Welcome to SunnieBunnie Rabbitry's Blog!This will be the place where I'll post General Rabbitry thoughts as well as some show results and just 'whatever' stuff...LOL.
Feel free to comment or Tag!!!
Subscribe to Journal
Tag Board
SBR:
Hi Jeff! Sounds like Persuasion has made himself at home! Snow is something that none of the rabbits have experienced yet... that's going to be quite interesting! :)
Jeff Simmons:
HI Sunnie, What a rabbit, Persuasion comes to the door each morning and wants his ears Scratched. He has such a personaty. The does are doing well. But in a couple of days they are going to wonder what has happened.it is going to snow here. se you later. Jeff
SBR:
Hi Chris! I'll cross my fingers for some nice show stoppers out of them!!! I'm sure they'll be very nice kits 
. Give Am.Void a scratch behind the ears and a kiss on the nose for me - the barn just isn't the same without him 
. Give Am.Void a scratch behind the ears and a kiss on the nose for me - the barn just isn't the same without him
Chris Swartout:
Hi Sunnie, just dropped by to see how you are doing. Hope all is well. Neveah and Euphoria are going to bred again shortly to Amethyst Void. Can't wait for the outcome. Take care.
SBR:
You're very welcome Kristin! I'm glad you're happy with her
Kristin Woods:
Hey sunnie,wow i have been to your site alot and never saw this!
also just letting you know veronique is doing great!thanks for the great doe!
also just letting you know veronique is doing great!thanks for the great doe!
SBR:
Hi Karen! Thanks for stopping by my site! I'll see ya in Pomona! :-)
SBR:
Hi Barbara, Thanks for stopping in!
Barbara:
Just blog hopping and thought I'd say hi.
~~**BERLENA**~~:
Hey Sunnie! Just noticed your tagboard so had to say HI! Happy New Year!
Danni-Marie Brooks:
Hi. I like buns too.
SBR:
Hi Cortney, I sent you an email :-)
Cortney Wils:
I have a rabbit question. My Lynx doe was bred to a blue buck who is out of lilacs today the doe had six kits and I can't tell they are Lynx or Lilac. Any tips on how to tell would be great! Thanks Cortney
SBR:
The new Tag Board is up and running! 
Sunday, April 13th 2008
1:15 PM
Thoughts behind some recent breedings...
Recently I was asked about what I thought about some of my recent breedings - such as strengths and weaknesses from certain pairings, why I pair up certain rabbits and not others, if certain rabbits consistently produce a certain trait or characteristic in it's offspring. I thought, what a great subject to post on my Blog as well! So here is a snippet from my reply:
To make it as simple as possible, I'll give some background information based on my current litters and planned breedings that are listed on my Litter's page - so that way there are certain rabbits and crosses that can be referred to.
Many crosses I do are first time pairings just to see if it is a workable pairing. The litter between Mirka & Wizard for instance. This was a first time semi-accidental litter. I left the litter together for a little while too long and he successfully bred 1 of the 3 does in the cage. I would have done this cross anyways, but would have waited until Mirka was older. This pairing did however produce a REW buck that has an excellent head and ear and is slowly coming along in coat. The Lynx buck in the litter "Slow Burn" has nice enough type but like his sibling is lacking in density with his baby coat. Both Mirka and Wizard were the same way and density improved with their first molting. Ring balance was also late to improve with Mirka and Wizard - in their baby coat, it was a very wide white undercolor and had about a 1/4" or so of lilac tipping - no real identifiable 'future' intermediate band area. Their first molt however showed nice balance between undercolor and intermediate band as well as proper tipping. I'm waiting to see if Slow Burn follows in his parent's footsteps in his development as well.
The crossing between Made Certain and Pourfection is sort of a first time pairing. The litter in the first attempt died of chill at a young age, but were looking extremely promising. Made Certain was bred to her other littermate brother Outpour and produced excellent results - 7UP was from that pairing. I crossed Made Certain to Pourfection in hopes of producing the same or better results. Presto and Gavino are from this pairing and are already showing that type-wise, this pairing works. I will have to wait to see how Presto's color & fur develop though as he's still in molt.
Nevaeh and Amethyst Void. Oh man. This pairing has proven over and over that together they produce not only type but excellent fur. Last year's litter produced the 4th place REW Jr. Buck and 3rd place REW Jr. Doe at ARBA convention in Grand Rapids. Since I need to reduce numbers, I knew it was time to move Amethyst Void on - I'm not concentrating on Lilacs anymore and I would prefer to breed for Lynx and keeping only a few REW's that are genetic Lynx. I didn't want to move this pair on though until I got what I wanted out of them... I knew Nevaeh is a genetic Lynx due to her dam being "AA", so I wanted a Lynx replacement out of this crossing. I asked and I received - their recent pairing produced 2 Lynx does, Semira and Kya. As expected, EXCELLENT density to these girls! It also appears that they will have great definition in their banding, even in baby coats - it's a crisp definition between each segment of color. I can't wait to see their mature coats!
