Breeding?

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BunFamily

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Hi I got a mixed female that im pretty sure has got giant breed and has long fur,Can I breed her with a Pure mini lop, and what would the baby's be like?

Also I have a netherland cross mini lop,Could I breed him with my mixed giant female?

:bunnyhop:
Also is it safe to breed 3-4 year old female
 
Technically you can breed anything. They are all the same species of rabbit just like all dogs are the same despite huge differences. The question is what you do with the mutts. Most don't have a demanding enough pet market for it and no area needs more random rabbits that don't have the temperament and health for quality pets.

Lop ears depend on the shape of the head and size of the ears so a lop bred to one without lopped ears will produce a different amount of lop or upright ears depending how many traits they inherit from that particular pair of rabbits. Coat types are easier and I believe all recessive in rabbits. Whether it's a wool, satin, or rex coat bred to a regular coat you will generally produce all regular coats and those offspring would have to be bred together, back to the parent with the different fur, or to another rabbit with the same coat gene to make more of that coat type. Sometimes you do see minor differences in the coat of crosses that are otherwise standard fur but that's usually more from other refinements to a breed and will disappear the farther you get from purebred or show quality rabbits.
 
BunFamily":20zfj2gz said:
Hi I got a mixed female that im pretty sure has got giant breed and has long fur,Can I breed her with a Pure mini lop, and what would the baby's be like?

Also I have a netherland cross mini lop,Could I breed him with my mixed giant female?

:bunnyhop:
Also is it safe to breed 3-4 year old female

my question would be... what do you intend to do with the offspring of the cross?
JMHO.. selling mixed breed mutts from pet breeds X meat breeds - or large breeds X small breeds, increases the problem 'the pet market" already has, IE- too much unproven genetics. producing too many defects... on the other hand-- if they were destined for the table-- breed away...
 
I think you still can, but I would go really slow and not worry about getting a ton of litters. I would not breed back to back, and would stick to breeding once then seeing how it goes. But the thing about breeding is that most that get into it do it to better their respective breeds. So if you are doing it on a small scale to give kids the experience and lesson the chances of ovarian cancer in your doe (supposedly pregnancy does that), I would use a purebred buck that will bring them more towards a purer breed of rabbit rather than use two mutts. I don't want to come across as a stuck up breeder, because I believe your intentions are good and that you must have a good reason for wanting to do this. I would just encourage you to look at the big picture and ask the question "what will this breeding do for the breed as a whole"?
 
I went back and forth on breeding mutts, various breeds, and crossing those breeds. I don't care so much about contributing to a breed because I'm not developing a breed and rarely have shown anything so had little established name for myself to sell to major breeders or be found by those wanting rabbits that meet show standards. Random rabbit x random rabbit though gets you random result. That doesn't just mean appearance. While people are looking at appearance for pets they are going to care long term about how healthy that rabbit stays, how many vet bills they end up with, and whether it is friendly or starts taking their arm off in the future. You can say how the parents are but that parent might be the single nice kit out of a litter of horrible rabbits.

The worst rabbits I ever tried to raise for pets were actually from the rabbitry of some of the most competitive netherlands around here. Some of the best ones I sold for pets were also netherland dwarf but from a breeder who simply loved making friendly, healthy rabbits while also showing. I bought her colors not recognized for show that she otherwise had few buyers for. I also had some netherland dwarf from a pet store that were quite far from type but had awesome personalities. I ran into the issue of no known health background quite quickly as my pet store purchased doe was the only one to die of pasteurella. I did not breed another rabbit with her influence even though Enki did not get his grand dam's illness. I sold lots of netherland dwarf x mini rex but from pedigreed animals with known backgrounds, well known rabbitries at least regionally, and they did have that combination of good health and temperament. I could tell people those things when listing the offspring. You can't when all you know is what you see of the 2 individual rabbits you have.
 
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