Help to ID my two Rabbits

[MKirst]

Hello, my name is Melissa and I live in Lebanon Pennsylvania. I just bought 2 rabbits from a boy who was in the 4-H. I had one big white rabbit when I was a kid and that's it before these two.

I wrote a blog about about my two new rabbits if you'd like to see pictures of them and I do have a few questions about them. http://melissakirst.wordpress.com/2...-identification-pedigrees-fun-with-2-rabbits/

I figured I best join a forum where other rabbit people talk rabbits.

My first Rabbit was named Bun Bun, I found him (at the time a little white bunny) running around some pine trees alongside the highway. Anyhoo after a few other people stopped we managed to catch him is a box .. so I brought the little white bunny home.

That little white bunny didn't stay little for very long, he grew HUGE my dad had to keep building a new rabbit hutch every few months it seemed. Finally we just let him run around a fenced in area for the rest of his days. He lived 9 years, the vet put him down after some sore of infection he got in his skin flaps.

That was 25 years. Now, I have two new rabbits and I began learning the color genetics and genotypes of rabbits. Honestly, I think it's confusing.

I just wanted to introduce myself and get some opinions on what color code and breed my two rabbits are, or if they are mixed and if so with what ?

Thanks for reading.

 

[skysthelimit]

I raise Rex and they look like Rex to me. One being a black otter, the other castor. Color genetics is my favorite thing, and I have several color projects in progress. If you would, blow into the coat of the second one and tell me what you see, or better yet, take a picture if you can.

What are the genders of these rabbits?

 

[MamaMandy]

Welcome to Rabbit Talk! The one on top looks like a black otter rex and the other is a chestnut but I'm not sure what breed. There are others here that are far more familiar with rex colors than me and may have better answers for you. <br /><br />__________ Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:23 pm __________<br /><br />Yes, like Sky here ^

 

[a7736100]

I think it's pretty hard to ID breeds and genetics from just one picture. Could you ask the seller? That way you can at least have an idea if the parents were mutts or not.

Does the top one have rex type fur? Both seem to have big ears.

BTW did your first rabbit have ruby eyes? Sounds like it was probably a meat breed like New Zealand White.

 

[MKirst]

This is what I was told by the seller. Both were his sons 4-H projects recently brought home, both are 4 months old (different litters) both are Rex bunnies, the dark male, the light female. The seller did say if I wanted more rabbits he breeds them and has plenty more.

I'll go get a picture of the light ones fur for ya.

Yes, Bun Bun had red eyes.


__________ Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:51 pm __________

I'll try to post the pics again .. I resized them.

 

[skysthelimit]

Does the top one have rex type fur? Both seem to have big ears.

Standard Rexes don't have an ear size limitation. It looks like rings that are not in the right order,

There is something about the way rex fur absorbs the light, I don't know how to describe it,, but as a person who sews, I can tell you the texture of a fabric in a good picture, I can tell you the texture of the fur in a good picture. The otter picture is good enough for that.

 

[ladysown]

black otter and castor (or agouti).

If you keep them together you'll have wee ones joining your household. at four months of age, they can start breeding any time now.

 

[skysthelimit]

black otter and castor (or agouti).

If you keep them together you'll have wee ones joining your household. at four months of age, they can start breeding any time now.

Castor is A_B_C_D_E_, otter is at_B_C_D_E_. What will be more interesting is when you breed them. There are so many colors this pair could produce. Do you know any more about the parents?

 

[MKirst]

No, I don't know anything more about the parents.

Ya, I split them up a few days ago - I had to build another hutch first. When I got to the sellers house, I was only planning to buy one rabbit for a hutch I bought 6 years ago and never got a rabbit. But, he comes walking outta the barn with two rabbits and said these are what your looking for and he has too many. I was like ok, I guess I could take them both. So I did.

All I really wanted was one rabbit for the hutch I did have, and to have a veggy disposal for all the garden scraps I have on a day to day basis.

