Oscar
Well-known member
I found a person in my 4-h group who is going to breed her Holland lop when we go to one of the rabbit shows, I have a mini lop, if I get a doe or two what would I call the babies a mini holland lop?
Mini lop Holland lop cross?
- Thread starter Oscar
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Prisma
Well-known member
Mutts...they will be cross breeds, no specific breed. So if you'd list them for sale it would be like Mini Lop crossed with Holland Lop bunnies (or whatever term you choose to use for rabbits)...
Oscar
Well-known member
I think that I will just get a buck and two does from the same breeder. Is there any problem breeding siblings? Like genetic mutations? And just keep my mini lop for show and pet, not breeding purposes.
Prisma
Well-known member
Advanced breeders will some times breed siblings, however they know the line for years and know possible bad traits that can pop up. Or they may have researched and know the line they are working with really well at the very least. They also (the ones I know) will terminally cull any weak or sickly babies young, only keeping and selling the strongest. They also only breed siblings that compliment each other well, so they have to be very good rabbits to begin with to even consider it. You are doubling both good and bad when breeding like that. I've bred full siblings, but I've also researched and carefully chose the pair plus breeding from those particular lines for several years...I know the good and the bad; they didn't have the same faults and I come to terms with having to possibly cull the whole litter on day one as well as having to terminally cull babies.
If you can't do that, I'd highly suggest cousins or half siblings for a pair. Completely unrelated gives you no consistency in a litter. Same thing applies though, you don't want to breed two rabbits with the same strong fault...you wouldn't breed two Mini Lops together that both had weak hq for example as the offspring would most likely be just as bad and worse than the parents. <br /><br /> -- Wed Apr 27, 2016 11:48 pm -- <br /><br /> Another thing have to watch with breeding close relations, is fixing in bad traits. You can make faults so strong that it is extremely hard to breed out and actually easier to scrap the line and start over. Again just looking at the rabbit and then considering hard, can they really compliment and fix each others faults?
If you can't do that, I'd highly suggest cousins or half siblings for a pair. Completely unrelated gives you no consistency in a litter. Same thing applies though, you don't want to breed two rabbits with the same strong fault...you wouldn't breed two Mini Lops together that both had weak hq for example as the offspring would most likely be just as bad and worse than the parents. <br /><br /> -- Wed Apr 27, 2016 11:48 pm -- <br /><br /> Another thing have to watch with breeding close relations, is fixing in bad traits. You can make faults so strong that it is extremely hard to breed out and actually easier to scrap the line and start over. Again just looking at the rabbit and then considering hard, can they really compliment and fix each others faults?
