Domestic rabbit or wild?

chickschool

Songster
11 Years
Mar 5, 2011
469
30
199
Traverse City, MI
Can a domestic rabbit breed with a wild rabbit? If so can they get pregnant by more than one suitor? My domestic white rabbit gave birth to nine babies a little over 2 weeks ago (5 survived). She runs free on our school campus and broke into another rabbits cage. All of the babies are either solid white or black (dad is a black and white dwarf) except this one. He looks completely different. Even his face and ears look different and his fur is thicker.

.
 
Domestic rabbits cannot breed with North American wild rabbits (if by "breed" you mean "produce viable offspring."). A lot of people claim that they can, but if it is true, why isn't there any scientific evidence to back it up? There are a couple of breeds of domestic rabbit that some people claim are part Cottontail or some such, but there are some issues (like different chromosome numbers) that make it impossible. But since the domestic rabbit is descended from the European wild rabbit, if there are wild or feral rabbits of that species in the area, they certainly can breed to them.

Of course it is possible for a doe to breed with more than one buck and for a litter to have more than one sire. Some people have had problems writing pedigrees when they tried to breed a doe to one buck, they thought she refused him, they bred her to another buck, and the resulting litter has babies that look like the first buck . . .
barnie.gif


Your baby looks like it has a Rex coat. That only happens if both parents have a gene for the Rex coat. A Netherland Dwarf doesn't have Rex genes; does anybody have, say, a Mini Rex?
 
Domestic rabbits cannot breed with North American wild rabbits (if by "breed" you mean "produce viable offspring."). A lot of people claim that they can, but if it is true, why isn't there any scientific evidence to back it up? There are a couple of breeds of domestic rabbit that some people claim are part Cottontail or some such, but there are some issues (like different chromosome numbers) that make it impossible. But since the domestic rabbit is descended from the European wild rabbit, if there are wild or feral rabbits of that species in the area, they certainly can breed to them.

Of course it is possible for a doe to breed with more than one buck and for a litter to have more than one sire. Some people have had problems writing pedigrees when they tried to breed a doe to one buck, they thought she refused him, they bred her to another buck, and the resulting litter has babies that look like the first buck . . .
barnie.gif


Your baby looks like it has a Rex coat. That only happens if both parents have a gene for the Rex coat. A Netherland Dwarf doesn't have Rex genes; does anybody have, say, a Mini Rex?
That's what the majority of people have told me but check out this little guy. His fur is completely different. His is like velvet where the others are fluffy. And he is the cuddliest and calmest of the group.








 
Your baby looks like it has a Rex coat. That only happens if both parents have a gene for the Rex coat. A Netherland Dwarf doesn't have Rex genes; does anybody have, say, a Mini Rex?


This is a litter of Mini Rex at close to the age of your bunnies, and their father. The Rex coat is only about a half-inch long, and so dense that it stands almost straight up. Your odd baby's color looks to be Steel. Steel isn't seen in either the Rex or the Mini Rex, but it is commonly found in New Zealands (the large commercial breed most often seen as a Ruby-Eyed White).

If your doe is a mix that includes part Rex, and the "dwarf" is part Mini Rex, this is quite possible with only the two parents that you know about.
wink.png
 
Last edited:


This is a litter of Mini Rex at close to the age of your bunnies, and their father. The Rex coat is only about a half-inch long, and so dense that it stands almost straight up. Your odd baby's color looks to be Steel. Steel isn't seen in either the Rex or the Mini Rex, but it is commonly found in New Zealands (the large commercial breed most commonly seen as a Ruby-Eyed White).

If your doe is a mix that includes part Rex, and the "dwarf" is part Mini Rex, this is quite possible with only the two parents that you know about.
wink.png
The only thing I know about mine is that it's mother was a common white rabbit and her dad was a common black. Whether or not there is any Rex mixed in with them I don't know. I'm going to ask the family I got her from to see if I can find out. It's fur defiantly looks a lot like yours. This is going to be interesting.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom