First Generation Meat Rabbit Crosses

[Goatzilla]

I breed primarily NZW's and Florida Whites, but I have been experimenting with crossing breeds to produce quality mixed breed meat rabbits. My 13 year old son has always wanted Californian rabbits, but we don't have the cage space for another breed. I agreed to compromise, and would bring in a Cal doe if I found one that was outstanding, and met my strict quality control, lol. Initially, I couldn't find any Cal's locally that I wanted to use, but eventually I found a breeder who had some really decent stock. I searched through every rabbit in his barn, and found an absolutley stunning Blue Cal doe. The breeder was willing to sell her even though it was clear that she was the best rabbit in his herd. He wasn't crazy about her because she is a Blue, and his preference is for the standard, dark pointed, black Cal's.

I bred her to my best NZW breeding buck and got a litter of 6 kits. I ended up with 4 Cal marked and 2 pure white NZ type. When they were very young, they looked like they had real potential, but I didn't want to get ahead of myself and get too excited. The doe has a beautiful, short, dense, flyback, coat of fur and all of the offspring ended up with that fur. They are now 10 weeks old and I can truly appreciate how good they are. Here are some pics of them now, in case anyone is interested in meat crosses. They were only temporarily housed that tightly together in that single cage while I sexed and tatooed them. These are almost too good for freezer camp, and I may keep a doe for breeding or sell one or two. The bad news is there are 2 does and 4 bucks.

I would be interested in anyone elses experience with cross-bred meat rabbits, as I'm sure many others would be also, so feel free to chime in. Group pic.

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One of the NZ marked offspring

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A Cal marked one.

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[no nonsense]

It's a good idea to do that Cal X NZ cross to produce meat rabbits. It is commonly done. The hybrid vigor by doing that outcross tends to give you more robust young than the purebreds, and of course both breeds have very good meat type, so you're only building on that. You'll still get some benefit by keeping some of the F1s to use, but of course all you have now is a mixed breed meat strain. The benefits of hybrid vigor tend to decrease after that, and there probably won't be much additional benefit after the F2s. At that point, you're just about equal to the purebreds in vigor and growth, so you might as well just stay with them. Many producers never bother past the F1 generation, and use all of them for meat, thus keeping their breeders pure to use to keep those lines going occasionally.

 

[Bunnylady]

Since some of the offspring are REW's, it is obvious that this doe has mixed blood already. The REW gene is recessive to the Himi gene, the only way you could have pure white babies is if the doe is carrying the REW gene. An animal with only Californian ancestors for umpteen generations might be hiding the REW gene, but it would be highly unlikely. The breeder you got her from may only be breeding Californians, but I'd be willing to bet that this girl has a NZ somewhere within the 3 generations that would be on her pedigree!

Californians are supposed to have a little finer bone than the NZ's, resulting in a slightly higher dress-out ratio. As no nonsense said, crossing the two breeds is commonly done. I doubt than any herd that isn't being bred largely with showing in mind is absolutely pure one way or the other. If your son is interested in showing his Cals, he should pay close attention to the Cal type in the babies, not just the markings. Otherwise, I would just let the best fur/body dictate what you keep to breed, and not worry about the markings (or lack of them.)

 

[Goatzilla]

Thanks for the input. I'm well aware that the Cal/NZW cross is a common one, but I had never done it myself, and that's why I did it. I wanted to see firsthand what the offspring would be. I guess I'm just a "show me" kind of guy, lol. I had heard other peoples experiences, but you can't always believe what you hear. I can't count the times that someone has told me that "so and so" breeder has excellent rabbits, and after visiting them myself, saw nothing but long, rangy, soft NZ's with awful fur. It seems that there are many who think that if a rabbit is big, white, and has pink eyes, it's a quality NZ.

What I found interesting about this particular cross is that the offspring all seemed to take on NZ type, and the quality coat of the Cal. They all have very well developed loins and excellent body depth, with full, balanced hindquarters. I will keep one or two of the does to breed back to the NZ buck just to maintain this line of meat rabbits. My son has no intention of showing the Cals. He will be showing NZ's next spring. We don't have the cage space and the Cals require more cage space than NZW's because of having to cull for color and pattern faults. I used to show Satins years ago, and fur color and toenail color faults made me nuts. For exhibition, a white rabbit is the easiest. If it has good type and fur, it's off to the races.

As to the ancestory of the Cal doe, I agree that there is a good possibility of NZ not too far back in lineage. The breeder who I got this one from doesn't show rabbits, or keep very good records. He just puts two rabbits together and sorts through whatever pops out. He did, at one time, purchase some quality breeding stock from someone because there were some really nice ones here and there scattered amongst the bulk of the very "average looking" herd. He basically let me look through what he had and I just happened to find a "special" one.

I'll just keep toying with these for a while since they appear to have great meat producing potential, and they ALL look good sitting with some carrots and potatos.

 

[taraann81]

My flemish doe is due on christmas eve and she was bred to a Cali buck. I am sure what I bred will be slower to get up to weight but my choices of bucks at the time were a cali or a mini lop and since I'm breeding for meat for my family I chose that cross.

I am still excited to see what the kits look like!

 

[kelsystar]

Our rabbits are all F1 mixes. Our Chinchilla cross and American/NZ does routinely throw 10 kits and are really great moms. Our American/NZ buck knows his business. We're going to breed the nicest of the F2 generation does to their dad this spring and we'll what comes of that.

As for the F2 fryers, they routinely dress out at 3 lbs when 11-13 weeks old with good meat to bone ratio.

I wouldn't recommend Flemish Giants for meat. We have a friend who bred her 1/4 Flemish Giant 3/4 NZ cross doe to her Silver Fox buck. The fryers seemed a nice size until we opened them up. Even without much Flemish, their bones were huge! Very (very!) little meat for such a big rabbit.

 

[mooregenetics]

I will preface the following by saying I know a little about rabbits and a lot about cattle. I figure the rules of genetics are consistent for both(for meat production). Let me know if you have tried this and I am wrong.
The F2 does lose hybrid vigor if bred to one of the original breeds. If, however, you keep the F1 cross (in this case NZ/Cali) and breed it to a third breed then you will have high hybrid vigor in both the doe and her babies. A doe with hybrid vigor has the potential to be more productive, efficient, and last longer. Using a F1 doe will also save you from buying outside female stock, at least for a little while.
As examples:
NZ/Chinchilla doe bred to Cali buck
Satin or SF/NZ doe bred to Cali buck
or Cali/dutch doe bred to NZ buck(I prefer a medium sized doe, but large kits)
I think the most important thing is that you have a breeding plan and know your terminal cross(the final cross where all offspring are strictly for meat). After the terminal cross it is probably best to go back to your purebreds and cleanup your genetics.