# what causes smut



## sheandg (Jul 23, 2010)

Ok I am wanting to work with oranges and the few I have are smutty not a nice clean orange. Even a judge kept looking at their coat and asked what color i called it? She was leaning toward tort otter but they are for sure oranges just bad coloring. What causes smut and what could be bred to an orange to improve it's color? I am not finding any info on the web.....


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## RAL Rabbitry (Jul 23, 2010)

I raised red mini-rex for a couple of years and the reds that came from castor(chestnut) breedings were smutty and had undercolor. I crossed them with my chocolate based reds to clean them up. I don't know if the chocolate smut was just harder to see but they were definately much cleaner and had no undercolor.


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## leo9lionheads (Jul 24, 2010)

Random modifiers your rabbits carry that are not yet linked to a specific gene are what cause the smut in oranges. One of these is the Rufus modifier and your rabbits may be more mid-spectrum between true oranges and reds. Truly the only way to correct this properly is breed to a true orange.

These smutty oranges tend to come from chestnuts where the Rufus modifier has no apparent effect.


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## bschneider13 (Jul 28, 2010)

I've had agouti REW and frosted pearls help clean them up.


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