Understanding Rex Fur

Preface

Fur is one attribute that absolutely requires you to touch hundreds of different coat structures in order to learn what correct fur feels like. The language used to describe those attributes is subjective as we try and find the right words to convey what you are feeling physically. This is why the opinions of breeders and judges can be hugely varied. And with fur often being the biggest deciding factor at shows, opinions of coats can change placements dramatically. Rex fur is more complicated than most people realize. Most attributes of fur are also a range - not just something you have or you dont. There are thousands of combinations of traits that can change the overall way the coat feels. Lets break it down.

Intro & Standard of Perfection (SOP)

Rex fur is a recessive gene. It consists of the undercoat mostly and very short guard hairs. Soft is considered a negative commentary. The ideal Rex fur is described as Plush. It should stand up straight. The colors will not appear as intense as commercial or satin fur.

SOP: 40 points (50 if you include color)

Fur is to be extremely dense with length no less than 1/2’ or more than 7/8”, ideal length 5/8”. Fur is to be straight, upright, and as nearly as possible, the same length and texture over the entire body. Fur is to have a lustrous appearance. Guard hairs are to be very plentiful and evenly distributed, but not too noticeably protruding. Fur is to be of good body and plush-like effect, offering a distinct springy resistance to the touch. It should feel extremely smooth to the touch, but must not have a soft silky texture, which would destroy the springiness.

Faults - Dullness or lack of luster; noticeably protruding guard hair, particularly if curly; coarse, harsh or wiry texture; wavy or uneven appearance; soft or silky texture; lack of guard hairs, causing fur to lie flat when stroked.

Disqualifications - Any of the above faults, if severe enough to destroy typical Rex appearance. Average fur length less than 1/2” or more than 7/8”

Hair Structure

Color

Tone

Just as you would imagine, the tone of the color can vary. Each variety will have an ideal tone. Typically breeders/judges prefer tones that give the coat the most rich color. For example, lilac can be a purple/silver tone or they can have a very blue tone. The purple tone is the ideal. Chocolates can have a warm yellow tone or a grey ashy tone. The yellow is ideal. The tone is going to come from genetic modifiers that you will just need to keep and breed to continue producing the color you want.

Intensity

Color intensity is also straight forward. Richer, more intense colors are ideal. You dont want washed out colors. Sometimes the Depth of color can impact how the color looks as well. See below.

Rufus

The word used to describe the intensity of the genetic yellow pigmentation on an animal, such as the intermediate band of agoutis or the yellow shading on the belly and face of otters. Rufus level can affect all colors, not just the ones that express it like Otter and Castor. You want as high of rufus as possible.

Depth

Depth of color is quite literally the length of the tip color down the hair shaft. The color should extend as close to the skin as possible resulting in more intense color saturation. A good example for distinguishing depth of color vs intensity and tone: a blue with very light, washed out color will not become a darker tone of blue even if the depth of color was down to skin.

Depth of color does not apply to agoutis because they have different color banding.

Individual Attributes

Length

Length refers to the total length of the coat. This is a fixed, measurable attribute. The standard lays out an ideal length of 5/8”. You wont see judges whipping out a ruler during a show though. One trick you can use to quickly gauge length - when you use your index and middle finger to scissor pinch the coat the ideal length should only be just longer than your fingers.

A few nuanced pro-tips…a shorter length of coat can give you a false sense of density and resistance because it takes less hair structure to hold up a shorter coat. A long coat requires substantially more density and resistance to hold it up comparatively. While you’ll want to preference too short rather than too long, dont let a short coat fool you when evaluating for density and resistance. Lots of breeders use this as a shortcut instead of breeding for real density and resistance. But with the correct length, density and true resistance that coat will ultimately feel superior.

Resistance

Resistance is the ability of the coat to hold up to pressure. It’s the characteristic spring and plushness of the Rex coat. It’s what allows you to press onto the coat with a flat hand and not leave a handprint. This is the essence of the coat. Without great resistance, an animal will never be competitive at any high level of competition.

On a structural level, the resistance is going to primarily be the thickness of the hair shaft and the evenness of the shaft thickness (versus tapering from root to tip). And while on a microscopic level we could measure this, we have to have other ways to determine level of resistance by hand.

