Zeus is one of our up and coming young bucks. He's a friendly little guy and as of this writing (September, 2017) is still a young buck and not old enough for buck duty yet. He's got a great 'attitude', although ARBA doesn't give any points for that on the show table.
He's had his first major grooming. In order to determine how much maintenance their coat will most likely need, we let their first coats grow out with very minimal grooming. His coat had a few more mats than I would prefer for a herd buck so we aren't sure how often he will have buck duty.
Other than temperament, fiber quality or conformation, another reason bunnies are bred is for certain colors. As an albino from two black parents, more than likely he is a black bunny hiding under that albino whitewash. Which, if you follow coat color genetics of bunnies, you'll know that's all dominants. So we don't know if his offspring would be any colors other than black and white. Although the black bunnies do produce a lovely silvery gray wool used for the 'Moonlit Dance' color of Hula Bunny yarn and the white is used for the 'Coconut Dream' color. White is also good for dyed yarns. So, he may have buck duty to provide us with more white bunnies. Ruby Eyed White bred to REW results in 100% REW babies.
It should be pretty easy to tell which is the 'before' picture and which is the 'after' picture. As you can see, Zeus likes to mat his wool behind his ears and over his shoulders. The mats also cling to the wool growing in, so they pretty much need to be cut out instead of pulled apart and plucked off. This isn't the ideal coat I'd like to see, although it is his first coat so we will see how his next coat grows in.
The texture is nice although he could use a little bit more of a 'silky' feel. It isn't a 'cottony' feel, but it's not 'silky' either. Generally, I prefer them to have a bit more of the silky feel to their wool. Zeus' coat is very soft with no hint of harshness, so that's good.
Conformation wise, he's an overall 'good', although he could keep his ears up a little more. He's still a young'un, though and is at that awkward teenage stage. Once he gets past the gawky teenage stage, we will see what he looks like.
Zeus provides fiber for the creamy white "Coconut Dream" color of Hula Bunny yarn.
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