Where do I go from here?

[Oakville Shooter]

OK, I bred two checkered giant does with NZ bucks, one blue the other REW. The doe bred to the blue buck kindled yesterday (day 30) Still waiting for the other doe to kindle.

I haven't handled them very much other than to get a count and see that they are being fed so I don't have a lot of details at the moment. However, there is one that looks to be solid white, most look solid blue, and their are a few brokens that are mostly blue with some white.

While I don't really have a goal in mind, I think it would be nice to raise/develop a line of broken NZs. So how do I go about doing it? Should I pick the best colored broken doe and breed her back to her sire, and do that for a few generations? Or should I pick the best siblings from this litter and use them, then continue to use the sibling buck with the subsequent offspring culling heavily?

Do I need to use the brokens from this litter or will the solids carry the genes and have brokens show up down the line?

Of course, this is going with the assumption that the other doe does not kindle. If she does, then I will have a few more options. The NZ bucks that I used are totally unrelated. I am not sure about the does. They came from the same place, but at different times. So at best, they are not related. At worst, they have one or both parents in common, but are not litter mates.

I am fairly new to rabbits, getting my first pair last March. And I am totally in the dark when it comes to genetics, so take it easy on me. :lol: I need the "Genetics For Dummies" explanation.

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

If you want brokens you will need to keep the brokens, solids won't throw broken. You will need to linebreed on the NZ buck(s) to keep the NZ type. Its best not to breed back to the Checkereds unless you don't have any brokens to choose from or they don't meet your standards! Good luck!

 

[avdpas77]

I'm not sure Checkers have the best body type to make this cross, but your thoughts and the above advice is correct. Keep using your best NZW buck and breed it to the best broken does you raise from the first cross. Repeat this process with succeeding generations. You do not need to use the same NZW buck, necessarily, but use the one you have with the best confirmation.

 

[eco2pia]

Do I need to use the brokens from this litter or will the solids carry the genes and have brokens show up down the line?

... And I am totally in the dark when it comes to genetics, so take it easy on me. :lol: I need the "Genetics For Dummies" explanation.

Ok, just to complicate things a bit, remember, REW can hide anything...Generally, spotted means they carry spotted and solid. Solid means they carry ONLY solid, but REW covers EVERYTHING, and you have no idea what is under the white sheet, so to speak. The joker is wild...

The pattern of the spots are controlled by something called modifiers--checkered giants have these modifiers fairly stabilized (which just means that their spot pattern is really consistant), but that is not true for solid NZ, as I discovered...Or actually, it IS akane explained it really well for me in a thread over in genetics, I'll see if I can find it and add a link.

here it is, she explains it in her second post really well I think. broken-pattern-genetics-t2118.html