People have different ways of determining resistance. This attribute is also very hard to evaluate and I find even seasoned breeders don’t fully understand it. Resistance can also be mixed up with extreme density or short coats so it makes evaluating harder. One method is to lightly tap the surface of the coat to feel the bounce-back, and springiness of the coat. Another method is to push your flat hand down on the coat and feeling the amount of force required to push down and how much handprint is left. You can also brush the coat back and forth and more resistant coats will spring back to a standing position and not lay flat. You can also lightly touch the surface of the coat and a gentle wiggle back and forth on a resistant coat will actually feel like it kinks back and forth.

High density and short coats can create an illusion of resistance.

The criticism “too soft” usually refers to resistance and not texture but this is a common misconception.

Finish

Finish is another extremely important factor when it comes to being competitive at shows. There are three variables that make up finish: the length of the guard hair, the number of guard hairs and the evenness of the guard hairs.

The guard hairs should be plentiful in order to produce that really tight, smooth Rex finish. The guard hair should only be just longer than the undercoat.

Evenness of the guard hairs is also something many people do not fully understand. You can have Rex that have genetically uneven hair. Many breeders think that rabbits with uneven coats are just molting (because molty coats will have different lengths as the new hair is still coming in). But in fact you can have rabbits that are in finished, prime coats but are still uneven.

Finish is different than condition. Too many judges do not distinguish this unfortunately. Judges use the word finish interchangeably between the two. The word finish can be used in a few different applications and mean different things. When a rabbit has good finish we mean that the evenness and quantity of guards hair is good. When a rabbit IS finished we mean that its coat is primed and not molting. When a judge says that a rabbit placed because its less finished then YOU as a breeder need to interpret which scenario is the cause. Do you know that your rabbit is still molting into coat and so unevenness is due to coat condition? Or is your rabbit not molting and so the finish is genetically uneven?

Density

Density is another measurable trait. It literally is the number of hair follicles per square inch. Again, however, not something quantifiable without a microscope so we must come up with methods of evaluating by hand. Scissor pinching to evaluate is common. You can also blow into the coat - the denser the coat the less skin you will see.

Density can be misinterpreted because some other traits can make an animal feel denser than it actually is though. Cottony textured coats have more grip and often get mistaken for density. Highly resistant coats can feel denser. Animals in the middle of a molt where the old and new coat are both still on the skin can give a false sense of density; this is called being Double Coated.

Texture

Texture is the one trait that is not quantifiable. Texture is a combination of how the other attributes (density, resistance, finish, and length) interplay with each other, on top of other physical characteristics of the hair shaft. Let me explain. The cuticle is the outer surface of a hair. The cuticle can have different patterns, it can be coarser or smoother. The hair shaft can taper from root to tip. The shaft can be thicker (resistance). The length of the coat can make the coat drag differently as you run your hand across it. The number of guard hairs can affect how much grip it has. etc etc etc. There are thousands of textures out there and so its really something that you have to put your hands on a lot of coats to really learn all the nuances and pick apart WHY the texture feels the way it does.

In the same way that resistance is the essence of the Rex coat. A coarse texture is a killer when it comes to showing. Having a coarse coat is almost an immediate low placement. It ruins the appeal of Rex fur. Having said that, theres a strong belief by many breeders that breeding coarse rabbits to overly soft ones will correct the texture. Personally, I dont think its quite that straightforward because texture can be such a complex thing. But most people dont mind breeding a coarse rabbit. Some rabbits are coarse as babies and molt it out. Ive seen some normal babies suddenly develop coarseness as seniors. Some people will tell you that coarse rabbits that molt out end up with better resistance (Ive had some lines that this was true but Ive also had plenty that had great resistance and were never coarse, so this is probably bloodline dependant and not a finite rule about Rex fur and resistance).

Because texture is a physical experience, everyone uses their own adjectives to describe it which may or may not be helpful. Ive heard texture described as juicy, even! Generally, texture can range from creamy to silky to coarse and so on.

Condition

Condition is the life and cleanliness of the coat. Condition is also the firmness of flesh. Animals with dead, molting, sunburnt, ungroomed, or old coats will lose points for condition. Animals with poor flesh like overall thin (underfed), protruding pinbones, loose skin, over-conditioned (aka fat), excessive skin rolls, sore hocks, etc.

