Help Guessing Rabbits' Breeds

[rescueblonde]

I have a few bunnies that were rescues. I like to keep good records of my animals which includes breed(s), weight, etc. I just can't figure out what breeds these ones are. They're all very likely mixes but if I could get an idea of breed then that'd be very helpful.

http://imgur.com/a/0c6J7


Esther is 7.7 pounds.
Ivy is 4.2 pounds.
Mitchell is 4.8 pounds.
Ellis is 5 pounds.

 

[TAH]

Mitchell: black satin (For his weight I would not say full grown).

Esther: Satin

Ellis: harlequin

Ivy: English spot mix Possibly

 

[rescueblonde]

Mitchell: black satin (For his weight I would not say full grown).

Esther: Satin

Ellis: harlequin

Ivy: English spot mix Possibly

Thank you! I guessed English Spot mix for Ivy too. Mitchell should be fully grown. I've had him for almost a year now and he seemed to be full grown when I got him.

 

[TAH]

Thank you! I guessed English Spot mix for Ivy too. Mitchell should be fully grown. I've had him for almost a year now and he seemed to be full grown when I got him.

Okay, Black satins are normally bigger, I guess he is on the small size.

 

[Bunnylady]

I don't mean to be disagreeable, but I can't agree with any of those guesses.

Mitchell and Esther appear to have Rex coats, so they can't be Satins. Mitchell is small enough to be a purebred Mini Rex. Esther is a bit big for even a false dwarf Mini Rex, and a bit smallish for a Standard Rex, but she might be a cross between the two.

Ellis's color is harlequin, but take it from someone who has bred them for over 20 years, no way, no how is his breed Harlequin. His type suggests a lot of Netherland Dwarf in his background, and I know a lot of people like to breed harlequin patterned Lionheads (which have a lot of Dwarf in them). I'd even say that he might be the maneless offspring of at least one single-maned Lionhead parent.

And I'm afraid y'all have hit one of my hot buttons with that "English Spot" guess - sometimes it seems like every time someone sees a broken patterned rabbit, they think it's an English Spot, and most aren't even remotely similar. Nothing about Ivy says "English Spot" to me; even her pattern is a perfectly ordinary spotted broken that you could see in almost any breed that can come in the broken pattern. Her body type is very similar to a Mini Rex, her spotting pattern is something I've seen a lot in the Mini Rex, particularly the Tricolors; the only thing about her that is really wrong is her coat. I could probably produce something almost identical to her by crossing a Mini Rex with a Polish or some other small, normal coated breed.

 

[TAH]

Ellis's color is harlequin, but take it from someone who has bred them for over 20 years, no way, no how is his breed Harlequin. His type suggests a lot of Netherland Dwarf in his background, and I know a lot of people like to breed harlequin patterned Lionheads (which have a lot of Dwarf in them). I'd even say that he might be the maneless offspring of at least one single-maned Lionhead parent.

We had 2 harlequins that looked almost the same to ellies color.

 

[Bunnylady]

We had 2 harlequins that looked almost the same to ellies color.

Some of my very first Mini Rex were the remains of somebody's tricolor breeding program. Tricolor, of course, is a combination of broken and harlequin; any breed that has tri in its repertoire (like the lop breeds) will produce harlequins, too. tri's are showable in the MR, harlequins aren't. I cannot count how many harlequin colored Mini Rex I have had over the years. At one time, the most complete Harlequin pattern in my rabbitry wasn't on a Harlequin, it was on a Mini Rex!

But here's an example of what I was talking about - a harlequin patterned Lionhead:

 

[DutchBunny03]

I'm going to agree with @Bunnylady . Mitchell and Esther are definately Rex. Rex come in almost every color, so their colors overlap with the colors that Satins are. Ivy looks a lot like my Cocoa, who is a broken-patterned New Zealand, so tha may be what Ivy is. Ellis may be a badly-marked magpie harlequin cross. Her ears are the wrong shape to be dwarf, though. Dwarfs have very tiny ears, but Ellis's ears look a bit long.

 

[Bunnylady]

Ivy looks a lot like my Cocoa, who is a broken-patterned New Zealand, so tha may be what Ivy is.

Ivy weighs just over 4 pounds, and her head and ears are not those of a baby - do you really think that's an NZ?

Ellis may be a badly-marked magpie harlequin cross. Her ears are the wrong shape to be dwarf, though. Dwarfs have very tiny ears, but Ellis's ears look a bit long.

Magpies have white as a background color; Ellis's color is clearly Japanese. Harlequins have the typical commercial-type long, thin faces, long bodies, and proportionately long ears carried in a broad V-shape (on reflection, I've been breeding Harlies since the late 1980's; where did the time go?!). The only thing that Ellis has in common with the Harlequin is his color:

But other than being a bit on the large size, he isn't far off type for a Netherland Dwarf:

 

[DutchBunny03]

Ivy definately looks young. Older rabbits have a heavier bone structure and build. She could be a cross with a smaller breed, such as Rhilander. This is a purebred Rhilander:

But i doubt she is. Rhilanders have a characteristic "butterfly" markings on their face, which Ivy does not have.
This is a broken-patterned NZ:

The markings on Ivy's face resemble a NZ more than a Rhilander, but her body markings resemble a Rhilander.
Japanese harlequins tend to have more drastic boundaries between colors(with the exception of the chocolate Japanese, which Ellis clearly is not

).