Dalmation Rex

Question
Is it better to mate 2 Dalmations to get Dalmations?  Someone told me it's better to mate broken with a solid instead of 2 broken.  Is Dalmation consider broken?

Answer
Spotted rabbits are called brokens.  Their coat is broken and open and that is how they get the spots.  Any pattern that has open spots is considered broken.  There can be all sorts of different patterns from a blanket pattern to a spotted pattern to a shotgun type pattern.

It is absolutely imperative when it comes to the genetics of rabbit breeding that unless you know exactly what you are doing that you never breed brokens to brokens and I am going to explain.

Rex rabbits have to have at least 10 % color to be shown.  When you breed a broken to a broken each baby will still have a 50% chance of being born solid or broken but they will also each have a 25% chance of being born what is referred to as a Charlie.  Charlie's are rabbits that have less than 10 % color.  They can't be shown and they have little use in a breeding program.  The absolute only use a charlie has is that if you breed a charlie to a solid you will get 100% brokens but no charlie's.  It is very complicated and it is best that until you are far enough along in your breeding program to know exactly what you are looking for that you stay away from using any broken to broken breedings.  If you have a litter of 4 then the percentage of 25 does not mean 25 percent of the litter which in that case would be 1.  It means each rabbit genetically has a 25 percent chance of being a charlie so you could essentially end up with a whole litter of useless rabbits.

Whoever told you to breed solid to broken was correct.  You can breed solid to solid and will end up with 100% solids.  However breeding broken to broken like I stated before does not produce 100% brokens.  

I strongly suggest that if you intend on breeding rabbits that you get a membership to both ARBA (American Rabbit Breeder's Association) and a specialty club.  If you are breeding standard rex there is a National Standard Rex Club but you will have to look it up through the ARBA website.  It is

http://www.arba.net/

If they are mini rex you can join the National Mini Rex Rabbit Club which is at this address:

http://www.nmrrc.com/

I don't know what you get for joining the standard rex club but if you join the mini rex club you get a book that explains in detail what you can breed with what to get the desired results.  It is worth the $20 membership fee just to get this book.  It doesn't go in depth into genetics but it will give you a basic understanding of what is compatible to breed with what and what will give you the best results.

I hope this has helped.

Good luck

Pam