Wonder which rabbits I should breed.

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Blessed with pets

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Hello I have Holland lops and I’m just wondering what rabbits I should breed to each other color wise. I’m getting into showing rabbits. Really want to produce tricolors. All but one of them are fully pedigreed and the broken black doe is the daughter of my tort buck and the rest are completely unrelated. I have a magpie buck, broken tort buck, broken black doe, black doe, blue otter doe, blue/fawn tricolor doe, broken tort doe, and what I think is called a chestnut doe. Can attached photos if needed.
 
If you want Tris, breed that blue/fawn doe to the Magpie buck. You'll certainly get some, assuming one of the parents is broken. All the does you listen could produce Tris, but that first pairing will be most likely.
That was my original thought but I read somewhere you are not supposed to use magpies in tricolor lines. Also my blue/fawn tri doe is my only non pedigreed rabbit so I’m trying to decide if I wanna keep her in my program or not.
 
Tricolor is a broken harlequin. The harlequin gene takes the typical agouti color banding, and instead of having bands on the same hairshaft, the colors go instead onto different patches of skin. Harlequin is dominant over tortoiseshell & orange, but recessive to steel and the normal extension colors (like black, blue, otter & chestnut).
I have a magpie buck, broken tort buck, broken black doe, black doe, blue otter doe, blue/fawn tricolor doe, broken tort doe, and what I think is called a chestnut doe. Can attached photos if needed.
Magpie is harlequin + chinchilla (which removes the fawn/orange from the coat, leaving dark and pearl patterning). The broken tort buck has the needed broken gene for tricolors, and torts are recessive to harlequin. However, you want to avoid breeding two broken rabbits together, as it may result in 'charlies', rabbits with far too much white, too little color, and possible heath complications with megacolon. So I wouldn't mate the broken tort with the tricolor for that reason.

One reason breeders avoid magpie crossings, is that the chinchilla gene can sometimes cause off eye colors in the kits, disqualifying them from show. But, the magpie buck is a harlequin, and the tricolor is a harlequin, so you should get harlequin kits, and half of them (statistically) should be tricolors, as most tricolors have one dominant broken gene, and one recessive not-broken gene. So, odds are, half of the kits should inherit the broken gene, and be tricolors.

Magpie to the broken tort doe should also produce some harlequins, and perhaps some tricolors as well, as magpie has the needed harlequin gene, and is dominant over tortoiseshell (which also has the desired broken gene.) Depending on what recessives they carry, you could get tris.

The broken black doe is out of a tort, so she probably carries a recessive tort gene. That means that there is a 50/50 chance she will pass along the tort gene to her kits, and a 50/50 chance she will pass along broken. If you breed her to the magpie, who has harlequin, and is dominant over that recessive tort gene, you might get harlequin or tris out of that mating as well. Full color extension (like chestnut & otter & some blacks) is dominant over chinchilla, so mating to the magpie should still result in some full color (non-chinchilla) kits. If you end up with kits with those odd chinchilla blue-gray eyes, or marbled eyes, you can choose not to use those kits in the breeding program, and breed/show the ones that meet the Standard.

When mating a chestnut to harlequin, I often end up with unshowable 'harlequinized' chestnuts. They look chestnut, perhaps a bit more of a rich dark coat than normal, but there will often be faint marbling of colors on the ears or face or lower on the body to betray the presence of the recessive harlequin gene.

My guess would be, that if you are looking to specialize in tricolors, pedigrees are not your main concern. Unpedigreed rabbits can be shown, as long as they meet the requirements in the Standard of Perfection for that breed and color group. Do the mating, keep the best kits, and start their pedigrees with the information you have available. In three generations, you will have created your own pedigreed tricolor line, even starting with unpedigreed stock.
 
Tricolor is a broken harlequin. The harlequin gene takes the typical agouti color banding, and instead of having bands on the same hairshaft, the colors go instead onto different patches of skin. Harlequin is dominant over tortoiseshell & orange, but recessive to steel and the normal extension colors (like black, blue, otter & chestnut).

Magpie is harlequin + chinchilla (which removes the fawn/orange from the coat, leaving dark and pearl patterning). The broken tort buck has the needed broken gene for tricolors, and torts are recessive to harlequin. However, you want to avoid breeding two broken rabbits together, as it may result in 'charlies', rabbits with far too much white, too little color, and possible heath complications with megacolon. So I wouldn't mate the broken tort with the tricolor for that reason.

One reason breeders avoid magpie crossings, is that the chinchilla gene can sometimes cause off eye colors in the kits, disqualifying them from show. But, the magpie buck is a harlequin, and the tricolor is a harlequin, so you should get harlequin kits, and half of them (statistically) should be tricolors, as most tricolors have one dominant broken gene, and one recessive not-broken gene. So, odds are, half of the kits should inherit the broken gene, and be tricolors.

Magpie to the broken tort doe should also produce some harlequins, and perhaps some tricolors as well, as magpie has the needed harlequin gene, and is dominant over tortoiseshell (which also has the desired broken gene.) Depending on what recessives they carry, you could get tris.

