Question on breeding a broken.

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Rabbit Talk Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
fuzzy9

fuzzy9

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 9, 2011
Messages
2,730
Reaction score
3
Location
WI
I have a broken black doe that will be ready to breed soon, and she was supposed to be bred to my big NZB buck. But since I just lost him to cancer, I'm only left with my NZW buck or my cali buck, and wondered if this is a cross I should even make? I breed for meat, but if I got anything with spots worth keeping I would certainly want to do that. Not knowing much about genetics, I'm not sure if breeding a broken to a REW is a good move, and just thought I'd get some opinions. I have a couple junior black NZ bucks I'm raising, but they aren't anywhere near ready to breed.

Thank you! :)
 
I would breed to the Cali buck. Just a thought because then you don't have such a dominint gene like REW in the litter.
 
If you bred your rew to a broken you could get broken or solid kits or kits that were rew and hiding a broken or solid gene underneath.
 
I am making the assumption that your doe does not have a hidden REW gene.

Broken is dominant so you should get at least half of your kits with a broken pattern regardless of which buck you breed her to. We do not know what is lurking in your REW but in my experience they have agouti and/or steel which are both dominant and easy to weed out of your gene pool. That being said it is likely you will get agouti(AKA chestnut) and broken agouti. But if you keep a broken kit for breeding, they will be a carrier for the solid black colour and if bred to your up and coming black bucks(assuming they lack a hiden REW gene) statistically you'll get a quarter agouti, quarter black, quarter broken agouti, quarter broken black.

I would not breed to the Californian. The himalayan gene is recessive and can hide in rabbits for generations and crop up when you really dont want it to. This is assuming you want to keep some of the brokens for future breeding and some people like surpises in the nest box - I am not one of those people. If your Cali buck has black points, then when bred to your broken black doe you should get blacks and broken blacks who are all carriers of himalayan or REW.

Of course there could be all kinds of hidden genes in the doe and buck and you can get surprises regardless of careful planning. :eek:hsnap:
 
Thank you for the info so far, it's really helpful! :) I should have also mentioned, if I remember correctly, when I got her I was told she was a cross between a cali buck, and some unknown non-meat type doe. My theory according to her markings is that it was an English Spot doe. My cali buck has chocolate points, but I'm thinking now I wouldn't use him with her, knowing that her buck was a cali, wouldn't I just end up with more cali marked kits? I will more than likely use my NZW buck, and then any broken offspring that I keep will be bred back to my upcoming NZB buck.
 
Personally, I'd use one buck for one litter then use the other for the next. I'm not really big on projections when I can go the empirical route.
 
If her sire was a Californian then she definitely has either the himalayan or REW gene hiding in her. This changes things....A LOT

Half the kits should still be broken and carry the broken gene ....BUT

When bred to the REW buck, half the litter will be will be agouti and/or broken agouti and the other half will be cali and/or REW and also could also be broken but you will not be able to tell.

When bred to the chocolate pointed Cali you'll get half black and/or broken black and half Cali and/or REW who could be broken but you cannot tell. They will all carry a hidden chocolate gene.
 
You could get broken Cali marked kits which would have nose and ear markings but would be missing their foot markings.
 
You could get broken Cali marked kits which would have nose and ear markings but would be missing their foot markings.
Click to expand...

COOL

I wasn't sure if the himi gene would mask the broken gene (I've never bred either) now I know! Thanks!
 
We bred our Blue Satin buck to our NZW. We got kits in different shades of brown, black and some REW.
 
Dood":1int1d8t said:
You could get broken Cali marked kits which would have nose and ear markings but would be missing their foot markings.
Click to expand...

COOL

I wasn't sure if the himi gene would mask the broken gene (I've never bred either) now I know! Thanks!
Click to expand...


The broken gene is on a different locus than the actual colors. Any color can be broken, and only one broken gene is necessary.
 
Because himalayan is on the C-locus I didn't know if it had the masking effect that REW ( cc ) does, I knew at least the bunny would carry the broken gene ( En_ ) but was unsure how it would manifest in the phenotype.
 
Well, Stache had her kits today. I ended up breeding her to my chocolate marked cali buck, and she had 8.......only ONE broken! Dangit! :angry: There are two solid dark that look black, and 5 pink. :roll: Was really hoping for more spots, but at least the one I did get is one of the bigger hippos, and not a runt.
 
Yes, Dood I've got some broken himis before. They are missing the foot markings, and the ears are not solidly colored either. Even the nose markings aren't complete.
 
Once the white kits grow up and there should be some Cali marked kits, check to see for white in their points as these will be broken cali's and if bred to your solid rabbits you'll get some broken marked buns.
 
Will do! Yay! :lol: Maybe there's still hope for a small starter herd of home raised broken meat rabbit's after all!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top