Duchess and Monarch, another first time pairing. I really wanted to capitalize on Duchess' ring qualities. Her coat is nice, short, and even with proper balance of rings. Monarch has very nice density and a decent rufus to his color. I wanted a Lynx out of the pair, but did not get it. There are 3 kits in there though that really stand out - a Chocolate Agouti that has the deep rich mohagony red coloration that makes me think I'm looking at a Thrianta. There is also a Castor that has very rich color and the Opal has the deepest Fawn Agouti edging that I have ever seen on an Opal - if I didn't know better, I'd say a richly colored Otter...lol. So even if I didn't get quite what I wanted, I'm very pleased with the rich coloration that this crossing produced.
Made Just 4U and Pourfection. This crossing is a Dam x Son which produced my best Lynx to date. This is the same crossing that gave me Made 2 Perfection who's pictured on my home page. I did this cross again in hopes of producing a buck of equal or better quality that I can then cross to Made 2 Perfection. So far, this litter is developing very nicely. They are just about to come out of the nestbox, but it will still be a while before I will be able to determine their color potentials.
For my future breedings, here is what my thoughts are as to why I'm planning these crossings:
Mae West x Pourfection - This will be a first time pairing. Mae West has a great texture to her coat and very nice ring coloration/definition. Pourfection has passed on his short body and depth to his offspring. When I crossed Mae West to Outpour (Pourfection's littermate brother), they produced Outflow and Out West (pictured on my '07 convention page) who has exquisite ring coloration and very nice density. I'm hoping the pairing to Pourfection will produce even better results.
Mirka x Persuasion - This will also be a first time pairing. They are more distantly related compared to some more of the tighter linebreeding I have been doing. Their closest ancestor is a common Grand Sire (Crimson's Moe, genetic Lilac) and LakeView's Raquel (genetic Chocolate Agouti) that appears as Grand Dam to Mirka and Great Grand Dam to Persuasion. I'm just curious to see how these two compliment each other based on their offspring plus I want to see if I can use a kit from this litter in the future if I wanted to widen my gene pool without doing a complete outcross.
Peony x Warriors of Virtue - another first time crossing (she early aborted the previous attempt). I really like Peony but I think she could use a smaller frame of body and better density of coat. These are just the qualities that Virtue has. In a previous litter with another buck, Peony produced Bucket, an exquisitely typed and colored buck, he just lacks in density. At this point, I'm going to be crossing her to each of my bucks to see which pairing works the best for an all around nice Lynx. Since Pourfection and Persuasion are getting a doe on this breeding day, I figured I'll breed her to Virtue first so each of my Lynx bucks gets a doe this day.
Bliss x Amethyst Void - First time pairing. Crimson's Moe (genetic Lilac) is the Sire to Amethyst Void and Grand Sire to Bliss. Nevaeh is Bliss' dam, so just like the pairing between Amethyst Void and Nevaeh, I'm hoping this cross works out the same or better and produces Lynx with fur and type.
Prima Donna x Westmore - First time pairing. Prima Donna needs some help in the hindquarter which Westmore tends to do with his offspring. This crossing will also test Prima Donna to see if she carries REW. There are also no common ancestors in their pedigrees so this cross will also help expand my gene pool if I need to in the future.
Made 2 Perfection x Pourfection - first time pairing, Daughter x Sire. The offspring of this pairing will be 7th generation close in/linebreeding. Made 2 Perfection was the 6th generation and Pourfection was the 5th generation. This line makes leaps of improvement with each generation, so I'm hoping the next generation will be my BOB winning cross
. Made 2 Perfection almost had it twice, but the BOB winner was slightly denser and had a slightly better finish.
So, those are my thoughts and observations on my recent crosses along with some history on previous crossings. Now that I've got my herd cleaned up from non-extension, I'm really just trying to find right pairings that produce excellent results and when I find the ones that work, those are going to be the ones I'll stick to more often.
I'll follow up on these litter's developments as they mature into their new prime coats.
So here is a snippet from my reply:To make it as simple as possible, I'll give some background information based on my current litters and planned breedings that are listed on my Litter's page - so that way there are certain rabbits and crosses that can be referred to.
Many crosses I do are first time pairings just to see if it is a workable pairing. The litter between Mirka & Wizard for instance. This was a first time semi-accidental litter. I left the litter together for a little while too long and he successfully bred 1 of the 3 does in the cage. I would have done this cross anyways, but would have waited until Mirka was older. This pairing did however produce a REW buck that has an excellent head and ear and is slowly coming along in coat. The Lynx buck in the litter "Slow Burn" has nice enough type but like his sibling is lacking in density with his baby coat. Both Mirka and Wizard were the same way and density improved with their first molting. Ring balance was also late to improve with Mirka and Wizard - in their baby coat, it was a very wide white undercolor and had about a 1/4" or so of lilac tipping - no real identifiable 'future' intermediate band area. Their first molt however showed nice balance between undercolor and intermediate band as well as proper tipping. I'm waiting to see if Slow Burn follows in his parent's footsteps in his development as well.