The broken black doe is out of a tort, so she probably carries a recessive tort gene. That means that there is a 50/50 chance she will pass along the tort gene to her kits, and a 50/50 chance she will pass along broken. If you breed her to the magpie, who has harlequin, and is dominant over that recessive tort gene, you might get harlequin or tris out of that mating as well. Full color extension (like chestnut & otter & some blacks) is dominant over chinchilla, so mating to the magpie should still result in some full color (non-chinchilla) kits. If you end up with kits with those odd chinchilla blue-gray eyes, or marbled eyes, you can choose not to use those kits in the breeding program, and breed/show the ones that meet the Standard.

When mating a chestnut to harlequin, I often end up with unshowable 'harlequinized' chestnuts. They look chestnut, perhaps a bit more of a rich dark coat than normal, but there will often be faint marbling of colors on the ears or face or lower on the body to betray the presence of the recessive harlequin gene.

My guess would be, that if you are looking to specialize in tricolors, pedigrees are not your main concern. Unpedigreed rabbits can be shown, as long as they meet the requirements in the Standard of Perfection for that breed and color group. Do the mating, keep the best kits, and start their pedigrees with the information you have available. In three generations, you will have created your own pedigreed tricolor line, even starting with unpedigreed stock.
Thank you!! Very informational!!

I think I’ll do :

Magpie buck x tricolor doe.
Magpie buck x broken black doe.
Magpie buck x broken tort doe.
Magpie buck x black doe.
Broken Tort buck x chestnut doe.
Broken Tort buck x blue otter doe.

And if I get a harlequin doe out of these litters I’ll take it to the tort buck because he does carry tricolor. I just got the magpie buck, chestnut doe, and broken tort doe and out of the magpie x broken tort they got all tricolors and the magpie x chestnut they got a harlequinized chinchilla and another tricolor and they lost 4 of the really young kits due to incorrect nesting box. Correct me in any of this if I am wrong lol. I’ll be breeding as many as possible on September 20th so I’m just pre planning my pairings.
 
Hello I have Holland lops and I’m just wondering what rabbits I should breed to each other color wise. I’m getting into showing rabbits. Really want to produce tricolors. All but one of them are fully pedigreed and the broken black doe is the daughter of my tort buck and the rest are completely unrelated. I have a magpie buck, broken tort buck, broken black doe, black doe, blue otter doe, blue/fawn tricolor doe, broken tort doe, and what I think is called a chestnut doe. Can attached photos if needed.
I'm a show breeder, been doing hollands for the entirety of my show life. Don't do tris. If you do, make it a solid project separate from everything. I have never seen a good tri and if I have it was a torted tri. I also know genetics and know that what you need to make a tri is limited on a national scale. Start with an easier color and focus on type first. Learn to build the body, it will take years, then apply that to your tri project
 
Thank you!! Very informational!!

I think I’ll do :

Magpie buck x tricolor doe.
Magpie buck x broken black doe.
Magpie buck x broken tort doe.
Magpie buck x black doe.
Broken Tort buck x chestnut doe.
Broken Tort buck x blue otter doe.

And if I get a harlequin doe out of these litters I’ll take it to the tort buck because he does carry tricolor. I just got the magpie buck, chestnut doe, and broken tort doe and out of the magpie x broken tort they got all tricolors and the magpie x chestnut they got a harlequinized chinchilla and another tricolor and they lost 4 of the really young kits due to incorrect nesting box. Correct me in any of this if I am wrong lol. I’ll be breeding as many as possible on September 20th so I’m just pre planning my pairings.
see this will result in a load of torted and tanned tris. If your chestnut carries Ee then you can get some orange which is good, make sure you don't mistake a fox for an orange. DON'T breed that tort to that otter, it's not worth it and you will just get tort, otter, and fox, maybe a black if you are lucky
 
see this will result in a load of torted and tanned tris. If your chestnut carries Ee then you can get some orange which is good, make sure you don't mistake a fox for an orange. DON'T breed that tort to that otter, it's not worth it and you will just get tort, otter, and fox, maybe a black if you are lucky
So for my blue otter doe what should I do? Her dad was a fox otter so I know she carries it. Sorry if I sound really ignorant I know a lot about breeding bews and the Vienna gene so the rest of the colors are just new to me.
 
generally speaking you want to keep tort out of tricolour lines.
Yeah it’s just hard because I have to work with what I’ve got available to me. I managed to get a blue eyed white doe and I bred her to my magpie buck because two rabbits on his pedigree including his mother were Vienna marked so I’d like to see what I get from them. Probably end up keeping a buck solely to breed back to the mother for more bews.
 
So I ended up breeding

Magpie x broken tort-September 1

Magpie x blue/fawn tricolor -September 1

Magpie x Broken black -September 7

Broken black tort x chestnut -September 7

Magpie x BEW -September 8

Broken black tort x black- September 9

Magpie x blue otter-September 10> I have no idea what to expect from this one I’m sure some unrecognized color but purely a test breeding.

I’d like to get a solid color buck out of the broken tort x chestnut or black so I can take him back to my brokens. I’ll let everyone know how the litters turn out!
 

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