French Rex?????

[nvstickbow]

I've been contemplating crossing French Lops with my Rex for a while now. Just curious if anyone else has tried it already. I'd love to keep the size and disposition of the French and add the rex hide to them.

 

[Mini Lop Mama]

There is a similar breed to this called a Mini Plush Lop. I breed them. The breed is slowly growing more and more popular. It is a cross between a Netherland Dwarf for the size X Mini Lop for the ears and bone structure X Mini Rex for the coat X Holland Lop for the ears and size.

I believe there would be a 50% percent chance of the offspring inheriting the plush coat if you bred one regular fur and one plush together.

 

[nvstickbow]

I'm thinking it will be a long term project to get any kind of consistency out of them. If I recall rex fur and lop ears are both recessive so the first generation will likely not have either trait. I'll be selecting entirely off of type for the F1 keep set and then hoping to get the fur and ears to come out in F2. By the 4th or 5th generation I think that I could have some degree of consistent results. It'll take a decent number of both Rex and French Lops to start with so that there is some genetic diversity by the time I get to the 4th or 5th generation.

 

[Mini Lop Mama]

I'm thinking it will be a long term project to get any kind of consistency out of them. If I recall rex fur and lop ears are both recessive so the first generation will likely not have either trait. I'll be selecting entirely off of type for the F1 keep set and then hoping to get the fur and ears to come out in F2. By the 4th or 5th generation I think that I could have some degree of consistent results. It'll take a decent number of both Rex and French Lops to start with so that there is some genetic diversity by the time I get to the 4th or 5th generation.

What are your goals with this "new" breed? What will you do with extra offspring?

 

[BuffBrahmaBantam]

I've been contemplating crossing French Lops with my Rex for a while now. Just curious if anyone else has tried it already. I'd love to keep the size and disposition of the French and add the rex hide to them.

I’ve read that the Rex gene (which results in a coat with no guard hairs, hence its softness) is recessive, so if your french lop is homozygous and has guard hairs (has a normal coat of hair), the coat/hide on any offspring will resemble the lop. You will not get any with the soft Rex coat.

I haven’t tried this cross, so this is based on theory. Anyone should correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[BuffBrahmaBantam]

Sorry. I just saw your later post, and yes, based on my understanding by the F2 you may see some Rex coats in the offspring.

Unless you want to go through a lot of trial and error, you should read a basic primer on rabbit coat genetics. The book Rabbit Production has a summary.……. On the other hand, maybe you are just having fun, and don’t want to read about it. If you do this cross, let us know how it turns out.

 

[nvstickbow]

I mainly want to do it to see if I can. It would result in the largest rex coated rabbit that I'm aware of meaning it would take fewer hides to do anything with when I butcher my culls. I'm rather hoping that there are others that are trying to do the same thing but maybe not. It would be fun to work with other breeders to see if we could make this work.

 

[ladysown]

people have been doing a variety of rex and lop crosses for quite a long time.

They come in a variety of sizes, so doing a french lop size might be interesting. You probably want use a standard rex with a french lop to coordinate the size.

 

[MsTemeraire]

I would try to see if you can find anyone developing Giant Rex, and use some of these to start your project.

 

[Nello'sHops&Lops]

I had one, I sold him, but have 2 of his kits. Long story short it is what you would expect. If you want the hides it's probably worth it but damn could that thing eat. Maybe a fluke but he ALWAYS wanted to Gorge himself on everything. There were 5 kits in the litter, all of them were mediocre rabbits that ate more than other giants ive raised including both flemish and Contis.

He was an F2, so he presents Rex fur. Don't hold the ears against him it was his mini Rex jerk neighbour who I've also sold ... Mainly because of that.

I am still breeding for Rex giants, but without the lop. I'd rather do a flemish Rex or Conti Rex personally.