Lutino Angora Project.

I learned that this color is caused by a new gene that was discovered by random chance in a litter of harlequin netherland dwarfs in the 1970s. Before then, no one knew that this gene which is actually quite common in rodents and birds, existed in rabbits at all. It is an allele found on the P locus that acts as a partial albinism effect by removing all eumelanin and some pheomelanin (the two pigments responsible for coat and eye color I'm rabbits.) A lot of people believe, incorrectly, that the P in the P locus stands for "pink" or "pinking gene," but that is false. It gets it name from the p membrane protein (plasma membrane protein.) Eumelanin is a black pigment comprised mostly of tyrosine, and pheomelanin is a yellow/orange pigment that consists of tyrosine and cysteine. Though we have not extensively studied the p allele in rabbits, we believe that it works by blocking tyrosine, which removes eumelanin and most of the pheomelanin from the rabbits coat and eyes. Depending on the base color of the rabbit, this leaves the rabbit with a coat ranging in color from a bluish pink color known as Dove, to a deep pinkish orange color, known as lutino. The eyes will range from deep red pupil and red iris, to a red pupil and pink or purple iris. 

After learning this, my brain immediately jumped to my obsession with fiber and fiber animals. I came up with a plan to breed this color into the breeds of Angora that I breed, the English, French and German. While I love the idea of adding another color to the plethora of colors that these beautiful animals already come in, my main purpose is to create a source of natural pink or pinkish fiber. Think of the implications for the cottage industry! You would no longer have to dye to gets certain pinks. I believe it will be a huge benefit to the natural fiber industry and for fiber consumers as well. 

I began by finding lutino rabbits that I could breed into my angoras to introduce the color, but that was not as easy as it sounds! I first looked here in the US but of the handful of breeders who had lutinos, no one wanted to part with any. I ended up importing a netherland dwarf mini rex lutino doe from Europe, she was my very first lutino! I was quite happy with her type too, she mimicked the english angora type, a very round compact body with a good ride and hindquarters, just a bit smaller. I bred her to my best angora buck at the time, expecting to have normal furred and normal colored carriers....imagine my surprise when two of the babies turned out wooly! And I don't mean carrier wooly, they are very difficult to distinguish from a purebred angora! That little doe set me quite a bit ahead because she actually already carried a wool gene. Part of the reason this project has been so difficult is because I need to get 2 recessive traits, the lutino coloring (pp) and the wool gene (ll)  into one animal. I ended up getting more lutinos throughout the years, most were netherland dwarf or mini rex. I decided that instead of using my wooly carriers to breed into not just the english they were from but all the angora breeds would be a poor choice.....so I started from scratch with each breed, breeding the french to a lutino foundation animal, and the same steps with german as well to keep up the integrity of their wool and type. I am currently a little less than 6 years into this project. My English angora lutinos are on F4-F5 stage, and my French and Germans are on F3. I will not be releasing carriers from my project. When my lutino Angoras are bred back to above 90% angora I will begin to sell available stock. My goal is to apply for a COD with the ARBA For the lutino color group, but that's still a while into the future.....hey it never hurts to dream right?