Designer Rabbit Program

Plush Lops and Mini Plush Lops

2011-08-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

Introduction

I am the third generation of a western ranch family and have been involved in breeding livestock all of my life, with a particular interest in specialized breeding programs thanks to the early Hereford/Angus crossbreds in the beef cattle business.

Most recently, this interest has included rabbits. I've always been fixated on the Rex rabbits because of their unique, luxurious pelts but after being introduced to the lop breeds, I wanted, basically, a lop-eared Rex. The Velveteen Lop seemed at first to be what I was looking for, but a year and a half dozen Velveteen Lops convinced me they were not what I was looking for.

Now living in Kentucky in a more heavily populated area also gave me a market for pet rabbits in addition to the meat rabbits and which brought me to the Mini Rex and the Holland Lops, so of course, my next thought was of a Mini Rex with lop ears.

Thus, the Kaleidoscope Farm "Designer Rabbit" project began to evolve with a very basic but two-fold plan to produce a standard Rex type rabbit with lop-ears as well as what a number of breeders are working with and calling a Mini Plush Lop. Eventually, I envisioned a medium sized rabbit with does that could be bred to larger bucks for more meat production or to smaller bucks for smaller maturing rabbits for the pet market. In other words a dual-purpose "designer rabbit.

Success!

2011-06-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

The first fully successful "Plush Lop" kit from the designer rabbit breeding program. This is a blue/fawn harlequin with both ears fully lopped and a good Rex coat. The doe is a small tri-color Rex and the sire is a small castor buck from a Rex/Velveteen Lop breeding.

This is the only kit in the litter with fully lopped ears (seven weeks of age in this photo) and I am keeping fingers crossed that I will have a Rex type body and weight of 5# of less when mature. If all that comes together, this will be the first completely successful "Plush Lop" to come out of my breeding project.

The first 2011 Plush Lop litters

2011-05-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

My Plush Lop breeding project got a significant boost this spring when I managed a rabbit swap with a Virginia breeder. He is working with a similar program and the swap has given me several young Mini Plush Lop bucks from completely different lines.

This breeder is working with the blue eyed whites, so I now have a BEW MiniRex/Holland Lop buck and two MiniRex/Velveteen Lop cross bucks that carry VM markings. So far, I have three litters by the new bucks out of does from my breeding project.

The first is from one of my foundation Velveteen Lop/Rex does, a broken castor doe bred to a broken blue Velveteen Lop/Mini Rex buck. Just three kits, broken black, broken blue and broken castor.

The second breeding was one of my second generation Velveteen Lop/Rex crosses, two crosses to Rex, one cross to Velveteen Lop, a lopped broken red. She was bred to a black Velveteen Lop/Thrianta cross buck, producing six kits with a variety of colors.

The third breeding was a broken black F1 Mini Plush Lop doe, MiniRex/ Holland Lop cross bred to the sable Mini Rex. This has given me 6 kits and I'm hoping I will see some with both Rex coats and lopped ears in this litter.

I am definitely looking forward to watching these litters grow out, hoping I will get some Rex coats from the Rex x non-Rex breedings and more lop ears. Will just have to wait and see, but the additional bucks from the Velveteen Lop/ Mini Rex crosses should work particularly well for me..

Velveteen Lop/ Rex foundation does

2010-06-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

After several breedings, it appears that my best F2 litter results so far have been from Velveteen Lop/Rex cross does bred to Holland Lop bucks. I have gotten more consistently lopped ears from these breedings without getting significantly larger animals than those from the Holland Lop/ Mini Rex crosses while none of the F1 Holland Lop/ Mini Rex crosses have lopped ears.

Consequently, my revised plan is to use these VL/Rex cross does and breed them to the small Holland Lop/ Mini Rex bucks, hoping that the bucks will bring down the size like the Holland Lop bucks did. With the F1 cross bucks, I'm hoping to get even more consistent lopped ears as well as a better chance of getting Rex coats.

I have two Velveteen Lop/Rex cross does now from two different lines. One is a broken castor doe with completely lopped ears, the other a black, with partially lopped ears.

I also have one doe from the black VL/Rex does and a Rex buck who has partially lopped ears as well.

In addition, I now have three litters of 10 week old youngsters from these three does by bucks that are either half or one-quarter Velveteen Lop and several of these kits have lopped ears. I'm planning to keep several does from these litters.

My plan now is to breed the three older does to the F1 Mini Rex/Holland Lop bucks and evaluate those litters while the youngsters are growing out and see where we are at that point.

Spring 2010 Plush Lop litters

2010-05-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

The first breeding for the Plush Lop project were the two does from a Rex/Velveteen Lop doe x Holland Lop buck. These two does were bred to the Holland Lop x Mini Rex cross bucks. No difficulties other than I did get more of the double dwarfs in the litter than I'd hoped and ended up with just three good, healthy kits from those two litters. One doe only had one "normal" kit, and managed to step on that one, so the broken blue doe and her two kits were the result of those two breedings.

