Blanc de Hotot - Sport rabbit charlie or boxer

I don't have a picture of a "charlie" or a "boxer".

• A Blanc de Hotot with no eye bands is a charlie.
• A Blanc de Hotot with only one eye band is called a boxer.
• If there is banding around the half of an eye, but it fades into nothing as it goes around the eye, I'm pretty sure that would be a charlie too.

Never breed a charlie or a boxer. In fact I will keep some rabbits with fatter eye bands just as a precaution against the bands getting too thin or disappearing.

A Blanc de Hotot with no eye bands is just a white rabbit!

Blanc de Hotot - Sport rabbit piebald marked

I call this a piebald. It might not be the correct name, but it is what I use. The head is like a Dutch rabbit, but the rest of the body is mostly black or "silvered".
This rabbit isn't actually the best example, the black silvered area can begin right at the shoulders or base of the neck, with the whole body being mottled.

Again, I don't use these rabbits in my breeding program.

piebald is defined as:

piebald [pī′bôld]
Etymology: L, pica, magpie; ME, balled, smooth

1 having patches of white hair or skin caused by an absence of melanocytes in those nonpigmented areas. It is a hereditary condition. Compare albinism, vitiligo.
2 having two colors: black and white or brown and white; mottled. piebaldism, n.

piebald
a horse coat color of large, distinct patches of black and white. The patches are irregular in shape.

Blanc de Hotot - Sport rabbit Dutch marked

This is a Blanc de Hotot that appears to be a Dutch rabbit. Some are absolutely perfect Dutch marked rabbits!

This is due to the fact that the Dutching gene, Du or du, I can never remember how to write it, is a big part of what makes a Hotot a Hotot.

I would not use this rabbit in my breeding program. Some folks do, I am not judging them, just mentioning it. These rabbits can produce properly marked offspring when bred to a standard marked rabbit.

Blanc de Hotot - Sport rabbit with random spot

This kit is a sport. See the spots on the flank? They are a genetic throwback to one of the breeds used in the development of the HT. Most probably the Checkered Giant in the case of the Blanc de Hotot. The Checkered Giant or "Geant Papillion Francais" has flank spots, a spine stripe, black ears and head cap, and of course (very wide) eye bands. So it's easy to see why these markings pop up.

The flank spots are common, as are back and rump markings along the spine, as well as on the back or base of the ear. These can hide at the base of the ear or tail, and then you see them all of the sudden on a rabbit at 6 months! A random spot on the rump, ear or flank is a heart breaker on an otherwise perfect rabbit. I like to go over the rabbits on a very bright sunny day or under strong, white light inside, preferably halogen lighting if you have to do it inside. Pulling a rabbit out of a carrier at a show and having the judge DQ you, or even worse when you are selling someone a rabbit is terrible. Nobody will believe that you didn't see those black hairs before.

Want the scientific definition of a genetic sport? Here ya go!

Mutation
1. a nucleotide change, including base substitutions, insertions or deletions in DNA, or RNA in the case of some viruses, that gives rise to the mutant phenotype.
2. an animal exhibiting such change. Called also a sport.

I would use a rabbit like this in my breeding program. It would fare best if bred to a standard marked Blanc de Hotot. I would not breed two sports, the resulting litter usually has too many badly marked rabbits.

pure bred Blanc de Hotot litter

I talk about my crossbreeding program here, but neglect the "pure" Blanc de Hotot rabbits that I breed. The standard Blanc de Hotot is in fact my main breeding program. These are the rabbits my daughter and I show, and the entire reason for us being in rabbits in the first place. I have a litter in the nest box right now, so it made me think that I should talk about them for a change.

The pure HT are kept pure, breeding for improvement. I plan to maintain a "pure" line to be kept separate from the cross-bred line. They are to be run parallel to each other, bringing the best HT into the cross line, but not the other way around.

This litter is from a Standard HT buck and a sport HT doe. Both their pedigrees go back at least 4 generations as pure Blanc de Hotots. There were 12 kits total, two were runts and were culled, 2 were born on the floor of the cage and died. The remaining 8 were warm and well in a nicely made nest. A few days later I found a big, beautiful HT kit dead on the floor of the cage.

