Question about breeding - colors & breeds - just curious

[Tweetiepy]

I've been reading a lot of the posts about breeding - mostly to see the pictures of the cute tiny bunnies - but I've been seeing that there are some colors that can't or shouldn't be mixed. As well as certain breeds or - to my eye - some very cute bunnies that shouldn't be bred because they lack some trait. I've read posts about people being happy that they have a certain color of bunny in a litter and I wonder why only those get excited about. I don't plan on breeding bunnies and only have one female teddy lionhead (I would love to see those as babies!) but are bunnies bred mostly for show or to get a certain color or trait? Are bunnies not sold for pets? Or are the ones that don't make the cut the ones given or sold as family pets?

I guess with all that I've read about I was just wondering about this. I fell in love with bunnies after seeing an episode on Martha Stewart last year maybe where they had that Marc guy with lionhead bunnies and all the other cute bunnies.

PS: last night I saw a post of white flemish giant bunnies and have to say the 4 week old bunny is much larger than my 12 week old lionhead! - those are HUGE!!!

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

Reputable breeders breed their rabbits to meet their country's recognized breed standard. This is generally strictly based on the body type and features of the rabbit.

However, some breeds are called "marked breeds" and are known for their specific color pattern. For example, Dutch. This doesn't necessarily relate at all to the color they are, just the quality of their markings.

Now, the tricky part is that not all colors of rabbits are recognized by the breed standard. For every breed, there are certain colors recognized. So breeders must choose to match rabbits who will throw correctly colored babies- "correct" meaning showable colors.

So there are two reasons a breeder might be excited about a certain color:

1. Because they had two rabbits who matched GREAT type-wise, but color-wise, there may be a chance of getting incorrectly colored kits. So when they get several correct colors in the litter, this would be exciting because of the chance they took on it!

2. Some breeders are simply working towards a certain color that they don't have. So they cross two rabbits who either carry for or have the potential of throwing that color and are excited when it works!

Reputable breeders are not breeding JUST for color. But in some cases, one color in general may be recognized but may not be very common or consistent in body type. For example, Blue-Eyed-White Holland Lops are recognized, but not very common and they are usually not of great quality. So some breeders are specifically working on breeding more type into that color.

Usually a breeder will keep babies who have a type, combined with color, that they would like to continue to work with. Anything that is not "useful" to their herd is usually removed from the herd. One way many breeders do this is to sell them as pets.

Hopefully that helps answer some of your questions!

 

[Blaze_Amita]

As Julie pointed out the dutch, I'll add onto that one for you. I know there's several of us Dutch breeders here. I've worked my bood stock up by getting different colors and rabbits with the great type. I've got a pair of Tortoise dutch, my herd buck and one brood doe that are mismarked, not showable due to color where there should be white, but together that pair through GOREGOUS babies. The buck has always thrown some nice babies with other doe's but throws best with this one doe.
I took a risk, knowing my tort buck carried Gray and black behind him and took his daughter who carried not only gray, black and tort, but chocolate too, and crossed her to a steel buck, producing some wonderful blacks and and grays.
Same with my steel doe, her mother is my foundation blue doe, mother Amita has steel in her background, crossed her to that same steel buck and got my steel doe. I was thrilled, I've always loved the steel color.
Eventually I want to go mainly steel, Chinchilla and Tort. So there's an instance of eagerness in the colors.

I've had several Holland litters that have been sold for pets. I had thought the parents were a good cross, and it turned out it wasn't such a great cross afterall and the babies were not show quality, so I still have contact with 90% of the pet owners of my babies. I've heard of some of my babies going on to 4H homes where they have done great for the kids on the show tables, which thrills me to death, knowing I've shared something I hold special with someone that they can now in turn share with another.
Off type is one of hte main things I check for in my litters so I know if I shouldn't make a cross again, I don't want to continue crossing a set of parents that dont' produce the quality, they just produce a bunch of pet babies. Majority of us breed to try and better the breed and work to improve our rabbits offspring through the selective crossing.
And yes, Flemmie's are quite big, If I remember correctly they're the largest breed(weight wise) here in America(I could be wrong here), whereas Lionheads are quite tiny, typically same size as my dutch, give or take.

 

[Imarni]

Blaze_Amita wrote:

I've heard of some of my babies going on to 4H homes where they have done great for the kids on the show tables, which thrills me to death, knowing I've shared something I hold special with someone that they can now in turn share with another.

Totally OT but this is why I want to get into breeding, to know and keep in touch with families of your bunnies is a really special thing.