2 Rabbit questions...

[Nao57]

So I wanted to ask...

Is the friendliness of a rabbit more to do with the buck's genes, or from the doe's genes?

I get that some of that is due to exposure while young...but some of it seems to be related to genes. For example, people w chinchillas often say they are less social towards humans than other breeds. (They are still good rabbits, breed.)

But this question is important because it means that potentially I could try to get an extra friendly rabbit for the genes, but would need to plan out if it would be better to get the friendly one as the buck or the doe. (Does seem to get more attention than bucks, but bucks do carry genes also.)

And another question has to do with coloring in fur...

If I mix two purebred new zealand rabbits of a full color fur together but with different colors, do the kits tend to be mixed colors or full solid colors of either type? (Example; mixing a full black only colored New Zealand with a full white only New Zealnd.)

I wanted to check on this before I muddy the water. (And I don't particularly like mixed colors that much when they look like spotted muts in the end.)

Thanks.

 

[Niele da Kine]

A buck will have more impact on your herd than a doe, so a friendly buck is more important than a doe, IMHO. When choosing breeding stock, always get the absolute best buck possible. He will be mating with multiple does and will have a huge impact on the herd.

For rabbit coat colors, mixing a black rabbit with a white rabbit will not result in spotted rabbits.

A black NZ rabbit has the coat color genetics of: aa B_ C_ D_ E_ . A white NZ rabbit has the coat color genetics of __ __ cc __ __. One is all dominant genes except for the first "A" gene and the other has a double recessive on the "C" gene.

Depending on what recessive genes (technically, they may be alleles, but most folks refer to them as genes) are hiding behind the dominant genes, you can get all sorts of colors when two black rabbits are bred together. You can't get agouti (wild rabbit color pattern), fawn, lynx or red, since those colors require a dominant 'A', but you can get all sorts of other colors.

If you breed a REW (Ruby Eyed White) rabbit to another REW, all you will get is REWs. That's because a double recessive on the "C" gene; i.e. "cc" creates albino and albino is a whitewash that covers any other color. So, even genetically it's a black rabbit - if it has the double recessive on the C gene, then it will be albino and appear white.

The "A' gene is a color pattern, not really a color. It's the wild rabbit color pattern that has white around the eyes, in the ears, under the tail as well as the whole undercarriage. If there's at least one dominant 'A' gene, you will see the wild rabbit color pattern. A double recessive 'aa' in this location results in a 'solid' color rabbit which also includes the torts and shaded ones, so the name 'solid' can be a bit misleading.

The "B" gene is for Black or brown, depending on if it's a dominant B for Black or a double recessive 'bb' which creates brown which is usually called 'chocolate'.

The C gene is complicated since it has a whole slew of possibilities here and they have a descending order of dominance. At the top of the list, a dominant C is full color. At the bottom of the list, a double recessive is whitewash (albino). Between those two ends - and in order of descending dominance is: dark chinchilla (cchd), light chinchilla (cchl) and himalayan (ch)

A dominant D is for Dense color, a recessive 'd' is for dilute. A 'dd' will turn a black to blue, chocolate to lilac, etc.

The most dominant E gene is Es for steel, then E for Extension (the color extends over the whole rabbit), or a double recessive 'ee' is for when the color doesn't extend, such as tortoiseshell where the nose and ears are black but the rest of the rabbit lacks the black color and is blond.

To get the splotchy colors on a rabbit, it would be a 'broken' color and that's from En which is a dominant. So you can't get the mixed colors unless one of the parents has the mixed colors.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

E gene, the 'ee' (double 'e') is non extension such as red NZ, not tortoiseshell. 'ej' would give you tortoiseshell I believe. Order of dominance should be: Es, E, ej, e.

The broken (spotted) gene is either dominant 'En' or recessive 'en', so if the rabbit has this gene you should see it unless the rabbit has 'cc' or other gene combination that would hide the expression of color in the fur. A typical wild rabbit has 'enen', and no spots/patches. A rabbit with 'Enen' (one copy) will have spots/patches that vary in how much is solid vs colored based on gene modifiers, could end up with almost all white with small bits of color or vice versa but usually in between the extremes. If a rabbit has 'EnEn' (double copy) it will be mostly white with small spots/patches, commonly with a patch on the nose area like a mustache which is why they are sometimes called "Charlies" after Charlie Chaplin. A double copy of the broken/spotted gene has been linked to higher possibility of gi stasis or gut issues so it's not recommended to breed rabbits together which would result in a double copy in the offspring.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

You can breed for friendliness in the rabbits, but individuals vary and you can get a mean rabbit from a nice parent and vice versa. My bucks are friendly and enjoy head rubs. My does are more standoffish but some enjoy head rubs. Sometimes their hormonal cycle will come into play and make them more or less friendly, again, depending on the individual rabbit.

 

[Bunnylady]

A (hopefully) "everyman-friendly" short course on rabbit coat color genetics:
https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/rabbit-coat-color-101.38256/

A black New Zealand could be either a self (aa), or it could be some variation of Steel (Es_). A lot of NZ's have Steel, which can give you some really confusing results if you don't know it's there.

E gene, the 'ee' (double 'e') is non extension such as red NZ, not tortoiseshell. 'ej' would give you tortoiseshell I believe. Order of dominance should be: Es, E, ej, e.

The Harlequin gene (ej) gives you Japanese Harlequins (Magpies when combined with Chinchilla). In rabbits, the color called Tortoiseshell is self plus non-extension (aaB_C_D_ee).

As far as friendliness? I think both parents contribute equally. That said, you can't be absolutely sure what a rabbit will turn out like. I've had a few rabbits that got handled a lot as youngsters, friendly as you like, then got downright nasty as adults. Had others that surprised me with how docile they were - they got some attention as babies, but not an unusual amount, but they turned out almost craving being petted.

 

[Grizzlyhackle]

That said, you can't be absolutely sure what a rabbit will turn out like. I've had a few rabbits that got handled a lot as youngsters, friendly as you like, then got downright nasty as adults. Had others that surprised me with how docile they were - they got some attention as babies, but not an unusual amount, but they turned out almost craving being petted.

Bunnylady says it all right there. I have had 2 flemish does from the same litter. Seemed ok when I bought them. One was a puppy. The other turned into an aggressive evil psychopath. Good one minute, total serial killer the next.
Now I have 2 am chin does from the same litter no aggression, but ones super friendly wants to be petted, gets excited when I come outside. The other tenses up,only tolerate so much before she runs to get away. Her interest in me is food only.

 

[Nao57]

Bunnylady says it all right there. I have had 2 flemish does from the same litter. Seemed ok when I bought them. One was a puppy. The other turned into an aggressive evil psychopath. Good one minute, total serial killer the next.
Now I have 2 am chin does from the same litter no aggression, but ones super friendly wants to be petted, gets excited when I come outside. The other tenses up,only tolerate so much before she runs to get away. Her interest in me is food only.

That's really amazing. And thanks for bringing this up.