Photo: China Doll - Ruby Eyed White Astrex Doe Astrex Are Coming To California (Nov 4 2007)
Great news from Golden Spike Rabbitry, Alberta, Canada. Helga Vierich-Drever who has been developing the Astrex rabbit in her rabbitry has sent a shipment of Astrex rabbits to a another breeder in California. This establishes a new breeding site to rebuild and redevelop the Astrex rabbit, an old British breed of wavy coated Rex rabbit.
Photo: Isadora - Blue Astrex Doe
This development has been going on quietly in Canada for a couple of years and now is branching out to spread the project to more locations. A recent dog attack at the Alberta rabbitry could have wiped out the project in Canada, making this shipment of rabbits to California quite timely and wise.
Congratulations to Helga and best of luck to Astrex fanciers everywhere!
Click the link below to get to the Golden Spike Rabbitry website
http://web.mac.com/helgav
ASTREX COATED FRENCH LOP PROJECT
July 23, 2006
Jessy Roe of Ipswich, Suffolk, England
I got my first astrex frenchie from another French lop breeder, to take on
the project. Soon after i got Percy i also got his brother and mum (astrex
carrier) in the hopes of starting the project.
I then had a litter of 2 from Poppy both astrex coated, but both bucks.
I also put one of my astrex bucks to an unrelated frenchie, to make me
another definate carrier. Only one of that litter survived (due to heat),
luckily a doe. That doe has now produced a litter of 7 to an astrex buck,
in which there are 3 astrex coated (2 does and 1 buck) and 4 regular furred
astrex carriers.
My original astrex suffered extreme hair loss last year, start of this year,
but he's all recovered now and it doesn't appear to be genetic as none of
the others have been affected.
I need to work on the curliest ones from now on to improve that part of it.
I will also say, if anyone wants to join the project, let me know and i'm
sure we can sort something out.
My website is
http://www.beep.com/members95/magic_lops there are some
pictures of them on there.
Feel free to write up about them. - Jessy
Here are some links I've found related to Astrex Rabbits.
I'll organize this as time allows.
ASTREX LINKS
7/26/06
Journal of Genetics, 1956, Vol. 54, No. 3, pp.506-513,
published by the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, India.
Focusing on Astrex Cats and Astrex Rabbit fur structure comparisons
http://www.rexsphynxklubben.dk/genetics.html
Nikki White's info page on Standard Rex/MiniRex, Australia
Good history of Rex rabbits, Astrex mentioned in paragraph 2
http://www.home.netspeed.com.au/reguli/rex.htm
7/23/06
Astrex Breed Info on the awesome tsukiyo.org site! (USA)
http://www.tsukiyo.org/BreedInfo/Profiles/Astrex/profile.html
7/20/06
Astrex Rabbits in Western Austrailia
http://members.iinet.net.au/~jabuck/WARCI/rex_breeds.htm
Astrex Rabbits in Western Austrailia
http://members.iinet.net.au/~jabuck/WARCI/rare_breeds.htm
Harlequin Rabbit History - Brief Mention of Astrex (USA)
http://www.geocities.com/~harlies/Html/history_harlie.html
Join the CurlyAstrexRabbits Yahoo!Group,
a mailing list focusing on Astrex Rabbits.
Click to join CurlyAstrexRabbits
Get the Book! "Domestic Rabbits & Their Histories:Breeds of the World"
By Bob Whitman at Rare Bits & Pieces.
Learn about The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Learn about American Rabbit Breeders Association
This website, the photos and the text are all copyright by Franco Rios
aka "The Rabbit Geek" 2005 and may not be used without permission.