Timing, Staging, Development & Primes

Young Rex go through predictable molts into what we call Primes. Prime coat means the new coat has fully come in and has new life to it. Over time as the rabbit ages the subsequent coats will have less life to then compared to first young coats. This is why Rex show careers are only 5-12 months. They’re born with an immature baby coat. The baby coat can be very wiry, long, lacking correct color banding, or very uneven. No worries as their iconic Rex coat comes in quickly. The first major molt is a Jr Prime. This starts around 12 weeks and is usually complete between 18-24 weeks. Each individual rabbit and individual bloodlines will prime at slightly different times. This age is the first time you can properly evaluate fur quality. Their next predictable molt is the Sr prime. The Jr coat usually starts to die and molt just after 6 months old. The Sr prime will usually finish coming in around 9-12 months. The rabbits’ coat will increase in density between the Jr molt and Sr molt. This is the most competitive show coat.

Rex coats are a lot more dependent on the quality of feed than many people realize. Poor quality feed will cause irregular molting and dead coats. If you are experiencing unpredictable Prime coats from 3-10 months of age then reevaluate your feed.

Rex coats WILL NOT improve with supplements or conditioners. So long as you’re feeding a consistent, high-quality feed then no supplements are needed. Higher protein feeds are sometimes believed to force rabbits so molt dead coats but Rex show primes are from 5-12 months and they’re going to molt on a schedule due to age development usually. Older animals can be given BOSS to help complete a heavy molt though.

Rex coats molt bottom to top and back to front. Typically over the saddle will finish last. This is why you often see judges evaluate mostly from the sides.

Grooming

Rex coats do not require regular grooming like angoras. Old rabbits going into hard molts can have the large chunks pulled out in order to prevent gut stasis from hairballs, but otherwise, no regular brushing is required.

At shows, grooming is ESSENTIAL. Dead hairs can ruin the texture and finish. Do not use any conditioners. People have various methods of grooming. You can use the following: dog grooming vacuum, charcoal horse brush, atomizer with water, and lint roller.

Do not bathe a rabbit. If they’re dirty they will clean themselves. The most you need to do is wipe it down with a damp cloth.

A few other notes….
Astrex - A rare gene that makes the rex coat wavy. DO NOT keep these animals. Astrex is associated with health problems in Rex. True astrex will not molt out. I’ve seen some babies start wavy and then eventually molt out.

The standard states for Rex coats to be lustrous. Not a matte finish. Too lustrous though produces a silky texture which is explicitly listed as a faulted texture.

Pigmentation differences between varieties can affect the coats. For example, there is a texture of fur that is exclusive to whites due to the difference in pigment vs blacks. Dilute colors such as blue and lilac are extremely difficult to be competitive against full pigment colors like black because the dilution of the pigment makes the hair shaft finer and softer by nature. Dilute colors have to have twice as much resistance to hold up. The finer hairs also technically make it possible to cram twice as much density per square inch though!

Good black don’t guarantee good blues. You have to breed dilute colors to be good dilutes because the hair shaft is structurally thinner and softer. Also even when we talk about tone, my deepest blacks used to make my worst colors blues. There’s an old myth that breeding too many generations of blues together will wash out the color and you need to breed a black every now and again to combat that. This has been disproven.

There are certain bloodlines that breeders have bred in the genetic trait to molt consistently over the entire body. Yes, it’s possible! These animals always look like they’re in a perfect coat, just with variable amounts of density. How coats molt is another variable to consider. And the timing of when they molt can be bred to happen early or late. You can also breed for animals that hold prime coats for longer than others. There are so many nuances to coat development.

An additional thought when it comes to developmental traits, some lines have juniors with very little density but it comes in hard with seniors prime. However, this is not true for all Rex. Some lines had strong junior density and only improve slightly with senior prime. That’s why it’s important to understand how bloodlines develop.

Some breeders claim that coarse baby coats mean more resistance. I’ve had lines that did act like this but over the years I’ve also had very resistant lines that don’t do this. So I, personally, believe this to be a trait of those specific bloodlines and not a universal scientific rule that can be applied to all rex coats.

Animals with higher quality coats will have more well-furred ears and more well-furred foot pads, protecting them from sore hocks.