Venna Blue x Lop Cross

[RustyPocket]

Hello all. It's been ages since I last was around. I'll be soon finishing my college so more rabbit time for me.

For quite a long time I have been thinking about breeding some other color into my black-based non-extension rabbits. Would love to see some blue, brown or lilac based fawns and cremes. But there are no such colors around where I live (Croatia). Not many people do care about colors of their meaties (mostly mutts anyway). So, I decided to start researching how to breed my own solids.

The best thing I can come across to be my starting point are Vienna Blues, and brown Lop rabbits (apparently called Havana variety in Europe). I am not sure about the specific breed, our Croatian non-official standards (judge manuals to be precise) classify lops into three categories: dwarf, regular and giant; non look like English Lop to me. I would like to go for regular (medium) if possible. However, a lot of places seem to state crossing lops and other breeds is bad. Why? I was even called out on my national forum for even bringing out the idea of messing with two purebred lines :shock: And also, how do lop-eared genes work? Dominant? Recessive?

What do you think of the mix? Any other rabbits that would not be used in breeding would be culled for meat, would this cross be OK for meat purposes? If not, I do have access to New Zealand Reds and Californians (both black-based) to breed into the gene pool to make them meatier.

I know I have tons of questions but would like to really prepare myself before starting anything and getting any breeders. Thanks in advance and have a pleasant day.

 

[SableSteel]

Hello

Brown based fawns are almost indistinguishable from black based fawns, and lilac based creams are almost indistinguishable from blue based creams, so adding in the chocolate/brown/havana gene from the lops wouldn't get you much color variation if you are going for non extension rabbits. Blue is simple recessive, and blue viennas have some origins in meat breeds, so those would be fine to breed in. Lops tend to have thicker bone that doesn't make for as good of meat rabbits, but there wouldn't be any significant problems introducing them. Lop ears are polygenetic, so lop crosses have all assortment of ears, in between lop and normal.

 

[RustyPocket]

Thanks SableSteel

Prehaps I wasn't completely clear. I understand the situation with fawns and creams. It was just my initial idea. But the thing is, I never came across a lilac in my country. So i decided to try breeding it, also some blues and chocolates, most of them come only in purebred lines of two mentioned breeds. I'd simly like a bit more diversity on my market, most of what I see now is chesnuts and chinchillas, most black. I have also been planning on starting different tort and harli/magpie lines, for last 5-ish years I have been into rabbits, I occasionally came across standard black harli only every now and then. It's mostly about geting some diversity, honestly.

As of Lops, thanks for ear genes explanation. I am still decideing on wether I should skip the whole chocolate thing for now and just get someone blue and a sallander prehaps and start working on black/blue magpies straight on. Again, thanks for your help.