Both kits are broken blue. The kit on the left
may have lopped ears. I can't really tell yet if
I am seeing Rex type fur on the kit on the right
or not.

The other doe is a Holland Lop x Mini Rex
cross, bred to a HL/MR cross buck. She has
three kits, solid black, broken blue and
broken tort or a light red. I doubt I'll see lopped
ears or Rex coats in this litter.

First 2010 "project" litter

2010-01-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

After some kindling difficulties with the Holland Lop does, I decided to discontinue using them in the breeding program and continue with larger Mini Rex does, using them to breed to Holland Lop or Holland Lop/Mini Rex cross bucks.
In this way, I will hopefully avoid most of the breeding problems I've been seeing with the Holland Lop does and any that might occur with the smaller Mini Rex does. My first 2010 "project" litter has arrived and is now a week old, active and healthy.

The doe was bred specifically for this program, a blue/fawn tri-color out of a small standard Rex doe and sired by a harlequin Mini Rex. I used the harlequin buck for several breedings and kept back several of his offspring for the disposition. He had a wonderful, people-friendly disposition and his offspring seem to continue to carry this trait strongly. Myst's first litter of six kits was sired by the broken black Holland Lop buck and will be the first "Easter Bunny" litter I have raised. The variety of colors should be an advantage for pet sales, with one dark broken, possibly black or tort and just one solid red.

The next breeding I am planning for Myst is to breed her to one of the Holland Lop/Mini Rex cross bucks have retained, in the hopes of getting more of a tendency for the lop ears and hopefully getting back to the Rex coat with some of the offspring.

The second generation cross with both lop and Rex coats on both sides of the pedigree should give me my first generation along the road to my "lop eared Rex-coated mini bunny".

Better fur on this one

2009-11-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

It has been interesting watching the crossbred Holland Lop/ Rex crosses mature. I've been told that the rex coat is a recessive, which means I should not expect to see it until I breed the crosses to each other or one of the crosses back to a rex coated rabbit.

I have had two litters sired by Holland Lop bucks, from does that were Velveteen Lop/Rex crosses that are now 5 and 6 months old, plus a litter from a Holland Lop doe and Mini Rex buck, now 5 months old.

With the adult coats coming in, it is very apparant that all of the crosses have the regular type fur, very similar to the Holland Lops and the ones out of the VL/Rex cross does have longer hair that tends to lay flatter.

Two of the three 5 month old Holland Lop/Mini Rex crosses have the Holland Lop type fur and so far it is showing a tendancy to stand out/ stand up more than the other crossbreds, more like a Holland Lop coat.

One, however, a broken blue buck, seems to be growing a coat that may be showing signs of having been somewhat modified by the rex fur gene. Though it is definitely not what I would consider a "rex fur coat", it is shorter than any of the others and definitely more dense.

I am anxious to breed this little buck to several of the crossbred does and see if I get more rex fur youngsters from him that from his full brother, who has the Holland Lop type coat. It will be interesting to track the inheritance on this through another generation or two.

Newest "mini" litter

2009-10-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

The second litter of my Mini Rex/ Holland Lop crosses is in the nestbox, this one from completely different lines than the first litter. I am hoping I have both bucks and does in this litter as well, so I can continue on to the next generation with the crossbreds but won't know for sure for awhile.
While I was a little hesitant about breeding a Mini Rex doe to a Holland Lop buck, the doe is bigger than most, was bred to a very small Holland Lop buck and fortunately there were no problems. Five kits in the litter, one a peanut that did not survive, but the four remaining are active and healthy.
They were tumbling out of the nest box by the time they were two weeks old and dashing around the cage, curious about everything.
And truly, I think that it is probably illegal for anything to be this cute!

First "mini" F1 cross

2009-09-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

For the "mini" part of the crossbreeding program, I decided to use Mini Rex, of course, because of the coat and cross with the Holland Lop, to keep this crossbred line as small as possible. Some of these crosses will likely be bred together to produce more of similar type and genetics. However, one of my main goals with this cross was to produce a small buck carrying genetics for both lop ears and the Rex coat,that could be bred to the larger F2 cross does from the Rex/Velveteen Lop x Holland Lop crosses.

The first breeding was a broken orange Holland Lop doe to a broken black Mini Rex buck and produced one broken black doe, one broken blue buck and one broken blue charlie buck. The two brokens, buck and doe, have a larger ear than the Mini Rex but show little or no tendency to lop.
However, the charlie buck shows some tendency for a lop ear, or again, more correctly perhaps a "droopy" ear. This is similar to what the F1 does in the Rex/Velveteen Lop crosses were showing, but in the next generation, crossed back to Rex, about half the kits showed much more of a lop ear than the dam and in a cross to Holland Lop, we got almost 100% lops, some of which were "good lop ears, though not all.
Since the F2 cross does do seem to carry the lop ear quite strongly because of the double inheritance from both the Rex/Velveteen Lop dam and Holland Lop sire, I would expect the planned F3 cross to produce some kits with good lop ears.

