French lops and crossbreeding

[Bluess]

I have a French lop doe and was wondering if it could be bred to a rex and the outcome

 

[SableSteel]

You'd probably get normal furred rabbits with ears that can be anything from lopped to normal, but most likely in between lopped and normal.

 

[shazza]

you can breed any breed to any breed within reason - they are all the same species. if there's a drastic size difference, you always want your doe to be the largest, however. you will not be able to show crossbreeds, but mixed bunnies often are sold as pets or used as meat. i would imagine that cross would produce a decent meat rabbit, but a french lop may have more bone than is generally desirable since they get so big.

a french lop x rex will be a larger rabbit with a normal fur type and likely a slightly rounded head. the ears may or may not be lopped - i crossed a meat mutt to a mini lop and out of 9 kits only 3 had lopped ears, and only one ear was lopped.

since the rex fur is recessive, the rabbits need two copies of the gene to have a rex coat, so a first generation outcross would have normal fur. if you bred one of the kits back to the father, or to each other, then a percentage of the offspring would have rex coats.

 

[Bluess]

You'd probably get normal furred rabbits with ears that can be anything from lopped to normal, but most likely in between lopped and normal.

What if I were to breed my doe with a Holland lop buck would it be to small or to a French lop mix

 

[ozemba]

If you did a Holland x mini lop cross you'd have offspring with lopped ears, smaller than a mini but bigger than a Holland. Hollands have shorter ears than Minis, so that would be a toss up as to how long the offsprings' ears would be. You'd basically get a rounded bigger version of a Holland I'm guessing.

A mini lop x mini lop cross depends on what the mlop x is crossed with, does the cross have lopped ears, regular fur, etc..

 

[Ozarkansas]

Here is our Holland/Mini cross and her baby. They have more Holland than Mini. The mom weighs 4 1/2 lbs. You will basically get a small lop eared rabbit that will be so cute, but do terrible on the show table :bunnyhop:

 

[KiKi84]

Hello, we have had an accidental mating between a french flop male 5months old (spayed but when he mated he was in his last week of potential fertility) and a small rex 1year old female.
Is this a recipe for disaster?
I'm really worried for my rex if she is pregnant!

 

[Alaska Satin]

Hello, we have had an accidental mating between a french flop male 5months old (spayed but when he mated he was in his last week of potential fertility) and a small rex 1year old female.
Is this a recipe for disaster?
I'm really worried for my rex if she is pregnant!

Is your small rex a Rex or a Mini Rex? If it's a Rex I wouldn't be too worried, even if she is on the small side. If it's a Mini Rex, she'll probably still be okay.

Rabbit kits from different breeds are surprisingly similarly sized at birth; kit size seems to be a lot more dependent on litter size (smaller litter = bigger kits) and the genetic line (some does, of any breed, have larger or smaller kits). Of course a Netherland Dwarf kit will be somewhat smaller than a Flemish Giant, but they're all pretty small.

Problems at birth seem to be related more to things other than kit size. If the doe is at all pinched in the hindquarters, she may have trouble kindling even kits of her own breed. Extremely large, blocky heads (Holland Lops!) on the kits can give a doe problems, especially a first-time doe. If your French Lop has the typical massive head, and if the kits inherit that, it might be more of a problem than the size of the kit.

In any case, there's not much you can do about it now. Keep an eye on her and find a source for raspberry leaves just in case. Those contain an oxytocin analog that has actually helped several of our Mini Rex in the past when they had trouble kindling.

 

[KiKi84]

Is your small rex a Rex or a Mini Rex? If it's a Rex I wouldn't be too worried, even if she is on the small side. If it's a Mini Rex, she'll probably still be okay.

Rabbit kits from different breeds are surprisingly similarly sized at birth; kit size seems to be a lot more dependent on litter size (smaller litter = bigger kits) and the genetic line (some does, of any breed, have larger or smaller kits). Of course a Netherland Dwarf kit will be somewhat smaller than a Flemish Giant, but they're all pretty small.

Problems at birth seem to be related more to things other than kit size. If the doe is at all pinched in the hindquarters, she may have trouble kindling even kits of her own breed. Extremely large, blocky heads (Holland Lops!) on the kits can give a doe problems, especially a first-time doe. If your French Lop has the typical massive head, and if the kits inherit that, it might be more of a problem than the size of the kit.

In any case, there's not much you can do about it now. Keep an eye on her and find a source for raspberry leaves just in case. Those contain an oxytocin analog that has actually helped several of our Mini Rex in the past when they had trouble kindling.

Thank you! I feel more relaxed now. I will certainly be asking everyone at the allotment for their raspberry leaves. Huge thank you once again.

 

[KiKi84]

Is your small rex a Rex or a Mini Rex? If it's a Rex I wouldn't be too worried, even if she is on the small side. If it's a Mini Rex, she'll probably still be okay.

Rabbit kits from different breeds are surprisingly similarly sized at birth; kit size seems to be a lot more dependent on litter size (smaller litter = bigger kits) and the genetic line (some does, of any breed, have larger or smaller kits). Of course a Netherland Dwarf kit will be somewhat smaller than a Flemish Giant, but they're all pretty small.

Problems at birth seem to be related more to things other than kit size. If the doe is at all pinched in the hindquarters, she may have trouble kindling even kits of her own breed. Extremely large, blocky heads (Holland Lops!) on the kits can give a doe problems, especially a first-time doe. If your French Lop has the typical massive head, and if the kits inherit that, it might be more of a problem than the size of the kit.

In any case, there's not much you can do about it now. Keep an eye on her and find a source for raspberry leaves just in case. Those contain an oxytocin analog that has actually helped several of our Mini Rex in the past when they had trouble kindling.

Also, yes she is a Rex not a mini.
She is also eating and drinking huge amounts over the past few days. Tomorrow will be day 12 so should start to see signs soon I guess.