Lionhead Rabbits: Breeding Show Quailty Rabbits

[PoultryPower]

Hello!
I'm going to breed lionhead rabbits and want to learn as much as I can about their genetics so I can properly breed them.
This is what I will be buying:
Bew doe
VM does
VM buck
F2 VM buck

What should be my first move when it comes time to breed them?

 

[Kevin565]

You might want to post pictures of your stock for proper evaluation. Just be aware that breeding for show quality requires lots of culling from your breeding program.

 

[Bunnylady]

Don't believe in making things easy for yourself, do you?

At this time, Lionheads are only an exhibition breed at ARBA shows. The colors that are currently part of the COD holder's current standard are Black, REW, and Tort. If and when the breed gets accepted as an official part of the ARBA standard (something that is still at least a couple of years away), there will still be several more years before BEW can be part of the standard. According to remarks made by the current BEW COD holder on the official Lionhead club website, she is having trouble coming up with show-quality BEW's herself. Sounds like you may be hoeing a tough row for a long time to me.

Your first move, though, should be to learn the breed standard, and learn what the words in the standard mean. Get someone who knows the breed inside out to show you what you are looking for (pictures don't really get the job done, you really have to get your hands on the animal and feel a lot of what is going on!) Learn to evaluate your own animals, know their strengths and weaknesses, so you can avoid breeding animals with the same faults together (all animals have faults; the perfect animal doesn't exist!) At some point, you have to learn to be color blind. Forget "pretty," what is going on with the hair and underneath the hair. When you can sell your favorite kit as a pet because type-wise, it just isn't good enough to be a breeding animal, you can consider yourself a serious breeder.

 

[PoultryPower]

I'm not looking to become a serious breeder yet. I just want to be able to sell good quality rabbits. I'm doing it more for the fun of it. I know you can't make a serious living out of it. The breed is just so cute, I wanted to be a part of it. Unfortunately there are no other breeders where I live that would be willing to train me.

The lady I bought them from had some suggestions as to who I should breed first. I think I'll follow her ideas. They aren't show quality and most of them aren't recognized colors, but they are SUPER cute.

Do you have any books on basic rabbit genetics that you could suggest?

 

[Bunnylady]

I'm not looking to become a serious breeder yet. I just want to be able to sell good quality rabbits. I'm doing it more for the fun of it. I know you can't make a serious living out of it.

Actually, when it comes to pet rabbits, you will be doing extremely well if you manage to break even. Like with most hobbies, you usually spend more than you get back in sales.

As for books - one of my first was Bobby Schott's Color Genetics of the Netherland Dwarf Rabbit , but when I looked it up on Amazon just now, I was shocked by the price!

 

[PoultryPower]

I saw that one. Would it apply to Lionheads? I'll see if I can find a better price somewhere else.

Also, are there any shots or anything like that I should be giving to my kits before selling them? The rabbits I bred before were given nothing and they are all perfectly fine and healthy. Maybe I just got lucky though?

 

[Bunnylady]

With rabbits, the color genetics is all pretty much the same, the only real difference might be the names of the colors. Most of the major genes that influence coat color can be found in Netherland Dwarfs.

Also, there are quite a few sites online where coat color is explained, some with photographs illustrating the colors pretty well. Unfortunately, I don't have any of them bookmarked on this computer, and the names aren't coming to me at the moment.

In the U.S, there aren't any shots for rabbits.

 

[PoultryPower]

I didn't think so, but I saw that other breeders were advertising that their kits were all de-wormed. I didn't think that was necessary.

 

[Bunnylady]

Rabbits that are kept in cages that are kept reasonably clean don't often get worms. However, there is a microbe that has been blamed for a lot of problems from wry neck to chronic diarrhea that they can pick up. One of the ways of controlling it is to dose the rabbits periodically with Ivermectin. Someone on another thread (can't find it right now, and don't have time to really go looking) said that Ivermectin given to young rabbits may interfere with the growth of their reproductive organs, rendering them sterile. If that's true, then worming kits is doing the future owner a disservice, if they intend to breed!

 

[PoultryPower]

Hmm good to know. I guess I will just sell my kits au naturale!