This orange and white boy from Mousewhisker and Rizzo found a new home this past Monday. And this wee one below from Vena and Benito went off to new digs as well. Guessing girlie but really not sure. Then tonight this broken chocolate girlie from Vena found a home as well.
CloudTail had a spot of difficulty giving birth today, two kits came out looking rather bruised and battered, but they nicely warm in their nest in the house today. Camden is Dad. Watch Me GrowThese kiddos below have all gone to find homes with the same person. :) The mice are not the ones pictured, but five different ones from all the ones I had. They were a variety of ages. These piggies have gone off to a home of a family who picked up a bunny from me in the spring whom they adore. These two girls should make a great additions to their household.
My goal in this post is to introduce you to some basic coat colour patterns. The two main coat patters you will come across in rabbits are solid and broken. This rabbit (Magic) is a solid black holland lop boy. As you can see he is all one solid colour. This coat pattern is called solid. This other rabbit is a solid chocolate polish named Mittens. I don't breed a lot of solid rabbits except in polish. I like the broken and harlequin colours along with a smattering of agouti the best in my rabbits. Georgia (broken black polish) and Acorn (broken chestnut holland lop) are two examples of broken. Broken means white with another recognized colour. It is different than vienna marked or harlequin. It's a distinct colour patterning.. can be heavier or light (such as a booted broken, or a very light broken called a charlie). Here we have two examples of the harlequin colour. Harry (black magpie) and holland lop baby pet (black japanese) show off the main colour variation of this colour pattern. Magpie is white with black, blue, lilac or chocolate) Japanese is red with black, blue, lilac or chocolate). Harlequin is a confusing colour because it is also a breed of rabbit. Harry is a harlequin breed rabbit which comes in the harlequin patterning. They are to have a split face, opposite colouring on their feet and banding along the opposing sides. it's a fascinating type to breed for. This is one of my favourite colour patterns. Agouti... I think Mousewhisker is a chocolate agouti. Silver was a blue chinchilla. I would LOVE to have a bunch of chinchilla coloured rabbits in my barn. But breeding chinchilla gives alot of chestnut... and chestnut I'm not real keen on..it's like having a bunch of cottontails running about (and I have enough of those in my yard as well). :) Agouti is a specific colour patterns that has rings in the fur. white, black, and other colour. The other colour defines what TYPE of agouti it is. Shaded rabbits. PinPin is a black tort, IvyPool is a Siamese Sable. Shaded rabbits have darker color on the feet, ears, tail, and head. These areas fade to a lighter shade on the rest of the body. Shadeds include: Sable Points, Siamese Sables, Seal, Smoke Pearls and Tortoise (Tort for short). Rabbits with the tan gene come in two varieties... silver marten or otter. This pattern is recognized with ear lacing, a triangle behind the head, lacing around the eyes, and in the crease of the nose. It is either a silver colour or a tan colour. The vienna gene. The blue eyed white factor. These are some kits off a doe rescued who appeared to either be an oddly marked broken or with the odd marking of a vienna marked rabbit. They show very much that she was a vienna marked rabbit. Vienna marks can be a snip down the face, a white paw on a solid rabbit, a broken rabbits whose spots are "off" from the normal broken pattern, blue eyes, dutch markings with no dutch in the background. It can cause havoc for a long time in a line of rabbits. One can breed with it or try to remove it from one's herd. It can be frustrating to work with. The kit i nthe middle is a normal blue-eyed white rabbit. All three are vienna marked, making them vienna gene carriers.
So that in a nutshell are the basic colour patterns that you will run into. There are others since breeding one rabbit to another can lead to some interesting genetics being shown Like tricolour rabbits with tan ear lacing. Orange rabbits with smutty noses from having a shaded in the background. You can have steels (which look a lot like an agouti but with a gold or sliver tip to the hair shaft). Hopefully you found this helpful. Tell me if you would please, what colour rabbit do you have? This blue-eyed white doe had me convinced she wasn't pregnant... but two days ago she built a lovely nest, and this morning after church, she graced me with four lovely large kits. One has some scratches on it (a light coloured one) so I suspect she needed to work to get it out, but they are all looking good. Rizzo is dad. Watch Me Grow8 kits off this duo. Some are peanuts though, so time will tell for sure how many. Suspecting three, but one might just be a runt. I'll know more in a couple days. Made a lovely nest. Kits coming in at night to ensure they don't get cold. Watch Me GrowI bought Mocha bred to Jax (courtesy of Legacy Rabbits). This morning she had seven kits, three DOA. Four chilled. built them up a lovely nest with lots of fur (kept from other rabbits). The kits should warm up nicely.. SHOULD warm up nicely. all kits died. dug out of nest on cold night by momma being a silly head. Watch Me Growhmm.. a brand new year is upon us. T'is the time to make new year's resoluations and what not isn't it? Well, sorry to tell you this but.. I don't make new year's resoluations. They are too easy to break or to forget about. But I will tell you what I hope to accomplish this year with my rabbits. 1. continue breeding my holland lops and to work on reproductivity issues. 2. continue breeding my polish, hopefully getting a buck that will work well in my herd and be an aggressive breeder. 3. increase the size of my commercial type does. Right now a couple of my does are smaller than I would like them to be, and one is nervous nellie. Planning to replace both does with better offspring. 4. get better lights in the rabbitry. 5. fix the leak in the shed roof. 6. build a new more carriers, making one a guinea pig ready carrier. 7. put up a tin roof on the rabbit tents, and put sides on that will be sturdier than the tarp is. Not sure what I will use for that but I'll figure something out for it. :) |
AuthorI have been breeding rabbits for a quite a few years. I thoroughly enjoy them as animals and think they make great pets. I also like to take some of them to rabbit shows to see how they measure up to the standards. For the BEST rabbit forum I've ever found. Go to Rabbittalk.com. Good for the pet rabbit owner as well as the breeder for meat or show.
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