Color combinations

Question
We have what we believe to be a New Zealand white rabbit (male,with red eyes) and a New Zealand black (the female)

The female gave birth last week to her first litter, 8 pink skinned and 4 black skinned.

Out of the 8 that have survived their first week all are solid colored.  

Will breeding these two always produce solid colored babies?

Answer
Anise, The question you are asking has to do with probability of genetic combinations. In the simplest terms, odds are large that you will produce solid colored rabbits every time....Here is why...in each encounter of the egg with the sperm, you have a 50-50 chance of getting white (the buck can only offer up a white recessive gene since he is white, so his odds of adding a white are 100%). The doe can offer a white gene half the time (we know she carries white because she had the 8 white/pink babies, but since she is black, she isn't homozygous for white, so her chance of passing it on is 50%).

Multiply 1 X .5 and the odds, each time a baby is conceived, of it being white is 1 in 2 (or conversely, of being black). Now, the odds of her having twelve babies that are all white are the same odds as you going to a casino and winning on red at a roulette table 12 times in a row. Thus, the answer to your question is that they could produce all white, but that is a VERY long shot. If you do want all whites, simply save a white doe from the litter you have now and cross it back to the white buck (Father). All will be 100% white...and since rabbits are genetically very strong, that inbreeding is genetically OK. Good luck! Steve