The crossing between Made Certain and Pourfection is sort of a first time pairing. The litter in the first attempt died of chill at a young age, but were looking extremely promising. Made Certain was bred to her other littermate brother Outpour and produced excellent results - 7UP was from that pairing. I crossed Made Certain to Pourfection in hopes of producing the same or better results. Presto and Gavino are from this pairing and are already showing that type-wise, this pairing works. I will have to wait to see how Presto's color & fur develop though as he's still in molt.
Nevaeh and Amethyst Void. Oh man. This pairing has proven over and over that together they produce not only type but excellent fur. Last year's litter produced the 4th place REW Jr. Buck and 3rd place REW Jr. Doe at ARBA convention in Grand Rapids. Since I need to reduce numbers, I knew it was time to move Amethyst Void on - I'm not concentrating on Lilacs anymore and I would prefer to breed for Lynx and keeping only a few REW's that are genetic Lynx. I didn't want to move this pair on though until I got what I wanted out of them... I knew Nevaeh is a genetic Lynx due to her dam being "AA", so I wanted a Lynx replacement out of this crossing. I asked and I received - their recent pairing produced 2 Lynx does, Semira and Kya. As expected, EXCELLENT density to these girls!
It also appears that they will have great definition in their banding, even in baby coats - it's a crisp definition between each segment of color. I can't wait to see their mature coats!Duchess and Monarch, another first time pairing. I really wanted to capitalize on Duchess' ring qualities. Her coat is nice, short, and even with proper balance of rings. Monarch has very nice density and a decent rufus to his color. I wanted a Lynx out of the pair, but did not get it. There are 3 kits in there though that really stand out - a Chocolate Agouti that has the deep rich mohagony red coloration that makes me think I'm looking at a Thrianta. There is also a Castor that has very rich color and the Opal has the deepest Fawn Agouti edging that I have ever seen on an Opal - if I didn't know better, I'd say a richly colored Otter...lol. So even if I didn't get quite what I wanted, I'm very pleased with the rich coloration that this crossing produced.
Made Just 4U and Pourfection. This crossing is a Dam x Son which produced my best Lynx to date. This is the same crossing that gave me Made 2 Perfection who's pictured on my home page. I did this cross again in hopes of producing a buck of equal or better quality that I can then cross to Made 2 Perfection. So far, this litter is developing very nicely. They are just about to come out of the nestbox, but it will still be a while before I will be able to determine their color potentials.
For my future breedings, here is what my thoughts are as to why I'm planning these crossings:
Mae West x Pourfection - This will be a first time pairing. Mae West has a great texture to her coat and very nice ring coloration/definition. Pourfection has passed on his short body and depth to his offspring. When I crossed Mae West to Outpour (Pourfection's littermate brother), they produced Outflow and Out West (pictured on my '07 convention page) who has exquisite ring coloration and very nice density. I'm hoping the pairing to Pourfection will produce even better results.
Mirka x Persuasion - This will also be a first time pairing. They are more distantly related compared to some more of the tighter linebreeding I have been doing. Their closest ancestor is a common Grand Sire (Crimson's Moe, genetic Lilac) and LakeView's Raquel (genetic Chocolate Agouti) that appears as Grand Dam to Mirka and Great Grand Dam to Persuasion. I'm just curious to see how these two compliment each other based on their offspring plus I want to see if I can use a kit from this litter in the future if I wanted to widen my gene pool without doing a complete outcross.
Peony x Warriors of Virtue - another first time crossing (she early aborted the previous attempt). I really like Peony but I think she could use a smaller frame of body and better density of coat. These are just the qualities that Virtue has. In a previous litter with another buck, Peony produced Bucket, an exquisitely typed and colored buck, he just lacks in density. At this point, I'm going to be crossing her to each of my bucks to see which pairing works the best for an all around nice Lynx. Since Pourfection and Persuasion are getting a doe on this breeding day, I figured I'll breed her to Virtue first so each of my Lynx bucks gets a doe this day.
Bliss x Amethyst Void - First time pairing. Crimson's Moe (genetic Lilac) is the Sire to Amethyst Void and Grand Sire to Bliss. Nevaeh is Bliss' dam, so just like the pairing between Amethyst Void and Nevaeh, I'm hoping this cross works out the same or better and produces Lynx with fur and type.
Prima Donna x Westmore - First time pairing. Prima Donna needs some help in the hindquarter which Westmore tends to do with his offspring. This crossing will also test Prima Donna to see if she carries REW. There are also no common ancestors in their pedigrees so this cross will also help expand my gene pool if I need to in the future.
Made 2 Perfection x Pourfection - first time pairing, Daughter x Sire. The offspring of this pairing will be 7th generation close in/linebreeding. Made 2 Perfection was the 6th generation and Pourfection was the 5th generation. This line makes leaps of improvement with each generation, so I'm hoping the next generation will be my BOB winning cross
. Made 2 Perfection almost had it twice, but the BOB winner was slightly denser and had a slightly better finish.So, those are my thoughts and observations on my recent crosses along with some history on previous crossings. Now that I've got my herd cleaned up from non-extension, I'm really just trying to find right pairings that produce excellent results and when I find the ones that work, those are going to be the ones I'll stick to more often.
I'll follow up on these litter's developments as they mature into their new prime coats.
bravenet.com