Hi Everyone as promised (although rather late... sorry!!!) Here's some information on how to breed certain colours. I got this information mainly from the BRC so if it doesn't work don't blame me lol. However it's always worked for me 😀.
So... this will be in short and is rather complex and hard to explain so if there's anything you want to ask feel free. But please remember all my knowledge is self taught from research and experience...
First of all you need to understand this before you read on...
When you look at a rabbit you see it's fur colour and can say well this rabbit is black so it has a black gene. Yes your right, but did you know that behind the fur of your beloved bunny is a hidden bunny? Yes that's right 2 bunnies in 1! Remember both parents pass on a gene for everything which means although you see 1 bunny there's another hiding! The dominant genes are what colours show on your bunny to the naked eye. But there's a hidden gene too. For example... when you look at a Black bunny it could be hiding another black bunny or it could be hiding a brown bunny. If your breeding and want a range of colours a black bunny hiding a brown gene is the best way forward. TIP- REMEMBER TO CONSIDER BOTH MOM AND DADS GENES!! I think of it this way... imagine your bunny has a smaller bunny behind it. You can't see it as your bunny is bigger and is covering it but you know it's there! You have to work out what colour the bunny is that's hiding behind your bunny.
So... the colour Gene (Bb). Basically there's 2 Base colours, Black and Brown. Black is the Dominant colour so it's displayed like this 'B' and Brown is the Recessive colour displayed like this 'b'. This in short means that if a rabbit carries a Black gene, regardless of it possibly carrying a Brown gene, the rabbits fur will be Black or Blue Grey. Blue Grey is a lightened version of the Black Base colour, its been DILUTED (another gene we will talk about in a bit!). So the gene code (as I call it) for Black or Blue fur is 'B' and for Brown, Lilac or Fawn fur it is 'b'. If the rabbit has a double Brown gene the rabbits fur will be brown, lilac or Fawn. Lilac is diluted brown and fawn is diluted Lilac. So to sum this section up... if the rabbit has been passed 2 Black genes (BB) or has been passed 1 Black and 1 Brown gene (Bb) the fur colour will be black or blue grey. If the rabbit has been passed 2 Brown genes (bb) the fur colour will be brown, lilac or fawn.
Now the Dilute Gene... Non Dilute is displayed as 'D' where Dilute is displayed as 'd'. Non Dilute (D) is the Dominant gene and Dilute (d) is the Recessive gene. A double Non Dilute rabbit (DD) or a Dilute carrying rabbit (Dd) will always be Black or Brown. Blue Lilac and fawn can only appear on the fur if the rabbit has a double Dilute gene (dd). In a nutshell... if the rabbit is black or brown in colour it deffinately has a Non Dilute gene but it could be hiding another Non Dilute or a Dilute gene. If you get a Black rabbit carrying brown and dilute you've hit jackpot for colour ranges (however I would breed said black rabbit to a double Brown double Dilute such as Lilac or Fawn to avoid a litter full of black and blue grey rabbits).
One on its own is the white rabbit! A pure white coat on a Bunny is just stunning but when it comes to breeding they can be the biggest nightmare! This is because the white coat with those beautiful blue eyes is created by a completely different gene. The 'Vienna gene' this gene literally covers the rabbits colour in a blanket of pure white snow like fur. This means that the stunning blue eyed white bunny infornt of you is actually hiding another 2 bunnies!! What a guessing game!! My advise to you... before breeding a pure white bunny look into its parents and grandparents (if possible) and also its siblings. Work out all the possibilities of colour it could be and then make your decision. You can only have BEWs come from 2 bunnies that carry the Vienna gene. HINT- I have a BEW bunny, he's actually my sons rabbit called Thor. His Mom was Snowy a Fawn False Charlie and his Dad was Sully a Blue Grey Split. From looking at the parents he could be Bb or bb (as I know the Blue Split was carrying the brown gene as his siblings were Blue, Lilac and fawn. Lilac and fawn wouldn't have been possible in the litter if the Blue Split was double black.) I Also know that he must be double Dilute as mom and dad are both diluted colours meaning they are both 'dd' and can therefore only pass the Dilute gene on. So the possibility is he's either Blue, Lilac or Fawn under the white coat! He could be B hiding b dd or b hiding b dd. I will find out when I breed him to a particular chosen colour girl.
Hope you found this an interesting read. I will do another post shortly regarding patterns within the bunnies colours. I will let you look into this first lol. Here's a question to help you use your new information...
I have a Broken Black Doe, I know from her previous litters that she's carrying a Brown gene and shes double non Dilute. She also carries the Vienna Gene. So her colour genes are... Bb DD V.
I also have a Chocolate Brown Split Buck, I know from his previous litters that he carries Dilute and Vienna. So his colour genes are... bb Dd V.
If I breed these bunnies together what colour babies am I likely to see? Feel free to post your findings below 🐇🐰🥰
Have fun!
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