Standard: Color is to be a rich sepia brown on the nose, ears, feet, legs and tail. Marking color is to shade rapidly to a rich cream body color. The entire body is to be a creamy colo with whithe undercolor. Some Slightly darker shading is permissable on the saddle, but highly undesirable. Body surface color is to be lighter than the point color to give the proper contrast. Eyes-Brown
Breeding Sable Points 101
By Christine Mageles
from my article published in the October/ November issue of the NMRRC Newsletter
How hard can it be to breed Sable Points? Take a Sable Point buck and a Sable Point doe and in 31 days you have Sable Point babies -Easy! Well, that’s fine for those who are only interested in breeding for the color itself. After all, who can resist that smoky smooth shading that easily attracts the attention of all who catch sight of it? But for those of us who just can’t stop ourselves from thinking we’re going to be the first one in the country to win Best of Breed with a Sable Point, we have to figure out HOW!
Any new variety has it’s challenges with correcting body type and fur. Simply breed carriers out of your existing successful stock and in a generation you are on your way to perfecting it, right?! …WRONG! Our newest variety of Mini Rex not only has the typical type and fur issues, it has an even bigger obstacle -GENETICS. You’ll find it hard just getting a Sable Point kit in your litter, never mind trying to perfect it’s type!
When my son Michael and I decided to breed Sable Points, we had no idea what to breed to our existing foundation Sable Point doe. We had Himi’s and I knew they worked together with Sable Points, but didn’t know exactly how! We questioned several breeders who specialize in the "odd" varieties that no one really works on and took our own crash course in genetics from them. All the while experimenting with just about any variety that had Sable Point or compatible genetics in it’s pedigree. It was a lot of work! I’ve been asked to write this column so I can save you the trouble of going through what we did and explain it as simple and practical as possible. I am certainly no genetic expert and would love to pass the buck, but I have enough experience that I can help guide you through "Breeding Sable Points 101".
So, how DO you start out breeding quality Sable Points? First, the best way is to find a Sable Point to start your line. It will probably be one that was in the pet store a few years back because it popped out of a litter at a time when no one really knew what it was. And yes, it is probably PET QUALITY, but at least you will have the color to start with.
Next, you will need a suitable counterpart to breed the Sable Point to. The challenge to breeding Sable Points is that there aren’t many breeders out there who breed the varieties conducive to those needed for the proper colored Sable Point. These varieties would be those with the (c chl) gene, Sable, Himi and Seal.
First choice is the Sable. You really need a Sable to get true Sable Points. But of course we all know Sables are not approved yet and since most of us enjoy SHOWING rabbits more than breeding them, hardly anyone has Sables in their barn.
SABLES are your first choice when breeding to a Sable Point
Since Sables are hard to find, try the next variety, the Himalayan. Again, there aren’t many breeders out there who raise this color. Since Himi is not one of the popular colors on the show table, lending the average Himi body type genetics to the Sable Point may not be the quickest way to win that BOB win you are dreaming of. Don’t get me wrong, Himi’s have come a long way in the past few years, but the goal is to find a really good one!
HIMALAYANS are the 2nd choice to breed to Sable Points
So the next best color to use would be the Seal. Yes, it is yet ANOTHER variety very few "work on" and again it may be hard to find one with body type or fur good enough to pull out a Best of Breed offspring. Do you see where I’m going with just how difficult breeding this variety is?!
SEALS are the 3rd best variety to breed to Sable Points. Warning, there are 3 different types of Seals... the True Seal, the Dark Sable Seal, and the Self-Chin Seal. Read more later in this article.
To make matters worse, you must know to get Sable Points, the non-extension gene must be in place. The non-extension (ee) gene is also called the "tortoise" gene. It makes Blacks turn into Torts and Sables turn into Sable Points. Without this gene you’ll never get Sable Points no matter how nice your Sables, Himi’s or Seals are!
So now what do you do? You have two options. Option 1.) Breed your pet Sable Point to a really nice Sable, Himi or Seal. (Black is also a choice but as last resort, I’ll explain later.) Save those babies and breed back to Sable Point. Option 2) Make you own Sable Point from scratch
To make your own Sable Point from scratch you’ll need to have a Tortoise. You’ve got to make it a good one because this is the rabbit you’ll be seeing in every single Sable Point you have for years to come. You’ve also got to make sure it is a black based tort. You do not want chocolate or dilute in your Sable Point lines! Take the Tort to a really nice Himi, Sable or Seal. The resulting offspring should now have the non-extension (ee) from the tort and the (c chl) from the Sable, Seal or Himi. Save those babies and rebreed these carriers until you eventually get your Sable Point.
If you are breeding Sable Points from scratch, you will need to inject the shaded gene (or tort) into your line. The tort gene (ee) changes a Sable into a Sable Point.
