#i have to wonder what the folks who argue so strongly against making tort an official variety are actually breeding Silvers for

[bunposting]

Super hot take. I mean like the hottest take ever in the history of rabbits. The literal spiciest take of all time. The carolina reaper of takes, even.

If a color variety is endemic to a breed, it should probably, in many if not most cases, be an accepted variety for that breed.

Ok so now that all the color purists are foaming at the mouth and running to their keyboards to chew me out, lemme explain for those who might not know what I'm talking about. As usual, this will be lengthy and in depth because I am incapable of Shutting Up.

Those three color varieties are black, brown (chestnut/agouti), and fawn. The thing with these three color varieties is that with one main exception (we'll get to that in a moment), you're not going to get any colors except those three when you intermix them. If you breed a black to a brown, you'll get browns and blacks. If you breed a brown to a fawn, you'll probably get browns. It makes sense to generally not want to intermix them though, because in theory if you mix these colors, it can result in the kits not having quite the depth of color you want (apparently. This is what I was told by other Silver breeders). A black to a brown could result in browns with too much black, and blacks that aren't as deep as would be desirable. A brown to a fawn could result in browns that are just too dull or light in color. I can understand the reasoning behind not wanting to do this kind of color mixing, especially in a breed where fur color is such an important part of their Standard of Perfection. (In fact, other than silvering and fur texture.. it is *the most important* part in the modern Silver standard... I have opinions on that, but I've shared some of those in a separate post)

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Example that I am currently aware of in the breed I am currently working with: The Silver technically only has three accepted color varieties for the breed in the United States (four in the UK, but we'll get to that in a moment). That means there are only three color varieties that can be shown, and generally means only three color varieties that will be considered 'part of the breed.'

Remember how I mentioned about the UK having a fourth accepted color variety? You'd think - well considering the only other endemic color that isn't red-eyed white is tort, it's gotta be tort, right? NOPE. It's blue. Where does blue fit in the other three color varieties? It doesn't. It's the dilute of black, yes, but the dilute gene isn't present in any of the other varieties, so technically, dilute isn't a gene that should generally exist in the breed. The only way you can get purebred blue Silvers is to import them from the UK. Other than that, you've got to do some crossbreeding in order to get it, and doing that means you need years and years of careful breeding to take all the traits of the rabbit you're using for crossbreeding out of the breed you're going for. It's a long, difficult process that requires a lot of breeders to work on it, a lot of money, a lot of cage space, and a lot of culling. There had been a Certificate of Development (CoD) for blue Silvers in the states, but it just expired this year because folks just couldn't keep up with it and there wasn't enough interest I guess.

The one typical exception is black to fawn. This pairing can result in a new color, known as black tortoiseshell (or black tort - I'll just be referring to it as 'tort' here). Basically that means the rabbit has a primarily fawn body with black points and black belly/side markings. The other less typical exception is red-eyed white, but this is, so far as I can tell, fairly rare compared to tort in the case of Silvers. Which is good, because perhaps the most important part of a Silver is the silvering, and you can't see silvering if the rabbit is already white. This is one case where a potentially endemic color variety is one that definitely shouldn't be accepted I think, especially considering it's not a common thing to have pop up.

(disclaimer for the two above paragraphs; this is based on the knowledge I have of rabbit color genetics. I absolutely do not claim to be an expert in color genetics and it is a topic I am definitely still learning. If something mentioned is inaccurate, please let me know!!)

Why is that relevant? Because one of the main reasons I was told why tort Silvers shouldn't be a thing, other than just being told that "we don't need another variety," is that getting a CoD and creating a new variety is such a long and difficult process.

That's just it though - it's not a long and difficult process in this case. The color variety already exists in the breed. There's no need to worry about the rabbits having the wrong body or fur type or not having enough silvering any more than you would any other Silver, because they're already purebred Silvers. The effort is minimal, to be honest. It wouldn't be any different than breeding and showing any other 'normal' Silver with the exception of needing to write the standard - which, again, would be as easy as looking at any other breed's standard for the black tort coloration and pretty much just copying and pasting that into the color section. Is it maybe more difficult than I'm able to perceive it as? Sure. Maybe. But that doesn't negate the reason why this is important.

And why is it important?

Because Silvers are already an incredibly endangered breed. They're already genetically bottlenecked enough as it is, not just because there's only about 500 left in the world, but also because breeders insist on only breeding pure colors. Tort Silvers could contain extremely valuable genetic variation to help prevent some of that bottlenecking.

Because tort Silvers are freaking beautiful. I've been told on numerous occasions how stunningly beautiful a tort Silver can be. Beautiful rabbits draw in more breeders. A rare breed can only be saved if there are enough breeders willing to keep it alive. If people can get interested in the breed from this variety, it could be a key to helping to save the breed.

Because we don't need to be wasting anymore perfectly good genetic material. Yeah this kind of ties in with point number one, but here's the other side of it: if tort Silvers aren't an accepted variety, that means any tort Silver technically should be culled. I wish it were as easy as saying "well just don't breed blacks to fawns then." Problem is, folks have already done it, and they've already sold the offspring, and those offspring have already bred and become part of the overall gene pool. It is entirely possible and honestly not even that uncommon to pair a black Silver to another black Silver, to not know of any fawn in the immediate pedigrees of either one, and to end up with a litter of over half black tort. By the logic of breeders right now, those entire litters are pretty much worthless beyond maybe food or fur, or at least the tort half are. This breed can't afford to have 'worthless' rabbits that otherwise fully meet the breed standard and would be a good candidates for continuing the breed.

And so, to make a long story short, especially in the case of a rare breed like a Silver, it is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion and honestly potentially damaging to decide that a truly endemic color variety (especially one that is commonly found in litters where it wasn't even being intentionally bred for) can't or shouldn't become an accepted variety for a breed.