nz color genetics

[norris15]

ok so i am raising nz rabbits for meat and sell... my question is i breed my rew nz doe to a black nz buck.. the babies came out looking like californians.... how do i explain to buyers they are pure nz bunnies .. is there a name for them.??

 

[Zoomie]

The California was used to help develop the NZ black variety. That's probably why your kits look like that. (Although, when you breed to a REW you never know what color genes they are hiding under the REW.) The California color is not accepted in the show ring for NZs. But if you are selling them for meat, I don't think the buyers would care? If you're trying to sell them as purebred NZ, yeah. Then you will have a problem. They do not meet the standard.

I can suggest using the magic of Google to learn about rabbit color genetics, which is incredibly fascinating, and if you are trying to get purebreds for show, you will also need to study the Standard of Perfection for NZs. Raising rabbits is really fun, looks like you have a good start there!

 

[Bunnylady]

is there a name for them.??

Yes - mixed breeds. A possibly more charitable term is "mismarks." Your black isn't a purebred, or at least, there is an out cross somewhere in his fairly recent family history. The gene that causes that color is called Himalayan, after the Himalayan rabbit breed which is apparently the oldest breed to be that color. The very popular meat breed called the Californian was created from crossing Himalayans with Chinchilla rabbits, and New Zealand Whites.

Just what that color is called depends on the breed you are talking about. In a lot of breeds, the color is called Himalayan, or Himi for short. In other breeds, it is called Californian, and in yet others, Pointed White. Confused yet?

The California was used to help develop the NZ black variety

Ummmm, I'm sorry, but you seem to be a bit confused. The breed is called Californian. "California rabbit breeders," which I assume you saw somewhere, means "breeders of rabbits that live in California."

The gene that causes the Himi/Cali/Pointed White pattern is dominant to the one that causes REW, so this had to come from your black buck. As long as this breed has existed, there is no longer any reason that the Himi gene would be in rabbits of 100% pure NZ blood, so technically, your buck doesn't qualify as "purebred." Understand, though, that "purebred" is a relative term. Rabbit breeders do out crosses to other breeds all the time, for a variety of reasons. The most common reason is to improve type, though since the NZ is considered by many to be pretty much the perfect meat rabbit, I doubt it was that. There are a number of breeds that this gene could have come from; the Satin, the Rex, the Altex (just to name a few). Most likely, though, it came from a cross to a Californian - people often cross NZ's and Cali's because of the "hybrid vigor" in the offspring.

So, someone somewhere along the line blended something else with a New Zealand. As long as the type is close enough, most meat breeders won't care. Even in show rabbits, this sort of thing is done; I once had some pedigreed Harlequins that threw the occasional REW (obviously, there was a NZW somewhere back there). I jokingly called the white ones "paint-by-number Harlequins;" though the white ones were basically useless, the cross that had introduced that gene into the Harlie gene pool had also given that line awesome type (something the Harlequin sorely needs!)

Anyone who knows meat rabbit breeds will know that "pure" NZ's don't come with points, so this may or may not cause an issue for you when it comes to selling them as purebreds. These particular rabbits have small, light "points" because they have one Himi gene and one REW gene; if you breed one of them to another REW, some of the offspring will be REW. Those, when bred to REW's, will only produce more REW's; whether you want to go to that much trouble to avoid awkward questions is up to you. Of course, you could simply replace your buck with one that won't produce non-breed colors.