Anyone ever try crossing checkered giants?

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Rabbit Talk Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

BalloonMountain

Member
Joined
May 20, 2010
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Location
Albuquerque
Hello, just a quick question for you fellow meat eaters. I know checkered giants are not a meat rabbit but I found some pretty cheap and was wondering if anyone has crossed them with any luck to come up with some good fryers? Thanks!
 
Checkered Giants have big bone
which makes them not the perfect meat rabbit.
The cross should produce a faster grower,
hopefully with small bone to meat ratio.
All rabbits are MEAT! :D
Ottersatin. :eek:ldtimer:
 
All rabbits are meat...now that's awesome! Thanks for that, I just do meat for our own family so we dont have quotas and the kids like all the different color patterns. Looks like checkered giant crosses it is!
 
I bred Checkers in the 70s and ate plenty of them. The broken new Zealand does I am working with must have CG in their gene pool way back. They cropped up from a white to white breeding from a stell x white from a red x white mating. The commercial grower I got the 2 original broken NZ does from said he bought a broken doe off the meat truck 5-6 years ago and he bred her but never saw any brokens again until this past year. they certainly appear to have CG type and the pattern is classic CG.Interesting how those recessives come together at times.
 
I have both male and female CG's and NZ's. If I were to cross them in search of a broken, would you recommend male CG with female NZ, male NZ with female CG, or does it matter?
 
Oakville Shooter":2ocnd6kj said:
I have both male and female CG's and NZ's. If I were to cross them in search of a broken, would you recommend male CG with female NZ, male NZ with female CG, or does it matter?
Click to expand...

I do not think it (the gene) is sex linked.... others on here will know for sure. For the does sake, if you can go either way, I would use a checkered giant doe. My meat rabbits have a bit of French Lop and Flemish Giant mixed in. I am in the F4 generation of my crosses now, and the animals preforming the best are about 1/4 FL/FG. It is hard to accurately judge the bone mass in them without separating and weighing the bone in a a scientific way. However, the kits from these particular crosses grow (in general) obviously faster. I had 4 does kindle about 6 weeks ago and last weekend I weighed all the kits from each litter. 5 of the 8 largest came from one of the does with this cross in it. She was the last doe to kindle. Two came from another doe 1/8 FL/FG, and the final one came from a NZW-Cal cross doe. I have still got feed calculations to do to figure feed conversion.

Still, my point is, that if you are simply breeding for meat for home consumption where conversion and bone mass isn't a big issue, you will most likely get some "hybrid vigor", and a 1/4 or 1/8 checkered giant may be a real winner.
 
I would make both crosses but I think the best results would be from a checker doe and a NZ buck. Black NZ might be best but white will work, ya just dont know what color the white is, geneticly. It doesnt matter anyhow as you will retain the best typed individuals for your next breedings.
I can tell you, type will be a struggle for a few gens. My does havent had any checker in them for at least 6-7 gens and they for sure resemble a CG. heir all white litter mates looked more NZ in type. These does did give me some very nicely typed young bred to a white show type buck, I will breed them back to sire and my good broken NZ bvuck. Long shopulders seems to be the biggest fault but thats not a difficult trait to correct. just keep the loins nice and full.
The 1st couple breedings have the most noticable improvements, thwen some judicious inbreeding will set your type and lines can go from there.
 
You might be right, but I am commited !! I have ta say, the one doe made some terrific babies, her 1/2 sister aunt , not so good. BUT we switched males so ??
 
Oakville Shooter":3m3wtsxf said:
Well, I bred the two does New Years Eve. One to a Red NZ, the other to a blue NZ. Eagerly anticipating the results.
Click to expand...

Woohoo! Can't wait to see what you get!
 
New babies!!!!! :D :D :D

The doe that I bred to the blue NZ kindled today after lunch. This is her first litter, but she did a great job with building her nest. When I did a head count, I found seven kits. Most are solid blue, one is white, and there are some brokens in there too. the brokens are mostly blue with a bit of white. So I am excited.

When I was putting the kits back into the nest, I found one more that was in the very front of the nestbox. It was chilled, but moving. So I put it in with the rest and am hoping for the best.

I am still waiting for the other doe. Friday was day 28, so I was really figuring on tomorrow anyway. She hasn't pulled any fur yet, but does seem to be trying to make a tunnel in the hay of the nestbox, so I am hopeful. By the way, I am glad that I write things down. I posted that I bred here to the red NZ when she was actually paired with the REW NZ.<br /><br />__________ Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:49 am __________<br /><br />I did a quick check this morning and the chilled kit from yesterday is doing great.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top