again.
The German Shorthaired Rabbit, with short, slightly curly hair, also appeared during this period. Crosses with the Standard Rex gave normal-haired pups, proving they were two different mutations. The short-haired rabbit did not gain importance and disappeared again.
1934 was the birth year of satin fur. In the USA, the breeder Walter Huey found a litter of Havana cubs with mirror-shining fur. The new mutation to satin turned out to be recessive to normal hair and is denoted as. To understand satin hair, you have to look at the hair under a microscope. A normal rabbit hair has a hollow medullary canal, which is divided into small chambers with transverse walls. Satin hair lacks transverse walls, making it more flexible than normal hair and appearing softer. The pigments are concentrated in a small space in the medullary canal and shimmer through the clear hairy cortex. This gives the colors a special intensity.
With Beard and Mane
Satin rabbits are not recognized by us, but they are very popular in other countries. Unlike satin guinea pigs, satin rabbits can be bred pure without any problems. Cavy Satin Syndrome, which leads to kidney failure and bone problems, is completely unknown in rabbits.
Two new mutations were needed for the bearded rabbits, which were discovered in the 1950s. Unfortunately, it is not known exactly when they were created. Their partial long hair is due to a recessive factor z, which is responsible for the beard and the dark markings, and the somewhat enigmatic but quite dominant factor M for the expression of the long hair. Otherwise, it is a wild-colored animal, often with a red enhancer. So the gene formula is ABCDGyzM. The longhair strongly dominates; possibly the factor M is a quantity gene, which accumulates more and more. Crossing a bearded rabbit with a normal-haired one results in kittens with no markings or beard, but with a few long fringes on their heads that often disappear in adulthood. Bearded rabbits have nothing in common with Angoras; Their long hair differs significantly in structure and color from Angora’s hair.