I suspect that the kit held on tightly while nursing and the doe got out of the nest with the kit still clinging on. Sadly, it seems to be the biggest, most robust kits that die like this. They have the strength to stay tightly clamped to the teat and nurse, which does them in if the doe gets out suddenly.

Of the seven remaining kits, four are properly marked and the rest are "sports". I am working toward having only show marked animals as breeders, weeding the sports out of my barn, but that will take a few generations. Right now type has to be king! More on sports later.

Blanc de Hotot Buck x Satin Doe litter at 25 days

Here is the same litter at 25 days. There are two pretty lightly marked kits, see the two with no moustache markings? I can't wait 'till they are 8 - 10 weeks old to better determine their type.

I have a pure HT buck in mind to be the sire of the F2 generation. He has taken a couple BOB's, but he is a little undercut, not rounding all the way to the table. He has good type and always gets the comment "nice buck", "good buck" and he has great fur and eye bands. I'll probably use him with my HTxCA cross line too.

Remember that my goal with these cross lines is to develop a parallel line in my barn. I am keeping a "pure" HT line that is being bred selectively within itself. This is a line breeding project.

The Californian and Satin cross lines are to be kept as separate lines, using the pure HT line to improve fur and markings.

Blanc de Hotot Buck x Satin Doe cross

F1 generation Blanc de Hotot buck X Satin doe cross. 09/20/2009.

Blanc De Hotot and Californian F1 Generation

This is the F1 generation doe we have decided to move ahead with. She is about 12 weeks old in these pictures. Her type is good, the guard hairs are highly visible and the fur is slightly roll back with nice density. After type, fur density and length were major considerations when choosing the CA doe used.

I also like the head and ear proportion on this rabbit. She rounds nicely to the table and has lots of growing to do.

The top view shows how nicely the rump is rounded, and the loin is wide too.

Update: Beveren x Californian cross

This cross was the first step. My goal here was to shorten up the BV shoulder with a very compact CA, and bring along the BV fur.
The result was a big, fast growing Dutch rabbit with a weak shoulder and nice fur. The loin and rear end are just great, with good rise and depth, and rounding nicely to the table.
I'm going to move ahead with this line for a few generations and see how it goes.
The size and fur of the Beveren is tempting, but the mandoline body and blue eyes are a lot of work to get rid of. Mostly the mandoline body.

UPDATE: Blanc de Hotot x Satin Cross

This breeding was a failure, she had the kits out of the nest box and they were lost. She also had a few retained fetuses, which came out with re-breeding induced labor. I am giving her a rest, getting her condition to peak and will breed her again shortly.

UPDATE: Blanc de Hotot x Calafornian Cross

The CA doe X HT buck breeding has produced a couple does with great type and promising fur and markings. I will post a picture in a few days after we decide which doe we are going to move ahead with. They both have great type, but I think maybe one's rise peaks a little early and is just a litter flatter in the rump viewed from above. So, what I do when I'm not sure is put them back and look again the next day!

Blanc de Hotot and Broken Black Satin Cross

For improving type in my Blanc de Hotot rabbits I chose a Satin in a broken black pattern. The eye bands are already there! Way big, but there. The Satin has a great early rise (the back rises right from the back of the head) and nice strong shoulders. These are two traits needed by the Hotot. She (no name) is currently expecting a litter by my Blanc de Hotot buck OC1, and is due about July 6th.

The Satin also has a longer, glossier fur that should be a nice compliment to the Hotot fur. It is a flyback fur, where the Hotot is of course a roll back fur, but this can be overcome in a few generations of breed-back to a pure Hotot line.

Rabbits are NOT rodents, they are Langomorphs

The domestic rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, is a langomorph, not a rodent. They are descended from the wild rabbits of western Europe and northwestern Africa. Wild rabbits are gregarious, burrowing, herbivorous, nocturnal or crepuscular animals. The young are born hairless and blind in hair-lined nests.

Dictionary entry overview: What does lagomorph mean?
• LAGOMORPH (noun) The noun LAGOMORPH has 1 sense:
1. relative large gnawing animals; distinguished from rodents by having two pairs of upper incisors specialized for gnawing.
2. the order Langamorpha containing rabbits, hares and pikas.
Familiarity information: LAGOMORPH used as a noun is very rare.

