breeding NZ or cali to dutch for meat kits?

[ohiogoatgirl]

i'm going to be goin to look at some rabbits maybe and the person says the buck is "dutch coloring but he has blue eyes and kinda a minidutch"... but that the does are meat breeds/crosses. so i'm wondering if anyone crosses them and likes the kits from those litters. are they good meaty kits for the table?

i have a few dutch and they are much smaller and much slower growing then what i see of others meat breeds. wondering if the kits would grow too slow and stay to small to be worth it for more economical meat kits for the table.

thoughts? thanks.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I have no idea what miniDutch would be, since Dutch is already a dwarf breed...but that being said, Dutch make good meat rabbits all by themselves. They have a really good meat to bone ratio. I have some that I have crossed with both Cal and NZW. You might have to keep them a bit longer, but you will get a good dress out from them....

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

well i have dutch right now... and they are 4 pounds at about 4 months old... :/ thats a bit longer then i had wanted to keep em for the table.

i was thinkin maybe since the other rabbits are meat breeds that maybe the person thought the dutch were supposed to be as big as them, and since it isnt that it was a mini... also i asked on a few groups and someone said maybe it was a "sport netherland dwarf". like a ND with dutch markings i guess.

well i might be goin to look at them tomorrow.

 

[Miss M]

I seem to recall Dutch maxing out around 6 lbs, of course that's fully grown.

They are supposed to have a good meat:bone ratio, though. Crossing Dutch with NZ/Cali should get you faster growth than regular Dutch, and good meat buns!

 

[wild1slilfarm]

IDK about the dutch buck, i would agree with 'oneacrefarm'
I presonaly would say go for it as long as you understand that it will take them longer to grow

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

Dutch actually dress out to about 62-63% live weight while NZW dress out about 55-56% live weight. That means you don't necessarily have to grow them out to the full 5 lbs.to get the same weight as a NZW carcass. Next Dutch/nzw crosses are great for feed conversion and for being generally easier to keep/feed. They eat less and require less space.I am not 100% on this but you may find them a little more heat tolerant than the really large meat breeds as well. This is the same reasoning for the development of the Florida Whites as well. Back in the "day" Dutch were a basic meat breed. However, I guess with people turning them into the quintessential "Pet Rabbit"; their size was brought down from their original 7-8 lbs or so. I am sure there are still some of the larger type around or one could breed them up a bit bigger, so to speak. That's what our goal here is to do. We will try to keep Dutch at the upper limit of the SOP. Any that do go over, well, no biggie as there is freezer camp!!

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

thanks everyone

hm... maybe i could get a large size dutch coloring line going? i dont have the space to work on it real deep but it could happen. hahaha

 

[wild1slilfarm]

idk say if you had the time, working on getting a biger line of dutch would be awsome,
i have two project kinda along that line,
one is with my New Zealands- working along with a hand full of others to get Steels, Opals, Chestnuts
second is a dwarf rabbit that is steel colored

I have a lot of work into them, but it will be worth it in the end good luck

 

[Rustina]

If I understand correctly Blanc de Hotot have sports that carry dutch markings..... and the hotots are supposed to be great meat rabbits

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

yes i was just seeing on a group that someone said hotots are from dutch lines somewhere for the coloring. which i have some lionhead-dutch that i got 2 blacks and 3 with white with the black eye-liner look.