Getting started with genetics

[Mickey328]

I'm working on trying to breed/improve some heritage breeds: SF, American and Beveren, but I'm woefully ignorant about genetics and the genotypes I see written out are like Greek to me.

Any advice on where to start...really from the ground floor?

Thanks
Mickey

 

[Dood]

Reading the three stickies on the genetics forum is a good place to start
rabbit-colours-and-genetics-f31.html

Silver fox, American and Beveren only come in a couple colours and I would focus on just one - so you dont really need to know about colour genetics or colour crossing rules - basically "keep the best and the cull the rest".

The definition of "best" varies on whether you want win ribbons at shows or meat pens. Most people want production traits in their meat rabbits and good looks are a distant second, so I'd focus on manageable temperaments, high fertility, large litters, good milk production, fast growth, etc... Good fur quality second and conformation last

 

[Mickey328]

Thanks Dood. I'm such a total newbie that I thought I should do my research and learning now, before I get to the point where I might want to show/sell. I feel if I breed for traits and colors, I can still eat the culls so in the end, it would be the best of both worlds. I find something ineffably sad about a breed becoming extinct, so want to do what I can...but I won't want to just breed willy nilly to say I have X breed; I really want to learn so that I not only have them, but have good ones.

Figured this would be a great place to find folks (like you) who understand genetics and can point me in the right direction!

Mickey

 

[skysthelimit]

Like Dood said those breeds really only come in literally a handful of colors, selfs, there isn't much genetics involved with them. One of the reason I chose SF, besides the size, dress out and fast growth, is I don't have color crossing rules like the Rex/Angora/JW. Black is the only one accepted now, blue is close, chocolate starts over again. So I just breed black to black to black to blue or blue to blue, keep it simple. Anything else is a cull. I can focus more on type and fur.

 

[akane]

For Americans I would find a good line of blues and just breed blue. The whites have been outcrossed and any rabbits with white in the pedigree may be more likely to have undesirable traits. Beverens are also mostly blue with black and I think bew also accepted and lilac and chocolate/brown mentioned sometimes. Sticking to blues and blacks would be good but if you got only BEW rabbits you wouldn't have to worry about color at all because a BEW to a BEW is nearly a 100% chance of BEW. The only exception is REW will trump BEW but that shouldn't be found in the breed. *Shouldn't* but you never know what you will find. I've had some interesting surprises even with a boring, long pedigree. It seems the rarer the breed the more surprises you actually get because people cross to other breeds due to limited gene pool in their area or bad traits they can't get rid of easily other ways.

 

[Mickey328]

I do actually want to stick with "regulation" colors. The issue I'm finding is that these breeds are particularly rare in my area (Colorado) so I'm almost sort of limited to what I can get. My only American has both blue and white in her background I'm not trying to re-create anything but am hoping to keep the colors true and also work on fur and type. Now that I have some great places to start with color genetics, the next step I guess is to enter a couple in a show so I can figure out what the various SOP's mean. I've read them and it's pretty easy to understand "no white toenails" but things like "medium length" "broad hips"...that stuff all seems pretty interpretive to me. I need someone to really show me what the shoulders should look like, how the rise should be...complete with good and bad examples. I'm trying to find a mentor close too...some stuff ya just gotta do hands on!

Thanks folks. As usual, you've been really helpful!