Dictionary entry details
• LAGOMORPH (noun)
Meaning:
Relative large gnawing animals; distinguished from rodents by having two pairs of upper incisors specialized for gnawing
Classified under: Nouns denoting animals
Synonyms: gnawing mammal; lagomorph
Hypernyms ("lagomorph" is a kind of...): eutherian; eutherian mammal; placental; placental mammal (mammals having a placenta; all mammals except monotremes and marsupials)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lagomorph"): Duplicidentata (in former classifications considered a suborder of Rodentia coextensive with the order Lagomorpha: gnawing animals)
leporid; leporid mammal (rabbits and hares)
coney; cony; mouse hare; pika; rock rabbit (small short-eared burrowing mammal of rocky uplands of Asia and western North America)
Holonyms ("lagomorph" is a member of...):
Lagomorpha; order Lagomorpha (rabbits; hares; pikas; formerly considered the suborder Duplicidentata of the order Rodentia)

Coprophagy in Rabbits (eating 'night feces')

The digestion of rabbits has a unique aspect, and that is the formation of cecotropes. Through this special mechanism, these animals can receive more nutrition from what they eat. This special digestive process has been referred to as 'cecotrophy,' 'hindgut fermentation,' 'coprophagy,' or 'pseudorumination.'
What are cecotropes?
Cecotropes, also called 'night feces' or 'soft feces,' are the material resulting from the fermentation of food in a part of the digestive system called the cecum. Cecotropes are nutrient-rich and are passed out of the body, like feces, but are reingested by the animal so the nutrients can be absorbed. Cecotropes have twice the protein, and half of the fiber of the typical hard fecal pellet. They also contain high levels of vitamin K and the B vitamins.
How are cecotropes produced?
To help understand cecotropes, it is helpful to know something about how the digestive tract of animals make them. As with humans, animals with hindgut fermentation have an esophagusthat leads to the stomach. From there, food enters the small intestine, where absorption of the nutrients takes place. The food then passes to the colon. Little, if any, absorption of nutrients occurs in the colon. In animals that have coprophagy, the large fiber particles pass quickly through the colon and are excreted as typical feces. Through special muscle contractions (reverse peristalsis) in the colon, the nutrient-rich portion of the food is moved back into the cecum, a sac-like structure between the small intestine and colon. This food remains in the cecum, where it is broken down by special bacteria into absorbable nutrients, such as simple sugars, starches, and amino acids. At a certain time of the day, depending upon the species of the animal, the material from the cecum is moved into and through the colon and passed out through the anus. The animal then ingests this material and it moves through the digestive tract a second time, and the nutrients formed in the cecum are absorbed in the small intestine. Without this process, many of the nutrients in the food would be lost and passed through the colon, and out as typical feces. If rabbits are not allowed to eat the cecotropes, they will suffer from malnutrition.
In a way, cecotrophy is similar to the process of ruminant animals chewing their cud. Cows, goats, and other ruminants chew their food once, swallow it, and then the digestive process continues in the rumen where the fiber starts to be broken down by bacteria. When these animals chew their cud, the material from the rumen is brought up through the esophagus to the mouth, where it is rechewed and swallowed. By repeating this portion of the digestive process, ruminants, too, receive more nutrition from their food.
What do cecotropes look like?
Cecotropes are smaller, softer, and more moist than the hard fecal pellets. They are covered with greenish mucus, which makes them stick together. They resemble a small bunch of grapes squished together and are shinier, smaller and darker than a normal fecal pellet.
How often are cecotropes passed?
Cecotropes and the typical hard feces are passed at different times into the colon. Depending upon the species, some animals pass the cecotropes at night, others at dawn, and others throughout the day. This allows animals to ingest the cecotropes during periods when they are not normally feeding.

References and Further Reading
Brooks, D. Nutrition and gastrointestinal physiology. In Jenkins, JR. (ed.) The Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice. W.B. Saunders Co. Philadelphia, PA; January 1999.
Harkness, JE; Wagner, JE. The Biology and Medicine of Rabbits and Rodents. Williams & Wilkins. Media, PA; 1995.
Jenkins, JR. Gastrointestinal diseases. In Hillyer, EV; Quesenberry, KE (eds.): Ferrets, Rabbits and Rodents. W.B. Saunders Co. Philadelphia, PA; 1997.
Tynes, VV. Managing common gastrointestinal disorders in pet rabbits. Veterinary Medicine, March 2001;226-233

Blanc de Hotot buck and Californian doe

This is an F1 litter from a well typed Californian doe and Blanc de Hotot buck.

