Rabbit Babies!!!! genotypes MilleAM

[MilleAM]

Hi, I'm new to raising and breeding rabbits. We have two female New Zealand Reds (what the guy said who I bought them from) with a little bit of satin in their background. One of them looks to be solid red and the other looks to be red with a broken black. I also have a male albino New Zealand White (I don't have a picture of currently but will upload when I get home) that I received from a breeder. I recently have had babies with the solid red and new Zealand white and they are so cute!!! I'm curious as to what colors should they be and when will they open their eyes, eat on their own, remove the nest box, stuff like that. Any advice is appreciated!!! Thanks



This one is Lil' Miss. She is the momma to the new litter of 7.



This is Carrot Cake. She will be a future mother in the next 2 months.

 

[GitaBooks]

Those are pretty rabbits.

I'm no expert about rabbit genetics, but Carrot Cake looks similar to a tort or sable in patterning.

Baby rabbits nurse for 5-6 weeks, but learn to eat earlier than that, after they begin walking around. They don't need a box after they are completely mobile, but they would love one to snuggle in until they are 6 weeks. Their eyes open at around 10 days of age, growing fur in along the way.

Feel free to ask any more questions you have! I don't personally breed rabbits, but I have done research.

Best of luck!

At about a week of age


Momma with her three babies

 

[Bunnylady]

Those are pretty rabbits.

I'm no expert about rabbit genetics, but Carrot Cake looks similar to a tort or sable in patterning.

That's because she is a tort.

And Lil' Miss is an orange, not a red.

This is what a New Zealand Red looks like:


And just for clarification, this is a broken black:



Rabbit coat color is a complex business. There are a bunch of genes that influence coat color, and it is the combined effects of all of them together that determines what color the rabbit's coat is. I call REW "the light switch," because it shuts down all pigment production, and leaves you totally in the dark as to what genes the rabbit is carrying (other than REW, of course). The most likely colors to get from crossing to a NZW are chestnut and steel, though you could get red, orange, black, tort, and maybe broken versions of them. A few folks are working to get blue accepted as a New Zealand color, so it's not impossible for a New Zealand to be carrying blue. Satins come in a wide variety of colors, so when you consider that these girls are a New Zealand/Satin cross, they could be carrying a wide variety of genes.

I think I answered most of your other questions on the other thread you posted (which is pretty much the same as this one).

 

[MilleAM]

Thank you for answering those questions. I'm new to this site and I didn't know if my forum went through so I did it again lol.

Thank you for the advice. I'm looking to primarily use these rabbits as meat rabbits but would like to explore other breeds as well. In the picture of the babies below, I can point one out which is on its back but the fur looks similar to Lil' Miss's orange color. The rest look to be dark or agouti.



This is my buck REW name Clyde.



This is our litter of 7 who is 12 days old as of today.

 

[GitaBooks]

Those kits are so cute!

 

[MilleAM]

Those kits are so cute!

Are you interested? Lol

 

[MilleAM]

That's because she is a tort.

And Lil' Miss is an orange, not a red.

This is what a New Zealand Red looks like:


And just for clarification, this is a broken black:



Rabbit coat color is a complex business. There are a bunch of genes that influence coat color, and it is the combined effects of all of them together that determines what color the rabbit's coat is. I call REW "the light switch," because it shuts down all pigment production, and leaves you totally in the dark as to what genes the rabbit is carrying (other than REW, of course). The most likely colors to get from crossing to a NZW are chestnut and steel, though you could get red, orange, black, tort, and maybe broken versions of them. A few folks are working to get blue accepted as a New Zealand color, so it's not impossible for a New Zealand to be carrying blue. Satins come in a wide variety of colors, so when you consider that these girls are a New Zealand/Satin cross, they could be carrying a wide variety of genes.

I think I answered most of your other questions on the other thread you posted (which is pretty much the same as this one).

Those are pretty rabbits.

I'm no expert about rabbit genetics, but Carrot Cake looks similar to a tort or sable in patterning.

Baby rabbits nurse for 5-6 weeks, but learn to eat earlier than that, after they begin walking around. They don't need a box after they are completely mobile, but they would love one to snuggle in until they are 6 weeks. Their eyes open at around 10 days of age, growing fur in along the way.

Feel free to ask any more questions you have! I don't personally breed rabbits, but I have done research.

Best of luck!

At about a week of age


Momma with her three babies

Now that I have offspring, I would love to start working on the genotype of the parents. I understand that a REW is a "light switch" but I figured that after seeing the offspring, I could start to work backwards to figure it out. Any advice on where to start would be awesome!

P.S. I bred Clyde to Carrot Cake (the tort) yesterday and am very excited to see what happens in a month.

 

[Bunnylady]

This is what you started with:

Lil' Miss - A_B_C_D_ee; it's hard to say what she may be doing as far as wide-band and rufus modifiers (the wide band gene is what allows the red/orange color to appear on the belly, and rufus is what ramps up the amount of the yellow/red pigment to create that deep red color)

Clyde - ____cc____

Carrot Cake - aaB_C_D_ee

So far, what I'm seeing in the nest box all look like Chestnuts; the baby on its back might be a wide-band chestnut, but I can't be sure. So at this point, the only thing that the kits are showing that you know they didn't get from their mother is a normal extension gene. So at this point, you know that Clyde must be ____cc__E_; not a lot, but it's something.

 

[MilleAM]

This is what you started with:

Lil' Miss - A_B_C_D_ee; it's hard to say what she may be doing as far as wide-band and rufus modifiers (the wide band gene is what allows the red/orange color to appear on the belly, and rufus is what ramps up the amount of the yellow/red pigment to create that deep red color)

Clyde - ____cc____

Carrot Cake - aaB_C_D_ee

So far, what I'm seeing in the nest box all look like Chestnuts; the baby on its back might be a wide-band chestnut, but I can't be sure. So at this point, the only thing that the kits are showing that you know they didn't get from their mother is a normal extension gene. So at this point, you know that Clyde must be ____cc__E_; not a lot, but it's something.

Thank you for the help, I just want to be able to understand the genetics to hopefully be able to breed the colors I want. Would more pictures be helpful of ALL of the rabbits to determine genotype? I am new at rabbits and don't really know what to look for like the "normal extension", "wide-band", etc.

 

[MilleAM]

I singled out the litter and got pictures of each. I don't know if that will help determine the genotype better or not....and its fun too look at 2 week old baby bunnies LOL