Noticing no brokens are showing up in my litters.....

Peach · Aug 2, 2012

So when I started with Mini Lops I decided that I really didn't care for brokens....now I kinda want one to show up in my litters lol I've seen that my rabbits have and and don't have broken in their background....if they are solids can they not carry broken? I'm having a brain fart here :? Or have I just gotten bucks and does that just happen to be double dominant? (ex. BB) I have my broken buck,Tornado, but I don't plan on breeding him until he grow a bit more into himself. I'm sure that brokens will show up with him!

LindseysWoolies · Aug 2, 2012

To produce a broken one of the parents has to be a broken. So yes with Tornado you will get exactly 50% broken and 50% solids.

akane · Aug 2, 2012

Broken doesn't hide. If you produce a solid from a broken the broken gene is lost and that rabbit will never pass on broken. It doesn't matter how many brokens they have in their background. One of the rabbits you are breeding has to be broken to get brokens.

Peach · Aug 2, 2012

Thank you guys

If they go several generations without broken,and you introduce the broken gene back in, will the kits be heavily patterned? Just curious

skysthelimit · Aug 2, 2012

Some say that when solid has lots of broken in the pedigree, the pattern will be better than using a solid with no broken in the pedigree, so they suggest using solids like that to breed to brokens. On a similar note, it's also said that using a solid with broken in the pedigree increases your chance to get booted kits.

Alot depends on the broken too, if it is heavily patterned, parents heavily patterned, you have a greater chance of getting heavily patterned kits.

akane · Aug 2, 2012

You need to know the quality of the brokens not just the amount of brokens. The solid rabbit could have a bunch of booteds (only white feet with no other pattern) in the background and therefore will throw rabbits with too little white. They could have a bunch of nearly charlie marked brokens and throw too much white. You don't know if you don't know the quality of the brokens behind the solids. Also some combinations do odd things. I have a booted castor mini rex doe who throws some very interesting marked brokens that we call dalmation rabbits for all the spotting when mixed with a specific line of rabbits I have. My chocolate mini rex buck used to throw nearly all white offspring when crossed to that same doe and he has no broken in his background. The modifiers for amount of white are completely separate from the existence of the broken gene so a lot of brokens doesn't always mean a lot of white and a lot of solids doesn't always mean too little white. If you didn't ask about the quality of the brokens all you can do is try it and see what pops out.