It is a litter of nine. Four are solid, jet black while five are varying degrees of what look like a HT Sport. They have what look like perfect eye bands. Some have black "mustache" markings. All 5 have a varying degree of spotting or lines down their spines.

Their feet all seem to be white, which is encouraging.

Beveren Buck and Californian Doe litter

As part of my Blanc de Hotot breeding program I am crossing a White Beveren with an extremely compact, strong shouldered Californian doe to try and shorten up the shoulder on the mandolin shaped BV and pass along the roll-back fur.

This is an F1 litter CA x BV. They come out solid black and "dutched". I plan to take the best typed rabbit from this litter and breed it to a full HT. The goal here is long, roll-back fur on a not-mandolin body.

I want the Beveren fur, but need to eliminate two things.

• The mandolin body type.


• The blue eyes.
  

This could take a while. Probably two -three years minimum, and that is just a guess.

Because the Vienna (blue eyes) gene can be hidden and show up as flecks generations down the line, I am keeping this line COMPLETELY separate from my pure HT herd.

I feel it is very important to keep as pure a line of HT as possible, with European stock brought in when possible. Even if the body type is lacking right now, I still want to keep my HT line pure. They go back at least five generations as HT only and I think that is needed. With all the cross breeding going on, myself included, it could be possible that a few years from now all we really have in this country is a Satin, or a NZ with eye bands. That would be a terrible loss. The HT we have now has an aquiline head, the ears taper top and bottom and are more refined or delicate in appearance than a NZ, CA or Satin. The fur is longer than normal, is roll-back in nature and must have visible guard hairs. Without all these things, it isn't a Blanc de Hotot. For those reasons, my main focus, probably 3/4 of my cage space is selectively breeding pure HT.

The Blanc de Hotot is a 6 class, commercial type, meat producing rabbit. That means that large litters 9 - 11, good mothering instincts with good milk production for the kits is also required. The breed must be commercially appealing to survive as a breed. A handful of people across the nation aren't enough to save it from disappearing, it must be attractive to small farm and commercial producers to survive in quantity and provide a gene pool that is needed to be healthy and productive.

So while I am working on cross breeding, I keep in mind the object is to PRESERVE and IMPROVE the Blanc de Hotot, not make a New Zealand with eye bands and fly-back fur.

How to tattoo your rabbit

I recently answered a question on a rabbit forum about tattooing your rabbit and the response I got was unexpected. MANY people responded with thanks and questions, so I decided to expand that post here. At the bottom are some questions I received and my answers.

What you'll need.

• Tattoo Equipment. For me this is a (copying from the box) "Stone Small Animal Tattoo Outfit with release". Product #2745. It has 5/16" digits, and the 'release' is a spring loaded bar to push the ear off the tattoo pins. These come with the numbers zero to nine only. So if you want to use your initials or have the number eleven or twenty-two, you will need to buy letters and another set of numbers. This size is good for medium 6lb rabbits to the giant breeds. If you are doing a dwarf breed, you'll need a smaller model. Your tattoo can be up to 5 digits with this model.
• INK. The kits usually contain a bottle of ink which is big enough to do maybe 50-100 tattoos depending how frugal you are. You can use black on any color rabbit. I guess you can get other colors, red, green. I use black.
• And Q-Tips to apply the ink to the tattoo.
• A bath towel to wrap the rabbit up so he is immobile and secure. This is for their safety and yours. A rabbit has sharp nails and can tear you up if they are frightened and trying to escape. Also, a rabbits spine is also relatively fragile and they can injure themselves by flailing about.

The tattoo goes in the rabbits left ear. The right ear is only tattooed by an ARBA Registrar for two reasons, when you register your rabbit or when it becomes a Grand Champion.

Wrap the rabbit securely (real tight) in a bath towel. It is important to keep their front paws inside the towel or they will shoot out. Securing the rabbit is the most important part of the process. If they can wriggle or squirm away they can at the least make your job WAY harder than it has to be, and at the worst hurt themselves by tearing their ear while you are clamping it. Two people are really needed.

