What is my lionhead mixed with?

[obking92]

I already know she is part lionhead but she is pretty big for a lionhead and she is only single mane. I bred her with a harlequin and 2 of their babies were full mane. Can someone help me determine what she is by this picture?

 

[Bunnylady]

Unless you breed a single maned Lionhead to something that also has a mane, you can't get double-maned offspring. The mane gene is dominant; animals with a single mane by definition have a single copy of the mane gene. If an animal doesn't have a mane, it doesn't have a copy of the mane gene, so it can't give one to any of its offspring. The expression of the mane gene may vary; some animals just have better manes as both youngsters and adults. Most single-maned babies have better manes when they are younger, but wind up with just a little bit of mane (sometimes just a few tufts around the ears) as adults.

Because the Lionhead is so outrageously popular, there are lots of people who are breeding anything they can find with a mane to whatever else they happen to have so they can sell "Lionhead" babies. As a result, there are lots of animals getting sold as Lionheads that have some mane (or even no mane at all), but otherwise bear little resemblance to the animal described in the Lionhead breed standard. A good Lionhead has a great deal of Netherland Dwarf blood in it; a lot of the size and type show its Dwarf heritage.

I'm afraid it's really not possible to say just what sort of mix went into producing your girl; the Dwarfy/Lionhead influence is clear, but the rest of it really

isn't.

 

[obking92]

So my black lion head had babies with my harlequin and there babies were all over the place. How come some came out long hair and some didnt'?

 

[Bunnylady]

When it comes to manes, there are 3 possibilities, no mane, single mane (SM), and double mane (DM). A rabbit with no mane has two copies of the maneless gene. A rabbit with a double mane has two copies of the mane gene. A rabbit with a single mane has one copy of the mane gene, and one copy of the maneless gene.

When a maneless rabbit is bred, it gives a copy of the maneless gene to all of its offspring, because that's the only kind of gene it has. Similarly, when you breed a double-maned rabbit, it will give a copy of the maned gene to all of its babies, because that is the only kind of gene it has. But when you breed a single-maned rabbit, it has 2 kinds of genes (one for mane, one for maneless) and it will give the mane gene to some of its babies, and the maneless gene to others.

When you bred your single-maned Lionhead to a maneless rabbit, the maneless rabbit had to give the babies a maneless gene. The Lionhead gave a copy of the mane gene to some babies, and the maneless gene to others. Babies that were born without manes have two copies of the maneless gene (one that came from the mother, and one from the father), and no copies of the gene for manes; they never will have manes, and the only way they could ever have babies that have manes would be if they were bred to a rabbit with a mane. The babies that were born with manes are single maned. SM Lionheads often have fairly good manes as babies, but the mane tends to thin out as they molt and grow in new coats. By the time those babies are adults, they will have considerably less mane than they did as babies; perhaps as little as a few tufts of longer hair around the ears and on the jaw line.