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Our
previous article discussed the different dwarf genes and combinations.
Now how do you apply this in your Holland Lop breeding program since your
goal is to produce true-dwarf Holland Lops?
There are
three different breeding combinations possible when choosing Holland Lops
to breed together;
1) Breed a
true-dwarf Holland Lop to another true-dwarf Holland Lop.
This
will usually result in your litter containing all three dwarf
combinations; you can get some 'normal' Hollands that do not carry the
dwarf gene, which will grow to be oversized Hollands, you can get some
true-dwarf Hollands which will grow to exhibit the true-dwarf
characteristics, and you can get some 'peanuts' which is the fatal gene
combination resulting in the death of these babies.
Some
sources say that about 50 percent of each litter from crossing two
true-dwarfs should result in true-dwarf babies, 25 percent may result in 'normals',
and 25 percent may result in 'peanuts', but we've seen a wide variety of
combinations in our litters - you can even end up with all peanuts or all
normals!
Regardless of these odds, most Holland Lop breeders choose to pair up
true-dwarf rabbits in hopes of producing show-quality true dwarf
youngsters. Some breeders report more problems with true-dwarf does
kindling, with higher incidents of stuck babies.
2) Breed a
true-dwarf Holland Lop to a 'normal' or non-dwarf Holland Lop.
This breeding combination will save you the anguish of getting peanuts in
your litter since the non-dwarf cannot produce peanuts. This
combination, may however, produce more normals who do not carry the ideal
dwarf gene combo. Some sources say this pairing will produce about
50 percent normals, and 50 percent true dwarfs - but again, these numbers
are not in stone and we've seen a wide variety of combinations, with some
litters turning out to be all normals, and some litters turning out to be
all true dwarfs!
One of
the pluses to this breeding combination is that the larger non-dwarf does
usually have an easier time kindling their young and this has been true in
our experience.
We keep
several of these normal does to use in our breeding program, especially if
they have nice characteristics such as good shoulders and
hindquarters to contribute. If you choose to use normal does in your
breeding program, stay away from using those who have faults that you
don't want to add to, or enhance in your herd.
Now
obviously, the size of the doe is not what we'd consider a 'fault' when
choosing a normal to add to our breeding herd, as most likely any normal
will be oversized - but there are many faults to look for such as pinched
hindquarters, low or long shoulders, poor head mount, fine bone and
thin/folded ears-you don't want any of these characteristics in either
your true dwarfs or your breeding Hollands! In general, choose a
normal that has good overall type for breeding.
We've
seen many breeders marketing the large non-dwarf bucks as 'brood bucks'.
This is not an ideal situation to get yourself into - preferably your
breeding doe should be larger than your buck to ensure successful
kindling has its best opportunity. If you use a non-dwarf in
breeding, it should be a doe in most cases.
Now we
have purchased a larger buck ourselves, to get a certain bloodline.
And with carefully-planned breedings we were able to infuse this buck's
bloodlines into our herd by using small does that had successfully kindled
before, but I don't suggest buying a normal buck for the beginning Holland
breeder.
3) Breed two
non-dwarfs or 'normals' together.
This pairing will not get you any true-dwarf Holland Lops so don't
do this! You will end up with 100 percent normals out of the litter,
and these are rabbits that will probably all grow to be oversized and not
showable!
The
next article (coming soon) deals with identifying normals and dwarfs and
will have some pictures to help you out! |