With both the F2 cross does and the F1 cross "mini" bucks carrying the gene recessively for the Rex coat there should also be some Rex coats. When bred together, since theoretically there are four possible combinations for coat genetics, each kit should have a 25% chance of getting the Rex recessive from both parents and two Rex coat genes means the Rex coat would be produced.

I can't expect the best lop ears or a good Rex coat in the F3 generation, but I am hoping to get the foundation to work for improvement.

More F2 Crosses

2009-09-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

For my next step, again using my original F1 Rex to Velveteen Lop cross does, two of those does were bred to Holland Lop bucks, a broken black and a broken tort. Again, I was a little surprised by the predominance of the lop ear.

In the first litter, by the broken black Holland Lop buck, four of the kits were definitely lop eared and the other two could be characterized as "airplane ears". Fortunately, the two does, both black, were in the definite lop category and these I retained for the breeding program.

To my surprise, the litter by the broken tort Holland Lop buck was 100% lop eared. This was from the same doe that produced the more extreme lop ears when bred back to a Rex buck, so it appears that this doe may be carrying the lop genetics more strongly that it would seem by her appearance. From her litter of six, I've kept two broken tort does and a broken blue.

The first crosses I have planned for these does will be to Mini Rex bucks, in hopes that the lop ear will carry through, while offering the possibility of some Rex-coated offspring. Any of those resulting offspring, particularly does, that are both lop eared and Rex coated, will be retained. If I'm not fortunate enough to get both lop ears and Rex coats in anything, they will at least carry the Rex coat gene and can go to the F1 bucks that will come from the Mini Rex to Holland Lop crosses, improving the chances for Rex coats.

First F2 cross ... back to Rex

2009-07-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

When I bred the first of the F1 does (shown in the above photo) I was limited to using a Rex buck. All three of the F1 does were basically "Rex" type, with a longer, wider ear but not "lopped", I would describe them as occasionally drooped. While I would have liked to strengthen the lop ear genetics, there were two reasons I preferred not to go that direction. First, the only Velveteen Lop buck I had at the time was the sire of those does and second, while I would have liked more "lop ear emphasis" I didn't want another cross back to the "mandolin body" type.

First, though I expected to get some different colors as the buck was a broken pointed sable, I was surprised to see that all five of the kits in this litter were pointed sable, broken pointed sable or REW (white). Going back on the doe's pedigree, the mother of these black does, a blue, was from seal and sable parents.

The second surprise came as these kits matured. Though they were crossed back to a Rex, several of them were definitely more "lopped" and it seems the Velveteen Lop body type came through more as well. Not as extreme as the Velveteen Lops, of course, but more pronounced than any of the F1 litter rabbits.

Two bucks were very lopped and looked much more like Velveteen Lops than Rex. One doe has more "lop" than her mother, though not as much as the two "lopped" bucks and has a Rex type body. The second doe and the third buck appear very much like a smallish Rex, with just slightly larger ears.

The "sort-of" lopped doe, a broken pointed sable, has ears that show more size and lop, actually more what I would have expected to see in the F1 cross. If you compare this photo to the one of her mother, at the top, they look very much alike from the side, a bit more ear but not a true lop ear.

However, a front view shows a somewhat different story. There is definitely more drop (or droop) to the ear set and although it cannot be termed a lop ear, there is more tendency to lop than with the three does from the F1 generation. This increase in lop ear tendency in an F2 generation that goes back to Rex does surprise me.

I have at least two options to consider with these F2 cross does. One option will be to cross to a Holland Lop buck, reducing the size and adding more genes for lop ears.

I am also expecting the first litter out of a Holland Lop doe by a Mini Rex buck and if there is a suitable buck from this cross, that would also be an option for these does, with the cross producing some lop and a possibility of some with Rex coats.

F1 Cross - Rex x Velveteen Lop

2009-07-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

Since the Velveteen Lop was not what I was looking for, the initial F1 cross planned was a Rex doe bred to a Velveteen Lop buck. The doe chosen was a blue Rex who had been shown successfully as a junior before I purchased her and who had a particularly good coat. She was bred to a black Velveteen Lop buck who had the best coat of my Velveteens and a particularly mellow disposition, another characteristic of the Velveteen Lops that attracted me.

This crossbreeding produced a litter of seven and I kept all three does from this litter, three blacks. As these three does matured, they looked like a fairly standard Rex, good coats, although not quite the quality of the mother, somewhat smaller and slightly longer bodied than most Rex and the ears were longer and wider, drooping a bit, but definitely not a lop ear.

The blue Rex doe carried sable and seal in her background and one of the three F1 black does proved to carry sable as well. It was this doe that was the first F1 foundation doe in my Plush Lop project.