Mini Rex Breeding

Question
Hi  I have been raising mini rex for about a year now and I don't do very well at the rabbit shows.  I wondered if I tell you what I have if you could help me.  I have an otter colored buck who is black, an opal broken buck, a black buck, a chinchilla doe, a castor colored doe, a chocolate doe and a broken black colored doe.

I wondered which rabbits I should breed to each other to get the best colored babies so that I can get better rabbits soon.  I also am willing to buy more colors if I eed to.

Thank you for your answers and help.  

Answer
Kara

When breeding and showing mini rex its not so much about the color as it is the type and fur.  I will try to explain this to you a bit.

When rabbits are judged its a point system.  
Body 35 points
 Head 5 points
 Ears 5 points
Fur 35 points
Color 15 points
Condition 5 points

So you can have a beautifully colored rabbit but if it body type and fur are lower in quality it isn't going to matter.  You want to breed the animals that have the best possible body type and the most dense fur.  Let say for example that your black buck has awesome type and nice dense fur, but your broken black doe lacks density and type if you breed them together you might get nice babies.  It can take several generations though.  If you get a nice typey doe out of the litter you would want to keep her to breed back to the father to get even better type and fur.  This is what is called in-line breeding.  If you breed good babies back to their fathers or mothers you are only going to get even better babies.  Just don't breed brother's to sister's.

Without knowing the type and fur you have I will tell you which colors are compatible with what you have.

Black Otter and be bred to your castor doe, your chocolate doe and your broken black doe.  You could end up with all of those colors of course but other varieties you may get are chocolate otters(chocolate doe)and broken black otters (broken doe).

Opal can be bred to castor safely without getting to many off colors.  If done often it can produce a softer less desirable coat.  You can also breed to black but black is dominant so again it would take several generations to get back to opals.

Black is pretty much the universal color.  I would personally breed the black to the broken black and if you want to improve type and fur you can use the castor.  Castors are generally one of the best typey varieties because they are the basis of all colors and have been bred so often by many breeders that they don't need much improvement.

Your chinchilla can be bred to black but you are most likely going to end up with all black babies.  Again though you can breed her back to one of her sons and after a few generations you will get some chins.  They will have a darker surface color because of the black influence.  If you want to raise chins you are better off spending the money to get a nice chin buck.  I will warn you though that chins are really hard and not the best to start off with.

If you are planning on breeding mini rex I suggest that you join the national mini rex club.  It costs $17 for a year and the publications on raising them and color compatibility charts you receive are well worth it.  Here is the web address

http://www.nmrrc.com/

If you really want to know more about the club and the mini rex color compatibility and varieties please send me a private message and I will give you my email address.  I do have some information that I could share with you but I won't give my email address unless the question is private.
Some of it is just way to long to type in here.

Good luck and keep the faith.  You will get there.  Start with purchasing the best possible rabbits you can and the future generations will only get better.

Thank you and have fun!!

Pam