heritage":2mjrjxzs said:
Thank you Zass! Makes sense to me!
So is Harlequin both a breed and a color? How can you tell what's what? I know I have a NZW that has it hidden, then a harle chestnut buck and I want to put the two of them together and see what I get...
Yeah, lots of breeds carry the harlequin coat gene (ej) now days.
NZW really shouldn't be carrying it, but people cross them them just about everything and sell rew offspring as "new zealand whites."
To answer your question, we can start with how would you tell if your new zealand could be considered purebred?
The answer:
You can tell a purebred harlequin (or a purebred of any breed) by how closely it conforms to breed standards. Size, type, and coat markings.
From what I have seen of mix breed rabbits with harlequin coat pattern, it would be VERY unlikely to ever get anything that could be shown or registered from a cross. Most of their points are in those markings, and they
are hard enough to get right even with purebreds. None of mine above are show quality.
I was told even crossing purebred lines was risky, and to keep my gene pool very close.
So, I'm sure lots of people would be happy to sell a harle patterned mutt as a "purebred harlequin" , but I doubt too many harlequin breeders are getting confused and mixing those mutts into their lines.
New zealands are outcrossad a lot though, since their breed standards are pretty easy to meet and that rew coat is easy to get and hides everything.
Since rabbits are only judged on how well they meet standards, there isn't anything wrong with that.
