We are just getting started...

Question
We are just getting started in raising/showing minirex rabbits for my son Darren who is in 4-H. We have reds, opal, blue, broken castor/broken black/broken lynx, lynx, white and castors.  Our rabbits don't seem to be putting on the right kind of weight.  We feed barley/oats/SF seeds in the am, pellets at night, give coastal hay - what else can we do?  Also, what is the best color buck to breed to a broken castor and a broken lynx?

Answer
Juanita... Lets start with your weight issue. One reason they are not gaining could be that you are trying to be too generous to your rabbits. Why are you feeding such a variety?  From a protein perspective, rabbits need about 15% to maintain their weight, and growing young ideally need about 19-20% (but they will grow OK on 16%). I am not sure what rabbit feed you are feeding, but 16% would suffice as a general feed for all rabbits, all the time, and you need nothing else. The feeds on the market have sufficient fiber, minerals, and basic nutients to be a whole feed. If you fill the rabbit with less balanced feeds, it could be that they aren't growing due to that..HOWEVER, if your rabbits are smooth and well fleshed out, and they are not skinny, then you may just have a small strain of rabbits that genetically do not get too large.   

The other question (what to breed to broken Castor and Broken Lynx) depends upon what you want to get out of the litters. If you are asking what is compatible, Blacks, Blues and Opals are compatible with Castor, while chocolates and lilacs are compatible with Lynx. (Broken rabbits make no difference. Also, to get a broken baby, you must have at least one parent who is a broken.

Also,the problem we have in Minrex right now is that many Lynx that are out there are really Fawns. If you have a Lynx (broken or solid) that has a parent that is either Blue, Black, Castor, or Opal, the chances are large that it is really a Fawn. Blow into the fur. Is the color beneath the surface a well defined snowy white, or is it sort of a fading od the cream color to the base of the skin? Snowy white is what you want, with a nice fawn band between the white and the lilac sirface color.   

Hope that this helps you. For more information, review the Minirex guidebook and my articles on color genetics that they have published. If you don't have that, read the genetics article in your ARBA Guidebook. I also wrote that article. Best of luck to you and Darren..Steve