Genetics of smallness

[squidpop]

I'm breeding jersey woolys so I don't want them to be over the breed standard I'd like them to be smaller. I just weighed my babies at 7 weeks and two of them are 670 gms- at 7 weeks. This is much larger than the parents where at the same age. The largest parent was only 450gms at 7 weeks. Are my kits bigger than the parents where just because perhaps I'm feeding them better than the breeder of the parents and they are growing at a faster rate but will stop growing sooner to wind up around the same size as the parents- or are they really going to be 20% - 30% larger than the parents.

 

[Bad Habit]

Only time will tell.

 

[Random Rabbit]

My understanding, ( and i'm still learning) In the Dwarf breeds... one want animals with One copy of the Dwarf gene. Two copies guves "peanuts" that cannot survive. If the rabbit has Two Normal size genes... they will be a bit larger. ( commonly refered to as BUDs and BUBs ...Big Ugly Does or Bucks )
The Nice thing about the BUBs and BUDs is ...when bred to the Tiny stock... they will Not throw any peanuts. All resulting young should have the correct combination of One normal / One Dwarf gene .

( please if i got this wrong... correct me !)

 

[Dood]

:yeahthat:

It sounds like the parents are either a true dwarf and a false dwarf or two true dwarfs.

Have you ever had peanuts born? If so then both parents are true dwarfs who will have 25% false dwarfs (BUB & BUD but can be small as well) 50% true dwarfs and 25% peanuts.

If you've never had peanuts born then its likely one parent is a false dwarf and you'll get 50% false dwàrfs and 50% true dwarfs (and 0% peanuts)

 

[Bad Habit]

My understanding, ( and i'm still learning) In the Dwarf breeds... one want animals with One copy of the Dwarf gene. Two copies guves "peanuts" that cannot survive. If the rabbit has Two Normal size genes... they will be a bit larger. ( commonly refered to as BUDs and BUBs ...Big Ugly Does or Bucks )
The Nice thing about the BUBs and BUDs is ...when bred to the Tiny stock... they will Not throw any peanuts. All resulting young should have the correct combination of One normal / One Dwarf gene .

( please if i got this wrong... correct me !)

No, you will get 50% dwarf and 50% false dwarf. No guarantee that all kits will have the dwarf gene at all.

 

[squidpop]

I should have probably clarified- they are both false dwarfs- so there is no dwarf gene in the equation. And its happened on two different pairings I have bred. Babies much larger than parents where at 7 weeks by 20% and 25%. I'm hoping their growth rate slows down and they just stop growing earlier. I guess what I'm wondering is— Could what I feed them cause them to grow out faster than the parents where. Last time I didn't keep any babies so I don't know what the weights are now that they are grown up.

 

[Dood]

There are size genes.

When my mini lop is bred to my AmChins there is a wide range of weights. Some kits in a litter can be over 4 pounds at 8 weeks while their siblings are barely 2 pounds.

I would expect the bigger kits to out grow their parents and be oversized as adults.