Thank you, I will.
Would you have any input in which colour she would have to be?
Or which to avoid?
Looking at pictures online I'm not so sure if he is a true netherland dwarf, although he was sold to me as such.
It doesn't matter too much as I'm not going to shows. It's just for mine and the kids benefit and Education.
He's cute!
If you're not going to show, it really doesn't matter what colors you combine. Netherland Dwarfs are accepted for show in a huge range of varieties, but some of the few unrecognized varieties are actually quite pretty. If you like the look of the black otter, finding an otter or self doe would give you more otters, as well as selfs if your buck carries the gene for self. They can be any color - black, blue, chocolate or lilac - as otter comes in all of those.
The only caveat is to avoid breeding two broken colors together. That can result in "charlies," rabbits that have very little coloring and a strong tendency to a genetic disease called megacolon. But he's not a broken, so you don't have to worry about that with him.
In my show breeding program, I try to avoid breeding otters with himalayans, since himis with tan/marten markings aren't showable in any breed. I also avoid otter x steel for the same reason. But there aren't any health problems associated with these crosses as far as I know.
Your little buck is darling, but does not look like he'd be successful on the show table or produce show-quality babies anyway. Given his ear length and head shape, he could very well be, as you suspect, a crossbreed. So, you probably don't need to worry at all about producing unshowable colors.
He also could be what's called a "false dwarf" which is a purebred rabbit from a dwarf breed that did not inherit the dwarf gene. His longer ears might be a sign of this... how old is he and what does he weigh?
You may already know this, but dwarf rabbits have one copy of the dwarf gene, which is what gives them their characteristic cobby body and short ears, legs, etc. But the dwarf gene is a lethal recessive, meaning that when a kit gets
two copies of it, one from the sire and one from the dam, it is called a "peanut." When you breed two true dwarfs, you will generally get a combination of true dwarfs, false dwarfs, and peanuts in the litter. Peanuts are strange-looking, with bulbous heads, tiny almost nonexistent ears, and underdeveloped hindquarters, and they're born dead or die within a few days/week at the most, due to problems in the development of their gut. It's a fact of breeding dwarfs that is a bummer for a lot of us, and one you probably want to be prepared for if your kids are involved in the rabbits.
However, if you breed a true dwarf and a false dwarf, you will get true dwarfs and false dwarfs, but no peanuts (since the false dwarf does not have a dwarf gene to give its kits, they either get one copy from the other parent, or none at all). Many breeders of dwarf breeds actually like to keep false dwarfs in their breeding program for this reason, especially false dwarf does since they are larger and can carry/feed larger litters. So anyway, if your buck is a false dwarf, that might work to your advantage; breed him to a true dwarf doe, and you won't have to deal with peanuts.
