Mixed doe, Lionhead buck?

[LRabbitry]

1.) I know that the previous owner said it’s a Lionhead mix. Any idea on what she looks like she could possibly be mixed with?

2.) I wanted to breed her to my Lionhead male but not sure if that would be the best idea. I was also wondering, would the mix eventually fade out if I bred her to a 100% Purebred Lionhead?

3.) If I DID so happen to breed them, what is the possibility of coloring? Would I be getting the manes? Genetics always interest me but I don’t have pedigrees for either but wasn’t sure what a Brown x Black would make.

Any advice would be great!!!

(Doe is the brown one, buck is the white and black.)

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

The doe looks a lot like my Lionhead mix

 

[a7736100]

It will take 4 generations of line breeding. If you're breeding to a double mane they will have manes. With a single mane some will not get manes.

 

[LRabbitry]

It will take 4 generations of line breeding. If you're breeding to a double mane they will have manes. With a single mane some will not get manes.

She has a singular mane and he has a double. I’m debating with myself on breeding them. Is it worth it?

 

[ladysown]

depends on what you are breeding for. If you are breeding with the hopes of having pure lionheads down the road... breed her, and then either retire her, soft or hard cull. and then keep one of the kits back. Then if you keep breeding to pure lionhead eventually you will get what you want.

If you are breeding simply for pets... what you have will work. Do be mindful though. A lot of people have NO CLUE what to do with wooly or furred rabbits. When I did rescue the worst I got was a lionhead, pet quality, with fur so badly matted his skin was torn. So I always advise caution when selling anything wooled. I recently took back one of my fuzzy hollands and he was in horrid condition and has reinforced my new policy of hard culling anything wooly.

Chestnut to black will usually get you chestnut and black, but sometimes surprises happen depending on what's behind them colour wise.

Regardless of what you breed with lionhead... if you breed single mane to double you will get no mane, single or double. Double to double should give you all double, but I've seen singles come from it. Single to single will generally give you single or no mane, but doubles can occur as well.

 

[LRabbitry]

depends on what you are breeding for. If you are breeding with the hopes of having pure lionheads down the road... breed her, and then either retire her, soft or hard cull. and then keep one of the kits back. Then if you keep breeding to pure lionhead eventually you will get what you want.

If you are breeding simply for pets... what you have will work. Do be mindful though. A lot of people have NO CLUE what to do with wooly or furred rabbits. When I did rescue the worst I got was a lionhead, pet quality, with fur so badly matted his skin was torn. So I always advise caution when selling anything wooled. I recently took back one of my fuzzy hollands and he was in horrid condition and has reinforced my new policy of hard culling anything wooly.

Chestnut to black will usually get you chestnut and black, but sometimes surprises happen depending on what's behind them colour wise.

Regardless of what you breed with lionhead... if you breed single mane to double you will get no mane, single or double. Double to double should give you all double, but I've seen singles come from it. Single to single will generally give you single or no mane, but doubles can occur as well.

Yes! I’m planning on wanting a purebred down the line.

How many litters do you think I should get in order to start getting purebred?

Also, would I breed one of the female kits (obviously when older) to the dad? Just continue on?

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Also, would I breed one of the female kits (obviously when older) to the dad? Just continue on?

You could do that, yeah. It's called line breeding



I actually don't Line breed much. I have pairs of Bucks and Does and if we get a very pretty kit there's a possibility that we'll keep it for breeding.
I don't know if we'll do that for Cinder's and Natzumi's (I doubt Yoshi will have any) litters because we already have three good breeding and showing bucks, but if Yoshi doesn't start having babies then idk what we'll do with her but it depends on if we buy a new Doe next weekend at the show (Probably not) Or if we get a pretty Doe from the current/upcoming litters.

I wish Yoshi had kits, she is a very pretty/rare color and she isn't related to any one of our current rabbits.