Now that you have your Sable Point you are one your way to win that Best of Breed. But Wait! How come my Sable Point is really light colored and Billy Bob’s is so dark? (Do we know a Billy Bob?) You may have already noticed that Sable Points come in many different shades. What shade you get depends upon what variety you used in your line. Genetic make up produces different color results.
Assuming the following varieties carry non-extension here is what you’ll get…
* If you breed Sable Point to Himi, the shading of the resulting Sable Point offspring should be extremely clean and smut free, meaning the body will be almost white/creamy. The belly will also loose some of it’s shaded intensity, however the point color will remain in tact and pronounced.
Sable Point out of a Himi to Sable Point cross
*Breeding Sable to Sable Point will also give you a clean shading with a hint of creaminess over the saddle and a subtle shading over the tummy, feet and chest. This is the best, most correct shading in my opinion.
Minnow Lake's Sage
Very correctly colored Sable Point
*Breeding Sable Point to Seal will give you a variety of results depending upon just WHAT your seal is! Let me explain what I mean about the Seals...
Seals come in three "flavors". There is 1.) the "Self-Chinchilla" Seal, 2.) the "True" Seal and 3.) the "Dark Sable" Seal. It is hard to tell these flavors apart unless you test breed them. I’m not going to get into test breeding seals because I don’t want to step into that realm of complication. Not to mention, there is not a variety I dislike talking about more than the Seal. But I must give them the respect they deserve as the Seal can be very useful in your Sable Point program and you must know a little bit about them.
* The Self-Chin Seal can sometimes be mistaken for a dull black. When breeding the Self-Chin to Sable Point, your resulting Sable Point offspring will have a stark white appearance to the body and a heavy grey stripe up the flank of the animal. The shading will also be a heavy grey rather than the subtle sepia color we strive for.
These offspring are results of a "Self-chin" parent. Notice the stark white body and the harsh dark grey "Streak" on the flank. These animals tend to get very dark as they mature.
*The True Seal will be a "sepia" colored brown with brown eyes. Breeding a True Seal to a Sable Point can give the resulting Sable Point offspring a creamy yellow tone to the saddle and the shading will be soft and subtle around the face, legs and tummy.
* The Dark Sable/Seal is also a sepia colored brown with very subtle shading around the face and feet and will be extremely hard to tell apart from the True Seal. The only way you can tell is by shining a flashlight into it’s eyes. If there is a ruby glow to the eye, then you have a Dark Sable. Breeding to a Sable Point, the resulting offspring will have a very soft shading and fairly clean and smut-free throughout the entire body. The saddle will also be quite clean and free from unnecessary shading. A very good option to use to get correct colored Sable Points!
Offspring from a Dark Sable Seal. Not much shading over the flank or top, but just enough on the face, belly and legs.
EDITORIAL NOTE: I would also like to mention another genetic influence in Sable Point which was not in my origional article. The ORANGE Sable Point, for a lack of a better term, has been seen at some shows. This Sable Point has a VERY HEAVY Tortiose influence. It looks like a washed out tort but still has enough sepia coloring to count as a poor colored tort. This color is NOT desired by judges and risks disqualification on the table. The Orange Sable Point can be cleaned up with a generation or two of Himi breeding.
~ No picture of Orange Sable Point at this time ~
Last but not least, you can also use black in your Sable Point program. This would be a quick way to build type and fur in your Sable Points since black is a seriously competitive variety on the show table. Keep in mind that black is very dominant and it may take a generation or two to finally get your Sable Points. It would be best to find a black that carries already carries (c chl) and (ee). Again, make sure the black doesn’t carry dilute or chocolate. Be prepared to have that grey "stripe" over the flank when using black as they usually create self-chin.
So suggested colors to breed into your Sable Point line are Sables, Torts, Himi, Seal and lastly Black. Ruby-Eyed Whites are also fine as long as it holds the genetics for these colors. I strongly discourage using any other color in your Sable Points! Agouti's and tan patterns are a huge no-no as they will produce agouti marked and tan patterned Sable Points. Dilute colors are going to mess up generations to come by popping out unapproved colored rabbits of every kind.
Sable Points have been on the table only a short time, but one thing I’ve noticed is the inconsistency of judging the color. I certainly don’t want to offend any judges out there, but it seems each has their own idea and interpretation of the standard. I have heard some judges say the "clean" Sable Points are too light and that they prefer the smutty or heavy colored Sable Points. On the other side of the coin, I’ve heard some judges say they don’t want barely any color over the body and want the stark white appearance. Of course there are a few in between that acknowledge a new variety and don’t mind the huge fluctuation in colors they see. I think it is very important to realize that once we see consistency in breeding the Sable Point Mini Rex, we’ll see consistency in the judging.
So now you’ve gotten the crash course "Breeding Sable Points 101"! There is a lot of excitement surrounding Sable Points and I am hoping it will only get bigger as the quality improves and it establishes itself on the show tables. To all of you who have already taken on this gorgeous variety - Congratulations and Good Luck! To Koelyn Hooper who presented this beautiful variety and got them approved - Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!