Hello new member from southern california

[wildrabbits]

Hello I have been focusing on crossbreeding and distant line breeding for almost 3 years now and would love to get in touch with anyone who also crossbreeds rabbits for rare and unique traits!!!

I am currently working on Giant loppy eared magpie colored rabbits with astrex fur as well as giant rex/opossum rex rabbits as my main focus points and would love to hear from anyone experienced with crossbreeding =)

 

[Azerane]

Hello there and welcome.

I could be wrong, but I'm not sure there's many on here that do cross breed, most tend to stick to specific breeds. Are you aiming for the eventual development of a new breed for showing?

 

[pani]

Hello, welcome to RO!

I'm not a breeder and I don't really know anything about crossbreeding, but those mixes definitely do sound cute.

 

[wildrabbits]

I would love to develop new show breeds but most people seem to be quite closed mined to crossbreeding which to me seems very sad because it is how the origins of almost all purebreds we have today came about...If you look at how most "purebreeds" started if often involves mixing two or more breeds and then heavily inbreeding from crossbreeds which in turn, is followed by repeated linebreeding and inbreeding to keep them "pure" as far as I know this isn't good for any mammalian species...

 

[Azerane]

I understand your mindset, when most people think of cross breeding the first thought is of casual breeders, breeding their animals just because they can without any plan etc. Which I am against as a general rule, however you are absolutely correct that people seem to forget that most breeds are a result of specific cross breeding, as long as you're doing it in a structured way with a specific goal in mind for the development of a possible new breed I'm not one to argue. how long have you been working on it, would be interested to see pics if you're ok to share. New breed development definitely requires a large number of animals I would think though, otherwise as you mentioned, you risk having animals that are too closely related with a small gene pool.

 

[wildrabbits]

I have always tried to do extensive research on breed history/origin before considering any pairing then once I select a POL I cycle out the parent rabbits and litter mates for space and fresh bloodlines. I also study color calculations, inbreeding/AVK calculations, and other's past results before considering any distant line breeding among my crossbreeds.

 

[wildrabbits]

These are some of the rabbits I am working with, the pics are from last fall

 

[wildrabbits]

My thread intended for crossbreeding idea's and discussions was shut down by the administrator "Watermelons"...Should I seek out a different forum? It only makes sense to me to educate people as much as possible on the effects of crossbreeding before just shutting down an entire thread before someone has anything to say... crossbreeds and pure breeds of all kinds of animals end up in shelters..its the breeders responsibility to ensure good homes weather or not they only focus on purebred pedigreed animals...

 

[Azerane]

Given it's one of those "hotly debated" kind of topics, is possibly why, you would have to contact her for clarification.

Nice rabbits

 

[wildrabbits]

Well I thank you so much for being the understanding, smart, open minded type and the pleasant comment on my rabbits. I work very hard to grow most of their own organic food and take care of them the best I can.

 

[Lokin4AReason]

really pretty colour

welcome to the party ...