 

[hotzcatz]

When linebreeding/inbreeding rabbits, that gives you the possibility of getting lots of recessives. Some of which can be lethal if doubled up so a continual breeding back to the parents can have health problems. I try to keep the level of inbreeding below 25% but it could probably go higher and still have healthy stock. There's a pedigree program called 'Kintracks' which has a handy 'inbreeding' button so you can find out how inbred two rabbits would be if bred together. It's free for older computer systems and for the first few hundred animals put into the database. After that, the program is only $25 or so in Australian dollars with free upgrades after that.

Is your doe a broken chocolate? (Hard to tell from the picture, she may be agouti of some type? But looks chocolate of some type anyway.) It looks like the buck is a broken black? I don't track the 'broken' genetics much since there's none in the herd here, but chocolate to black will result in all blacks unless the black has the recessive color gene for chocolate. Do you know if either of your buck's parents were chocolate of any type?

As for 'purebred', a mix bred back to a purebred will eventually get you a full pedigree. You have to keep choosing the purebred characteristics when breeding though or you'll just end up with a pedigreed mix. Rabbit breeds are pretty much determined by what they look like, so breed to lionheads and keep choosing breeding stock from the offspring that show lionhead characteristics and eventually you'll hopefully have a fully pedigreed lionhead.

The buns here are mostly purebred English angora, but several years ago a halfbred Satin angora/ German angora buck was used because the herd was getting pretty inbred. I'm still finding traces of that in the herd even though we've moved generations past that buck. Mostly in wool quality, cross breeding can really screw up the maintenance requirements of angora coats, although maybe not always but with that buck, it did.

 

[LRabbitry]

When linebreeding/inbreeding rabbits, that gives you the possibility of getting lots of recessives. Some of which can be lethal if doubled up so a continual breeding back to the parents can have health problems. I try to keep the level of inbreeding below 25% but it could probably go higher and still have healthy stock. There's a pedigree program called 'Kintracks' which has a handy 'inbreeding' button so you can find out how inbred two rabbits would be if bred together. It's free for older computer systems and for the first few hundred animals put into the database. After that, the program is only $25 or so in Australian dollars with free upgrades after that.

Is your doe a broken chocolate? (Hard to tell from the picture, she may be agouti of some type? But looks chocolate of some type anyway.) It looks like the buck is a broken black? I don't track the 'broken' genetics much since there's none in the herd here, but chocolate to black will result in all blacks unless the black has the recessive color gene for chocolate. Do you know if either of your buck's parents were chocolate of any type?

As for 'purebred', a mix bred back to a purebred will eventually get you a full pedigree. You have to keep choosing the purebred characteristics when breeding though or you'll just end up with a pedigreed mix. Rabbit breeds are pretty much determined by what they look like, so breed to lionheads and keep choosing breeding stock from the offspring that show lionhead characteristics and eventually you'll hopefully have a fully pedigreed lionhead.

The buns here are mostly purebred English angora, but several years ago a halfbred Satin angora/ German angora buck was used because the herd was getting pretty inbred. I'm still finding traces of that in the herd even though we've moved generations past that buck. Mostly in wool quality, cross breeding can really screw up the maintenance requirements of angora coats, although maybe not always but with that buck, it did.

She looks like a super light chocolate to me. I don’t have pedigrees for either so I’m not 100% sure on what colors they could carry. Here’s some better pictures of the buck.

1. What could I do to avoid fully going inbred? I could breed to daughter x father but what would I need to breed next in order to get less of a mix? Daughter x kit?

2. Also, how many litters are you thinking in order to get purebred?

3. What are some characteristics of Lionheads to look for in the kits? I know the fur but wasn’t sure if anything else.

 

[ladysown]

takes three generations to get a purebred... assuming you are keeping rabbits that conform to the breed characteristics.

so breed the doe, keep back the best two replacement daughters, rehome/cull mom.
Breed those daughters back to dad. rehome/cull the daughters.
Breed the offspring back to dad OR another purebred lionhead buck.

And voila... you'll have a full pedigree.