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Holland Lops are a dwarf
breed of rabbit of which the breed standard calls for adult rabbits to
be 4 pounds or under. The ideal adult Holland Lop should be a small,
compact rabbit, with a short, close-coupled body, short stocky legs and a
round head mounted high on the shoulders with no obvious neck. The
dwarf gene is responsible for these characteristics.
Each baby rabbit inherits
one dwarf gene (either the dwarf gene; Dw, or the non-dwarf gene; dw)
from each parent, for the total of two dwarf genes. The
possible combinations of this dwarfing gene are:
Dwdw-The
True Dwarf Holland Lop
The Holland Lop who carries
the genetic makeup of one dwarf gene, and one non-dwarf gene
is considered a true dwarf and is more likely to show the compact,
stocky dwarf features.
dwdw-The
Non-Dwarf Holland Lop or 'Normal'
The non-dwarf Holland Lop
carries the genetic makeup of two non-dwarf genes and will also
usually grow to more than 4 pounds by adulthood. Most non-dwarf Holland
Lops also show other telltale signs of their 'normal rabbit' state by
adulthood; longer body type, long limbs, narrow and long hindfeet, long
face and usually longer ears falling well beyond an inch of the jawline.
DwDw- The Fatal Double
Dwarf Gene Combination
The doubling up of the dwarf
gene is a lethal combination and results in the birth of babies
breeders call 'peanuts'; small babies born with a larger, sometimes
misshapen head and crippled or undeveloped hindquarters. These
babies can live for a few weeks but rarely make it beyond 3 or 4 days. They are destined to die no
matter what you do and some breeders leave them to die a natural death,
others remove them from the nestbox right away.
Read more about the dwarf gene
and breeding Holland Lops on the next page........
Resources
Rabbit Coat Color Genetics
Glenna M. Huffmon, 8th Edition 2003, Ch 20- Mutations, Lethal Genes and
Pleiotropic Effects pg 102.
Holland Lop Rabbit
Specialty Club Official Guidebook, 5th edition, various articles. |
