Harlequin lion head?

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Pharfly

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2011
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Location
GP, Alberta, Canada
I picked up this girl today:
001-41.jpg

She is single maned, the lady I got her from got 2 for her kids and had planned to give them away before winter... The other one escaped.
She is female and around 4 months old, about 2lbs. She told me it was a "dwarf" rabbit.
So my question is she a harlequin lion head cross or are people breeding lion heads in the harlequin color?
I can get more pictures of her tomorrow.
 
Thanks for the reply! Tricolor didn't even cross my mind lol! I learned mouse genetics and this trait is called Brindle in the mouse world, if my girl was a mouse she would be broken brindle. Even though she shows 3 colors. Like broken tan mice are also not tris.

She does have some more stripes, on her other side, her back feet. Are broken Harlequins called tris? Of course she is not a perfect example of a harlequin, she was probley from a petshop or a backyard breeders who's goal is to make money.
More pictures
003-36.jpg

002-51.jpg
 
Harlequin is the solid pattern of the red/black mixing Tri-Color is the broken pattern and is most commonly seen in a spotted pattern. like this
BrokenTriRexWY.jpg


Heres a tri color holland
rabbits_mini_lops_holland_lops_netherlands_and_more_-_Front_Royal_-_Animals_-_tri_color_netherland_dwarf_4.jpeg


Yours looks like either a broken harle or a VM harle

People do breed lionheads in the harlequin color so yes your rabbit is a lionhead and the color is harlequin
 
Now I am no breeder or shower but actually this was just explained to me a few days ago by an arba member. A friend had her bunny out at the bunny spa and I remarked that the color was harlequin. A gal at the spa showed me that the bunny is a mismarked harlequin due to not having a split face and a nicely striped body. If the lionhead is a harlequin then she would be a mismarked harlequin.
 
She looks vienna marked as well. Her face and paws look like dutch markings, but can be caused by the vienna gene. The gene is what causes blue eyed white rabbits, but a rabbit needs 2 copies of he gene to be BEW since it is recessive. Having one copy means the rabbit can have white markings on the face and paws. Sometimes the eyes are blue or can even be part blue and part brown.

I think there might be some people in Alberta working on Harlequin lionheads, so she might have come from those lines at some point. Not totally sure, but hard to know what people are playing with.
 
I don't know anything about what the coloring is called but just wanted to say she is a total doll!

And how unfortunate that a mom got bunnies for her children to be gotten ride of a few months later. :nerves1 that seems to me a great way tom teach kids that pets are disposable. How sad.
 
Just adorable! :inlove:

I have two lion heads but their ears are much smaller than hers. She looks young to me because her body is so small yet her ears a larger which makes me think she is going to get bigger. I am not a breeder or even an expert on breeds. Just comparing to my two girls.

I can see why you brought her home :biggrin2:
 
Thank you all! I love her dearly her name is Tiger Lily. She is a sweet heart! I only looked into rabbit genetics a bit the VM harlequin fits. I remeber the one copy of the gene gives the "dutch" look and 2 copys the BEW. I saw the add on kijiji with her and emailed them right away. I always wanted a lion head, I have found a breeder about 2 hours away so I haven't made my way up there.
 
I have a lionhead too, she is on my gravatar picture on my profile; her name is Lily :)
 
So cute! I have never seen a harlequin Lionhead!
 
To produce a harlequin lionhead would you breed a lionhead to a harlequin?
 

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