Chinchilla color and smaller rabbits?

[LPH_NY]

This year I had 2 litters that contained chinchilla colored kits. In both litters, siblings were chestnuts and REWs. In BOTH litters, the chinchillas grew slower/smaller than the rest. In the first litter, there were 4 chinchillas - all were bucks. All took almost 16 weeks to reach 5 lbs. In the second litter, only one chinchilla - a doe - and she was THE RUNT. I kept her. I did this because I wanted to keep the chinchilla color in my line so I could play with the color possibilities that come along with it (sallander, ermine, and before I culled my STS buck I had wanted some STS offspring.)

Were my litters exceptional that all the chinchillas were slower growing than the other colors, or is that normal?
Can I expect all of her offspring to grow slower, or should the non-chins grow normally?

 

[RustyPocket]

Having a chicncilla breeding doe myself I never heard of the connenction between chin colouring and slower developing rate, however, when I this twice, Sivka is slightly smaller then any of her non-chin daughters (the sire is a giant). But my guess is that is simply a coincidence that your chins end up smaller. Or you have some dwarfing gene wondering around maybe.

Any of the other hand, all of the meat chinies grow the same as their chestnut and ermine siblings, so I wouldn't connect those two.

 

[LPH_NY]

Hmmm... do you think that it's a bad idea keeping the runt of the litter, then? She was the only chin in the second litter and all the males from the first were processed months ago. I doubt there's any dwarfing going on... the mother was a pedigreed Satin (regular size, not mini) and the father was Flemish Giant.

If I could, I'd replace her with a chinchilla colored Satin. But I haven't found any local breeders that have Satins in the chin color. I'm hoping she'll give me what I want next year (some ermine and sallander) and that by crossing her back to a Satin I will get a better build.

 

[ottersatin]

Hold on to the little one if you really need/want the color.
Give it some time, in the past I have had what I thought was a dwarfed/smaller
Satin in time become larger than it's faster growing siblings.
Ottersatin.

 

[RustyPocket]

I have to agree with Ottersatin. If you want to keep the colour going, keep her, just make sure to breed her to a buck of medium/large size, I wouldn't risk getting her pregnant by giant, just in case. Anyway, breeding runts can go ok, the vet once said us that a slightly smaller or thiner doe will kindle easier then a bigger/fatter one, just pay attention to the size of the buck.

 

[akane]

Sometimes runts are not the process of genetics. I've seen it plenty in dogs where one pup gets crowded in the womb and doesn't grow or deforms. In the curly tail breeds you can get deformed tails that have a tight kink from being squished wrong. I think that's what happens in larger guinea pig litters too but I don't know anyone who's done xrays to see the position of the gp pups like they do with dogs so it's only an assumption it happens the same in other animals.

 

[BusterHill]

I had a chocolate tort buck cover a light chin, a dark chin, and a blue dutch. In the light chin there were only chestnuts, in the dark chin there were black and chestnuts, in the dutch litter there were blue torts and blacks... ALL the blacks were runty, and they have such weak genes its disturbing, I lost every one from 2 litters and I have one chestnut left from the last litter, its scrawny, slow growing, and a dwarf in comparison to other kits of similar age... when she grows up she will be culled, if she ever grows up...