breeding my 3 bunnies

Question
Thanks for the read!

From my understanding, breeding the dwarf and the lop would produce regular eared bunnies, is that correct?

Ben

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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hi,

I'm desparate for information.

I have 3 bunnies: male dwarf, female dwarf, female lop.

I wish to breed and I don't know where to start. I've been having them live together in the same cage. They seem to love playing together, however, the female lop started out with runny stool (I limited her diet on feed and made her eat more hay and it seemed to work) and the female dwarf is extremely dominant (often mounts the other bunnies).

I've been getting all this mixed info: ie. i should separate all of them or just separate by sex... *sighs* i have no clue.

they are all a month apart in terms of age the oldest being ~ 5 months (female dwarf)

What should i do?

Ben
-----Answer-----
Dear Ben,

The first thing to do is address the runny stool problem, which can be extremely serious in a young bunny.   Please read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/poop.html

You can find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/

For information on breeding, please read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/breeding.html

If you breed two dwarf rabbits together, you can expect 25% mortality of the babies.  If you need more information on this genetic condition, please ask.

I hope this helps.

Dana

Answer
Dear Ben,

The lopping trait is recessive, but it also is probably polygenic (affected by several genes, not just one), and can show variable expressivity (i.e., individuals with the genes that would predict lopping may not fully express the trait).

There is no good way to predict ear morphology in hybrid offspring of a lop and a dwarf.

Please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/breeding.html

Dana