Some breeding questions

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SRSimpson

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 1, 2014
Messages
54
Location
Upstate NY
Hello, I am still a very newbie breeder and am currently trying to build my foundation herd. I hope this is the right section to post this in.

When breeding mutations back to standards what phase standards should you look for? For example I have a lovely mosaic male and am getting a female for him. The person I am getting her from says she is a medium to dark standard female. What would you get if you bred an extra dark standard to a mosaic? I understand that the difference in standard adjectives is the veiling but how does veiling affect mutations?

I am primarily interested in ebonies and mosaics right now. What phase of standards do you recommend breeding them to?

Also, how many generations for ebonies do you wait to breed back to standards?

P.S. The mosaic male was shown and received a Reserve Class Champion at ECBC Nationals. I am a new breeder but trying to do things right. All of my animals are pedigreed and have been shown,so I know they good quality to start my herd with.
 
When breeding standard to mosaic the phase doesnt make a ton of difference. An extra dark standard will cause a higher chance of silver tipping creating a silver hue but spots are totally random.
With ebony, when crossing in standard go for darks and extra dark. You have a higher chance of darker ebony that way.
Each mute is different and depends on your goal. Some like lighter phases and others like darker. With ebony, bv and standard; the darker animals show better. But with beige, violet, sapphire... they do better with lighter phases.
 
I am primarily interested in ebonies and mosaics right now. What phase of standards do you recommend breeding them to?
Phase used to be more of a concern 10-20 years ago because extra darks were very red. They have come so far now that it doesn't really matter so long as your standard is improving your mosaic. I personally like the look and clarity of light animals, so my herd is built up of light standards. Most people breed medium-dark so finding light ones is pretty difficult.

Also, how many generations for ebonies do you wait to breed back to standards?
It depends on your ebonies. Do you have any standard lines that are nicer than your ebonies are? If not, keep going back to ebony until you find standards that have good enough quality to improve them. No need to go back into a standard just for color's sake.

The rule of thumb is to breed successively higher quality animals and the color (beige/mosaic/standard) isn't really important so much as clarity, density, size, white belly, etc. Clarity and color/hue are the easiest to lose and hardest to improve so those should be your top priorities. Density, size and fur type can come in one or two generations.
 
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