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Astrex.The Astrex Rex is an extremely rare rabbit, thought to be extinct, but appears to have turned up in a few places around the world including Western Australia. The Astrex rabbit is a Rex rabbit that is covered with tightly curled fur over the body.
The photos don't show the crimp in the coat.
The Development of the Astrex in Western Australia.In 2001 a strange looking bunny was born in a litter of Normal Fur Silver Fox. Within 5 days, once its fur started to grow, it was obvious that this bunny was different to its brother. As its fur started to grow you could see that the fur appeared to have a “crimp” to it. As it grew the coat continued to develop differently. It appeared to have a crimp or wave and was quite curly in some places such as the belly. Luckily the breeder kept the baby to see how it developed.
As an adult the coat did lose some of its crimp but certainly retained a distinct wave. The coat was the length of a normal Rex coat (or fractionally longer) and was quite soft and dense. Unfortunately this first Astrex had terrible feet, and despite intensive treatment, always had sore hocks. In the end it had to be euthanased due to its painful hocks. No other Astrex have had a problem with their feet. The Silver Fox Parents were half brother and sister. Interestingly when the Silver Fox buck has been mated with another half sister no Astrex have ever resulted. Astrex have only occurred from this particular pairing of Silver Fox. The same two Silver Fox were remated and two more Astrex were born. They all had wavy coats, but some were softer than others. Normal Silver Fox were also born in these litters. One of these normal Silver Fox was later mated with the father of the Astrex and this resulted in one Astrex baby so this Silver Fox doe clearly carries the Astrex gene.
Once the breeder realized that they had something different they have made great efforts to breed more of these Astrex. Of course, in the rabbit Fancy, anything that is valued or precious either fails to breed or dies. This has occurred several times thus slowing down any attempt to increase the numbers or widen the gene pool. The original Astrex buck had such bad feet that efforts were made to breed from him before he was euthanased. He was put back to his mother (the Silver Fox) and produced an Astrex. He was also put with his sister and this too produced Astrex. To widen the gene pool he was also mated to a normal standard Rex. Only one baby resulted and this looked like a normal Rex with no waves in the coat. This one baby has since produced another doe that has a different coat again. Her coat is harsh to touch and has no waves. Whether she carries the Astrex gene remains to be seen. The babies that have resulted from Astrex to Astrex matings look very promising. Their coats are very curly and they have the distinctive”wave” on the edge of their ears. This wave disappears as an adult but is very distinctive in young babies. It is almost 2 ½ years since the first Astrex appeared. Despite intensive breeding there are still only 6 Astrex, 1 that carries Astrex and two that possibly carry the gene. Unfortunately only one Normal Silver Fox rabbit has survived from these matings, the original Silver Fox buck has died so the gene pool is still very small and precarious. However, hopefully, the gene can be saved so that we can have the lovely Astrex to admire again in the future.
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For problems or questions regarding this web contact Web Master Date this page was last updated: Saturday, 03 October 2009 |
