TaylorBug

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Hey yall, asking for a few tips here if anyone can give me some.

I have an older Lynx colored Rex doe (not perfect conformation but she was a pet gifted several years ago), a young broken black doe and a young broken blue buck. I plan to use the 2 younger ones at least to start breeding pet stock. I would like to expand another doe or 2 and maybe another buck, working with my 2 brokens. If anyone can give me good color combinations that will work with my youngins or recommendations to expand with, I would greatly appreciate it!!
 

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Larsen Poultry Ranch

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I recommend not breeding the two broken rabbits together, as some of the kits will likely end up "Charlies" or double broken. There is a higher incidence of gi stasis or gi issues with the broken gene and especially with rabbits who are double broken. I would breed the broken to a solid color, statistically half the kits should end up broken if that's what you are aiming for.
 

TaylorBug

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Should they be bred to a similar based color? I have the lynx which is a tan based color and the gray buck. I only plan to sell these for pets, no pedigrees, and show come good ones at my county fair.
 

Larsen Poultry Ranch

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Should they be bred to a similar based color? I have the lynx which is a tan based color and the gray buck. I only plan to sell these for pets, no pedigrees, and show come good ones at my county fair.
Yes, if you want to show some of them, you will want to breed for show quality. The rejects or not-quite-good-enough-for-show can be sold as pets without pedigree. Pedigrees track the lineage, you don't need a pedigree to show necessarily but I believe you need a pedigree to win "legs" if your rabbit does well. Hopefully someone else with show experience will jump in here. I wanted to start showing this last year and covid ruined that by canceling all the shows.
 

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I look at this website to help with learning the genetics of the colors. https://thenaturetrail.com/rabbit-genetics/rabbit-color-genotypes-chart/

You will breed better if you know how the colors are created and what genetics you have to play with. If your rabbits didn't come with a pedigree you will likely only be able to figure out their phenotype, what genes they have to make their visible color. Once you do some test breedings you would be able to start filling in some of the rest of their genotype. Example would be the broken blue: aa, B_, C_, dd, E_, Enen. Broken black: aa, B_, C_, D_, E_, Enen. You don't know if the black carries dilute 'd', so you don't know if breeding these two rabbits would give you blues, but it will definitely give you blacks. If you end up with blues in the nest box you will know for sure the black carries dilute and the D locus is 'Dd'.

You will probably want to get solid black or blue rabbits to breed with your broken ones. Adding the lynx to the breeding group will probably result in a lot of non showable colors. Great if you are only selling for pets but not so much for showing. I believe if you get the Rex standard book, it makes recommendations for what colors to breed together.
 

TaylorBug

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Update, I have a black buck coming in a week or 2 for my Sadie doe and have been contacting several breeders about some more does. If I can't get does for Dino I will have to get rid of him, although I would hate to.
 
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