But now that I got these two rabbits, and they are boy and girl, I decided to research and maybe breed a litter or two - my boyfriend wants to raise babies to eat and I want to raise babies to do something other than eat. (lol)

I never knew the rabbits at the fair grounds had pedigrees, if I would have know rabbits are pedigreed I prolly would have just bought one with a pedigree and started from there.

I love my new rabbits and I'd like to learn how to start from scratch breeding rabbits (with the two I have) and making my own pedigrees with 3-4 generations (starting with these two) and see what becomes of it. All sounds so interesting I think.

I dunno for sure how it all works though, any info would be greatly appreciated. How to start from scratch without pedigrees.

 

[Southbound_SF]

It IS interesting! You'll have a lot of fun.

Pedigrees are just records of ancestry, so all you have to do is breed for a few generations and write stuff down. Record (for each animal): name/number/tattoo/other identifier; type/breed; adult weight; and any info you have about its parents & grandparents. Then when you breed them, you repeat for the offspring, and as time & generations go by you have more & more info. When/if you sell rabbits, be honest about how much you do and don't know about their ancestry.

Rabbits are indeed great disposals for vegetable & garden scraps, but check to make sure you don't feed them anything that's bad for them. There are various lists of safe foods online, most of which should be taken with a grain of salt. Also, introduce new foods slowly so as not to upset their digestive systems, which can be delicate. So you found one source that says food X is deadly, and another source says it's fine? Try it, in little bits, and see how they do.

Funny, I'm sort of excited for you! Embarking on the great adventure... Stick around here; there's lots to learn.

SB

 

[MKirst]

Thanks for all the responses. I still don't know for certain if I have a boy or girl. I'm just gonna go with what the seller told me one boy one girl - because when I look they both look like girls to me.

This is what I noticed about my two rabbits so far. The dark one John Doe is his name for now (presumed male) is very active at night, he runs around all the time now that he's by himself. He just runs the length of the outside pen and jumps in the air for no reason it seams. Is this normal?

The light color rabbit Jane Doe (presumed female) is totally the opposite, she just lays around with next to no action at night or during the day. Kinda lazy like. But because she is getting bigger than John I put her in the new larger hutch that has a 5 foot by 3 foot off the ground run (not including the house). Johns hutch is only 4 foot by 2 foot off the ground (not including the house) - they both have houses connected to the runs that are the width of each hutch but only a foot or so long.

Tonight, I decided to put Jane in Johns hutch to switch them around and John acted like a lunitic constantly sniffing her privates - she was getting mad I think she kept putting her face to his face instead. Is this a sign he might be a male ? I didn't leave them together very long and nothing happened except him acting a fool chasing her behind all over.

Do females act like this when they were split up and then put together again ? Or could it be the seller is right and he is a male and my sex checking is wrong ?

Later I checked John for gonads and I didn't see anything. Nothing at all that I could tell - is this normal for 4.5 month olds ?

 

[3mina]

Sound's like you've got a mixed pair to me

 

[curlysue]

He might not have visible testicles yet but rabbits can pull them up.you cant always tell by how they act for sexing,some females will chase and even mount males.If you want babies get another female and breed both at the same time(day).They can breed very quickly in a matter of minutes.the fur looks rex too me.Im in Pa too.i looked at your blog.

 

[MKirst]

OK, I'm convinced John is a boy now. Today I gave them a bath and when John sat up to lick the water off his fur .. it popped out !! I seen it. lol

Now that I know for sure, I will keep them split up. Someone mentioned on my blog that I should prolly not breed Jane with John because they are different breed if I want to show generations down the line. I dunno, but her fur is longer and more plush than John's.

Now I need to build another rabbit hutch and find a female with fur like Johns. Darn it.

 

[skysthelimit]

That doesn't mean they are not both rexes. It just means one has better fur than the other. I have a buck that has prominent guard hairs, they are visibly longer and it makes him look a bit like a brillo pad. But he is definitely Rex. And at their age, they have not gotten their senior coats, so it may molt away. When you raise enough Rex, you see all kinds of coats, and while it's important to know which ones are correct, they are still Rex.

By the way, it's not really a good idea to give rabbits a bath, especially Rexes. They are more like cats, they don't need to be bathed like dogs do.