MRCA Valentine's Show in Plymouth, CA: Feb 13th, 2016

We actually travelled 2.5 hours to a rabbit show last weekend. It was fun to get away with my "little" and see the much less crowded area around Sacramento. Plymouth is only 45 minutes away, but feels so much better & is much less hectic.


Our Genetics:
All in all, we brought 8 baby rabbits to the show. We needed some more input from other Angora breeders about what color our three agouti-like kits were, and we got that! They are agouti, even though my two parents are not agouti-looking at all, one carries the big A genetically.


Here is the Sire Winchester (not looking agouti at all):

 No agouti rings in this wool:

 No characteristic agouti white parts on ears, face, nose, eyes, etc. :

And the Dam Blueberry (smoke pearl; not looking agouti either):
No agouti rings in this wool:

 No characteristic white markings of agouti on this face:

So, which is the agouti? Blueberry has had two other litters, one with an agouti sire, and one I don't have details about. There is no suspicion of agouti with this dam. With Winchester, a junior buck at time of breeding, he has steel in his pedigree. This was his first litter. I suspect him, as opposed to her, to be an agouti. As I have read other posts about "self" colored rabbits being steel rabbits masking agouti genes.


The two white kits described in earlier posts are smoke pearl chinchilla/agouti, and the "opal" is an opal. Although I would call him more of a lynx in color.
Smoke Pearl Chin: Twinkle (sold in California that weekend)

Opal or Lynx kit: Baked Potato

Showmanship:
Evan did showmanship as a novice at the show. We never got the results of how he did however. No awards were given for novice or peewee. We were both disappointed. We study the judge's sheet on showmanship to remember what to learn or do better for the next time. Oh well, on to the 4-H Leader's Show in March, in Reno. Evan did showmanship with Pudge, the other smoke pearl chin from this litter.

 

MRCA SHOW:

We entered all 8 remaining babies from Blueberry & Winchester's first litter, and did well. In show A our bucks Pudge and Twinkle were called Judge Kendal's "favorite junior bucks," but both were disqualified for being an unshowable color. One of our self blue junior bucks won a leg instead. He was sold to Julie in Southern California following show A.  Twinkle was sold to Jesse following show A as well.

In show B Pudge won a leg, as the judge did not recognize that late in the day, while running behind time-wise, that smoke pearl chin was not a showable color. He did however catch that one of my bucks had a white toenail (Thumper) and was disqualified. He also noted that my doe Cinder had two white nails as well. Both of these lovely little buns will now be destined for fiber bunny or pet houses, as we do not have the room to keep the whole litter, and are in greater need of show bunnies in our breeding lines, rather than purely fiber bunnies.

Hot Cocoa:

In other rabbitry news, I got a chocolate rabbit for Valentine's Day! We named her Hot Cocoa, although Valentine also suits her. She is a beautiful & sweet self chocolate doe from Black Diamond Rabbitry! Thanks Charlotte!