[Sangreaal]

Yeah, I've looked and looked for a blue soragoi for months, turning up alot of greys from light to sooty. Finally found a Hiroshin soragoi that might work, though I am a bit concerned over its conformation. It's a little long and lanky, with a hint of gold/brown on head, tail and motoguro, a 7" tosai. It's a good inch or two longer than some of its siblings I've seen, and out of those, each one was a different conformation and skin type. One was a very pretty doitsu, and I'm not so fond of doitsu types as a rule, simply because I'm a scalation and fukurin nut. But it had the best conformation of the four I saw, smooth sleek lines of power. The other two were ginrin, both smaller than the one I selected and the doitsu. One was really built up in the shoulder area and had a powerful build overall, really musclebound looking. The other had a smaller framework and a little narrow. No two of the four were really anything alike.
The one I chose:

Really ochiba-like, huh. (comments on conformation, etc, welcome please)

I am not at all surprised that there will only be a handful of nicely patterned ochiba out of a gazillion fry. I'd expect that from such a new line.

Lots of study yet for me to do before any breeding attempt, thus collecting various tosai to observe how they grow out and develop first-hand.

Marie

Quote: Originally Posted by MikeM Patterning is by chance. So, out of a million fry, some will have the patterning a person likes. Many Ochiba fry, however, develop with smears of weak color, like the original Hariwake. It is the contrast of intense pigments that creates the strong impression, and that is not very common. I have no idea if the Ogata Ochiba you posted were from Ochiba x Ochiba, or Soragoi x Chagoi, or some other permutation.... But, blue-gray Soragoi are apparently pretty rare. DickB observed a couple of weeks ago that the best way to find a good Soragoi is to find a good Ochiba whose "leaves" fade away. LOL