Sunday, March 16, 2008

The Otter Project



I think most people have some sort of "color" or "new breed" project that they are working on. It provides challenge to the breeder, and a sense of accomplishment with each new generation that is produced. I decided that I would work on a color that is not recognized in fuzzy lops. About the same time that I decided to work on Otters someone pulled the COD on the color. Perfect! I was able to acquire an otter holland lop that was (holland x fuzzy). He is smooth coated but carries the wool gene. So in a litter the probability is that 50% of his offpspring will be smooth coated and 50% of the offspring will be fuzzy. I spent many many months getting nothing out of this buck, and all of a sudden it seems like every doe he has been to lately has been bred! That is really exciting for me.




And I am proud to announce that I have my FIRST otter colored offspring in the nestbox. (which you can see in the photo above!) At this point I'm not sure whether it will be fuzzy or not, but it is broken black otter and has lots of white on it. Crossing fingers it will be fuzzy, because then this baby will have been statistically perfect! In all aspects, as long as the type is good, the baby will be staying here to continue on the generations. Yay! I feel that much closer to seeing that beautiful otter fuzzy lop I picture in my mind. How about a solid black or blue otter buck with a massive head and flowing wool? YUMMY!

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