Ready? OK, here we go!

Put the towel on your work surface so it is long-ways left to right. Sit the rabbit on the towel facing away from you. Bring one side over the rabbit and snug it under him. Pull the free end of the towel to snug it up and bring it over in the other direction and wrap all the excess towel over its back. Like a burrito. I wrap the bunny up and then my helper holds them securely while I clamp the ear.

Hold the rabbit in front of you with the rabbit facing to your left. Hold the clamp in your right hand with the handle going off to your right. This will orient the tattoo correctly.

Hold the ear with your left hand and place your tattoo between the veins to reduce the likelihood of bleeding. On white rabbits this is easy. On black rabbits I like to tattoo on a bright day or I have my helper hold a flashlight behind the ear so I can see the veins.

Have your helper hold the rabbit very firmly, and remember they like to back up. Squeeze the tattoo clamp firmly making sure all the pins penetrate the ear.

Then take a Q-tip (mix your ink ahead of time) dip it in the ink and RUB it into the tattooed area. I rub pretty vigorously, use a lot of ink, and probably use 2-3 Q-tips (no double dipping, please!) per tattoo. Some ink may come through if one or more pins fully penetrate the ear. No biggie.

Tips:

• Get your clamp, letters/numbers set up first and check it BEFORE you wrap up and tattoo each rabbit. You can do this on a piece of paper. This will eliminate mistakes. Like I sometimes put a "B" as the last digit if it is a Buck. "D" if... well I have had more than one buck that ends with a D. LOL
• You do not have to clean the ear with alcohol. I know some people say they do and some sources recommend it to clean the ear and remove wax. I don't and I don't know anyone that does. I have never had an infected tattoo and have never really seen or heard of one.
• DO NOT clean the ear after you tattoo it or wipe it with Vaseline or Neosporin. Unnecessary and will only cause the tattoo to lighten up or disappear all together. My newly tattooed rabbits ears just have a big black splotch. That gets cleaned up by them or wears off in a couple weeks and only a perfect FOREVER tattoo is left.
• Be prepared to buy letters and numbers you don't need to re-tattoo rabbits you buy who's tattoos fade or leave all together. I've re-done two this year already where the tattoo was GONE. Like it was never there. Good thing I knew which rabbits they were by sight. And they have been in the same cage a while, too.
• Does it hurt my rabbit when I tattoo it? Well, does it hurt when you get a tattoo? People vary in their tolerance and so do rabbits. A few, maybe 1 in 10 or 15 will scream like there is no tomorrow! A few will jerk or hunker down real tight at the instant of clamping. Most do nothing at all. This is QUICK and over in a fraction of a second. The rubbing in of the ink is nothing, and once you get it down the whole tattoo process takes 15 - 30 seconds. Changing the numbers in the clamp and getting the letters and numbers right takes way more time.
• What numbers and letters do I tattoo my rabbit with? In short? Anything you want. Many people use their initials or the initials of their rabbitry followed by a number. Some use a "D" at the front or the back if it is a doe, "B" for a buck and so on. Give it a little thought and go with it. You can always change down the road.
• At What age do you tattoo? I tattoo at 6 to 8 weeks of age. This is also when I determine sex, weigh, and sort them into keepers and fryers.
• How hard do you squeeze? Real hard, some of the pins may perforate. That's why they have an "Auto Release" which doesn't really work that well, which is why you hold onto the ear with your left hand and squeeze the clamp with your right so you can pull the ear off the pins. An ear is pretty thin for heavens sake!
• How long do you squeeze? About "two-one thousand" I guess.
• I know many people use the tattoo pen. I personally couldn't imagine taking that long or the rabbit staying calm that long for each tattoo, and i like my PERFECT, PERMANENT tattoos.

Why do you need to tattoo?

• A tattoo is a permanent, legal identification.
• Dogs, cats, goats, horses, sheep, and cattle are all tattooed and/or chipped to determine ownership.
• Animal identity. If you have 20 to 500 rabbits that all look the same, it allows you to tell one animal from the next.
• Showing your rabbit. It must be tattooed to be shown in any sanctioned show.

