French lop siblings.

I'm pretty sure a holland lop snuck in my rabbitry! :x

:rotfl:

Holland or mini? I'm guessing he's not part of your usual herd, then? Is he friendly? :lol:

opcorn:

He's super friendly. He's supposed to be pure French lop. My doe is 14lbs. and my buck is 12lbs. Neither has pedigrees though. I'm working on a pedigree now. I wonder if there isn't a mini or Holland lop somewhere in the bloodlines. I first thought he was a runt, but he's just not growing! He's fat and healthy, just teeny.

Humm, I'm thinking your question boils down to, "does the smaller rabbit have a dwarf gene?". I'm not sure if there is a genetic test, and I doubt you would consider it worth the cost. It is possible that "Shorty" does not. There other combinations of genes that could cause a rabbit to have small stature, that do not include the famous gene.

If Shorty does have a dwarf gene, how could it happen. Do you raise rabbits that are dwarf? If so it only takes one mating to happen, and as they say in Jurassic Park "nature finds a way". I suppose that one of Shorty's parents could have had a dwarf gene but the other genetics made the dwarf rabbit large enough that it did not appear dwarf. I suppose there is a possibility of a spontaneous mutation. I would consider this to be a one in a million chance, but...

Both parents could have carried two false dwarf genes, then at some point along the way one of those genes mutated to a dwarf gene. It is unlikely but possible. If you want to know would I would consider it a one in a million shot and not the less likely one in 10 billion chance then I can respond with a dry genetics lesion.

The TLNR is, if you have a dwarf buck then perhaps he did get lucky. If you don't own a dwarf buck then it is unlikely that Shorty has a dwarf gene. If Shorty's mom and dad are re-breed and the occasional dwarf are produced, then it is possible that mom or dad has a dwarf gene, but the gene is "masked" by other genes. Meaning that mom or dad is genetically dwarf, but does not appear to be dwarf.

That is very interesting! I don't own any dwarf breeds so it's unlikely that he's a dwarf, but he's so tiny. There was another tiny kit as well, it was a white kit with dark eyes, but it died at around 2 weeks. I kind of blame it on the fact that moms first litter was 12 kits, she only raised nine. She managed to get with the buck again the same day that she kindled her first litter, and exactly 31 days later she had a second litter of 15. The kits were tiny when they were born and apparently not healthy. Most of the second litter died one by one and she ended up with only 3 surviving kits, this little guy being one of them. He appeared to be blind in one eye for the longest time, but his eye now looks normal. He also limped on one of his hind legs for about 3 weeks, but that has healed as well. He's definitely a fighter! Oh, and all of his litter mates had a weird lump on top of their heads when they were born. Really weird. I'll post a picture of the litter. <br /><br /> __________ Fri Sep 21, 2018 12:48 am __________ <br /><br />

for me [I raise meat rabbits] .. it was normal to get some small kits with a litter of normal size kits,- If I needed to foster ...- I would put all the small kits together with one doe, and sort the rest by size so- kits were about all the same size for each doe. I had a much higher survival/ growth rate this way. Most of the time- the litter of "smaller" kits reached weaning weights within a few days of the normal size ones... If i had a unusually small kit , or a kit with defects..I "recycled" it.

I'm really new at breeding rabbits, so as of now I only have the one doe. I'm keeping 2 does from the first litter. Hopefully I'll have a foster in the near future. I hate to see babies die. But I realize it's to be expected.