"What will I get if I breed my BEW doe to my lynx buck?"
"What colors are these 30-second-old kits out of lilac harli VM and broken frosty?"
"You can't breed otter to tort! You might get an unrecognized color!!"
These questions often pop up on rabbit Facebook groups. They invariably seem to trigger a number of contradictory opinions. The problem is that everyone has a different stance on what constitutes a correct color cross, so you might post a seemingly simple question and get a million wildly different answers.
At some point, one or two well-meaning individuals will likely share a link to a color crossing chart. Basically, the idea of a color crossing chart is to show what varieties are “safe” to breed to various other varieties and which are not, with “safe” crosses meaning that they are not likely to produce unrecognized colors. While it seems like a great idea i at first glance, personally, I dislike the idea of color crossing charts. These charts can be very misleading and lack any sense of practicality. For instance, there is a BIG difference between a "safe" cross and a cross that will produce good quality animals. Most charts would say that, for example, breeding a chocolate to a lilac otter is a great cross to make. However, in reality this is a pretty silly cross that will probably result in a litter of low quality animals. So what happens is people follow these color crossing charts to a T and never produce a good colored Holland. By following color crossing rules, you are limiting your gene pool and thus limiting the likelihood of improvement in the next generation. If I followed these color crossing rules, my herd would be pretty terrible and I'd likely be exactly where I started back in 2017. This is why I have a problem with the “safe” color crosses mentality.
The reason why we follow these super strict color crossing rules seems to be because a) it's what's considered socially acceptable in the show community and b) many of us fear producing an unshowable rabbit. However, realistically, there's no reason to be afraid of producing unrecognized colors. All it means is that one particular rabbit won't see the show tables. That's not the end of the world. I don’t show every rabbit in my barn, and I don’t know a single other breeder who does. If I'm being perfectly honest, there's no way colored Hollands will ever be competitive against torts unless we overcome this fear. Rather than fixating on what color crosses are socially correct, I recommend breeding your rabbits to whatever other rabbits have complementary type to improve the next generation.
"What should I breed to my ______ colored rabbit?" This is the most common question of all. And I have a pretty simple answer for it that might be a little shocking to hear: The best color to breed your colored Holland to is a quality rabbit. This might not be the answer many breeders want, but it will invariably produce the highest quality animals. Personally, I don't like messing around and not making any progress. Progress is breeding the best to the best. It's matching up strengths and faults to produce the best rabbits you can; it isn't handicapping your herd by avoiding crosses that might really benefit your herd!
I’ll be painting with a very broad brush here as there are exceptions to every rule, but for what it’s worth, here are the general rules I recommend:
1. In general, the quickest and most effective way of improving type in a new color program is by breeding to a high quality tort.
2. As long as you have ONE rabbit of a certain desirable color, then you have the genes to produce more rabbits of that color. It doesn't matter if you have one poor quality colored Holland and 50 high quality torts - you still have the genetics to produce a colored Holland with type as good as or better than that of your torts. It's possible. It just takes breeding hard and culling harder.
It also helps to have a solid understanding of color genetics before making the plunge into a color project. While there’s nothing wrong with crossing various colors together, it’s definitely beneficial to have a good grasp on how these colors are inherited so you aren’t wasting cage space on an animal that isn’t beneficial to improve type or color. In these cases, it’s often beneficial to understand the “rules” before you break them.
That's all for now!
"What colors are these 30-second-old kits out of lilac harli VM and broken frosty?"
"You can't breed otter to tort! You might get an unrecognized color!!"
These questions often pop up on rabbit Facebook groups. They invariably seem to trigger a number of contradictory opinions. The problem is that everyone has a different stance on what constitutes a correct color cross, so you might post a seemingly simple question and get a million wildly different answers.
At some point, one or two well-meaning individuals will likely share a link to a color crossing chart. Basically, the idea of a color crossing chart is to show what varieties are “safe” to breed to various other varieties and which are not, with “safe” crosses meaning that they are not likely to produce unrecognized colors. While it seems like a great idea i at first glance, personally, I dislike the idea of color crossing charts. These charts can be very misleading and lack any sense of practicality. For instance, there is a BIG difference between a "safe" cross and a cross that will produce good quality animals. Most charts would say that, for example, breeding a chocolate to a lilac otter is a great cross to make. However, in reality this is a pretty silly cross that will probably result in a litter of low quality animals. So what happens is people follow these color crossing charts to a T and never produce a good colored Holland. By following color crossing rules, you are limiting your gene pool and thus limiting the likelihood of improvement in the next generation. If I followed these color crossing rules, my herd would be pretty terrible and I'd likely be exactly where I started back in 2017. This is why I have a problem with the “safe” color crosses mentality.
The reason why we follow these super strict color crossing rules seems to be because a) it's what's considered socially acceptable in the show community and b) many of us fear producing an unshowable rabbit. However, realistically, there's no reason to be afraid of producing unrecognized colors. All it means is that one particular rabbit won't see the show tables. That's not the end of the world. I don’t show every rabbit in my barn, and I don’t know a single other breeder who does. If I'm being perfectly honest, there's no way colored Hollands will ever be competitive against torts unless we overcome this fear. Rather than fixating on what color crosses are socially correct, I recommend breeding your rabbits to whatever other rabbits have complementary type to improve the next generation.
"What should I breed to my ______ colored rabbit?" This is the most common question of all. And I have a pretty simple answer for it that might be a little shocking to hear: The best color to breed your colored Holland to is a quality rabbit. This might not be the answer many breeders want, but it will invariably produce the highest quality animals. Personally, I don't like messing around and not making any progress. Progress is breeding the best to the best. It's matching up strengths and faults to produce the best rabbits you can; it isn't handicapping your herd by avoiding crosses that might really benefit your herd!
I’ll be painting with a very broad brush here as there are exceptions to every rule, but for what it’s worth, here are the general rules I recommend:
1. In general, the quickest and most effective way of improving type in a new color program is by breeding to a high quality tort.
2. As long as you have ONE rabbit of a certain desirable color, then you have the genes to produce more rabbits of that color. It doesn't matter if you have one poor quality colored Holland and 50 high quality torts - you still have the genetics to produce a colored Holland with type as good as or better than that of your torts. It's possible. It just takes breeding hard and culling harder.
It also helps to have a solid understanding of color genetics before making the plunge into a color project. While there’s nothing wrong with crossing various colors together, it’s definitely beneficial to have a good grasp on how these colors are inherited so you aren’t wasting cage space on an animal that isn’t beneficial to improve type or color. In these cases, it’s often beneficial to understand the “rules” before you break them.
That's all for now!