This is just how I do it and it works for me. I hope it helps you when you start tattooing your rabbits!

To Hay or to Not? That's the question

From a Blanc de Hotot Breeder
So much is written today about breeding, raising and how to keep your rabbit healthy. I figured I would throw in my two cents worth of opinion.
Now who am I and why should you listen to or value my advice or what I have to say?
I'm just a guy who got into rabbits because of his Daughters. That is pretty everyday and mundane, huh? My oldest Daughter wanted a rabbit and I got her a Dutch rabbit. It perished not long after we got it. That is pretty common too. My younger Daughter wanted a rabbit (now this is like 7 years later) and you can imagine what I thought. But then we started looking online at breeds and reading about rabbits and my thoughts changed.

The Blanc de Hotot caught our eyes. No pun intended. Well, maybe just a little pun. Anyway, it was a rare and endangered breed, which appealed to us and it is also a really cool looking rabbit. They have black eye bands and a luxurious fur with an interesting history. It is the only breed of rabbit developed by a woman. It comes from France. It just barely made it through World War II. Cool stuff we thought. So we searched, and I mean we searched and searched. At the time there were probably fewer than 10 Blanc de Hotot breeders in the U.S. We ended up with a buck and a doe. We acquired another doe a few months later.

You can see our rabbits on our Crystal Creek Rabbitry website. So that's enough about me.
I thought I would make my first post about what I was thinking about today. And it was a topic of discussion among a few breeders today too. That topic was:
HAY: do you need to feed it or not?

Some actually admitted they fed it out of guilt because they thought you had to. Some will never have hay in the barn because it is too messy. Some feed occasionally, maybe once to 3 times a week. Some keep hay available 24/7. Now remember we are talking about people with maybe 50 to 500 rabbits that have been raising rabbits for 10 to 50 years.

Everything you read (well most everything) on breeding and raising rabbits says "Rabbits must have hay available all the time. Their teeth grow all the time and they MUST have hay to chew on to wear their teeth down properly".

Well, if you have ever actually raised rabbits you know that is crap. Just not true. Bad teeth (malocclusion) in rabbits is an inherited genetic trait. And a rabbit with malocclusion is a terrible thing to see and should never be used in a breeding program as they can pass the trait to their offspring.
If a rabbit has good teeth, they wear their teeth down just perfect on their daily food ration.
So back to HAY. I haven't fed hay as a regular ration for over a year now and my rabbits are doing great. Now there are time when I DO feed hay and feel it is necessary.

• In the Nest Box. Kits will start nibbling on hay or straw before their eyes are open. I think anything to get the bacteria going in their guts is a good thing. I use hay and straw in the nest. Either one or both on top of a bed of pine shavings.
• At Weaning. Weaning enteritis is when many deaths will occur. This is at the 4-8 week age when many kits begin eating mostly solid food. The transition off the dam's milk to solid food is a dangerous time. I'll feed hay maybe twice a week.
• During Transport. When rabbits are on the road, to a show, to a buyer, you have to move or whatever. It can be a stressful time. Stress is BAD on a rabbits digestion and disease resistance. We take empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls and stuff them with hay. Stuff them REALLY TIGHT so the hay doesn't come out at all. Put these in the carrier on a trip or at a show and it'll keep most buns busy most of the day. Some will of course shred theirs and eat the hay in a much shorter time.
• Watery Rabbit Poop. A rabbit pellet is firm and dry. Now all rabbits will have a slightly runny poo once and a while, no biggie unless it goes on for a whole day or two. Truly watery, bubbly or explosive diarrhea is another matter and is life threatening. A water and hay diet is your first action. Remove all other food and go with hay and water.

Now the type of hay most often fed to rabbits is a grass mix (timothy/orchard) or a grass/alfalfa mix. Straight alfalfa is usually not fed due to the fact it has more protein and energy available. Commercial pellets are Alfalfa based, so the pellets PLUS a straight Alfalfa hay is too rich and will upset the rabbits gut bacteria (later post) and can cause enteritis or stasis and can result in death. Some will take this to the extreme and tell you "Rabbits can't have alfalfa, it will KILL them". Well, the main diet breeders used was Alfalfa and grains before pellets were developed. And remember the MAIN ingredient in pellets is Alfalfa.

It's all about balance.