TinysMom
Well-Known Member
I really need to start a notebook and write down a lot of this stuff instead of trying to keep it in my head.
First of all - I breed mainly light gray flemish giants. I do have a white (but I'm not breeding him because he carries steel possibly) and I have a black flemish giant.
Most of my flemish are topping out around 16 or 17 pounds as adults. They don't look nearly as impressive as the sandies that are shown here in Texas (then again - its hard to look impressive against them).
When I look at my herd objectively there are two or three issues that I see. I would like to get larger heads (but not massive heads) - and I would like to see more its hard to put it here...its not exactly width or depth...but a bit more massive body?
Nyx (black) was bred with Mercury - my main herd buck. In her first litter - she had a buck that had a nice large head - but he was steel so I did not use him in my breeding program because I know steel can mess things up.
I've rebred her and have mostly steels and blacks in this litter - but I'm seriously considering keeping one of the steel bucks because I can tell already that the way he is developing - he's going to have the large head and body that Schioppi (her first son) did. There is also a black buck in the litter that is developing about the same way.
My question is - I know that I shouldn't breed steel to light grays because it can mess things up - but if I did breed the steel to light gray and only kept the light gray babies - wouldn't my lines be free of the steel gene since that is dominant? Or could the steel still pop up somewhere down the road?
I know Juan Perez has written an article about this (on the National site) and with his many years of experience he's against using steels.
But right now I don't have a lot of money to bring in another rabbit - and if I brought one in - I'd want to do it from his lines or lines outside of Texas...
Help?
Breeding Light Grays by Juan Perez
First of all - I breed mainly light gray flemish giants. I do have a white (but I'm not breeding him because he carries steel possibly) and I have a black flemish giant.
Most of my flemish are topping out around 16 or 17 pounds as adults. They don't look nearly as impressive as the sandies that are shown here in Texas (then again - its hard to look impressive against them).
When I look at my herd objectively there are two or three issues that I see. I would like to get larger heads (but not massive heads) - and I would like to see more its hard to put it here...its not exactly width or depth...but a bit more massive body?
Nyx (black) was bred with Mercury - my main herd buck. In her first litter - she had a buck that had a nice large head - but he was steel so I did not use him in my breeding program because I know steel can mess things up.
I've rebred her and have mostly steels and blacks in this litter - but I'm seriously considering keeping one of the steel bucks because I can tell already that the way he is developing - he's going to have the large head and body that Schioppi (her first son) did. There is also a black buck in the litter that is developing about the same way.
My question is - I know that I shouldn't breed steel to light grays because it can mess things up - but if I did breed the steel to light gray and only kept the light gray babies - wouldn't my lines be free of the steel gene since that is dominant? Or could the steel still pop up somewhere down the road?
I know Juan Perez has written an article about this (on the National site) and with his many years of experience he's against using steels.
But right now I don't have a lot of money to bring in another rabbit - and if I brought one in - I'd want to do it from his lines or lines outside of Texas...
Help?
Breeding Light Grays by Juan Perez
