Hotot x (Beveren x Californian) update

First Step in this line was to breed a Beveren X Californian. The goal is to bring in some of the Beveren's fur qualities, while getting rid of the blue eyes and mandolin body type.
This is the F1 generation of the Hotot portion of the project. The results are pretty good.
I'll have some pics up soon.

Blanc de Hotot x Californian cross

This is the F2 generation. The rise from the shoulder is good and the rabbit is nicely compact. Good teeth, and the eyes are dark. I didn't expect any eye flecks in this line, but you never know! The rabbit to the left is 0C53B, an F2 buck, and other than a spot on his rump, could be shown as a Blanc de Hotot.

The growth rate is good, with 3 Jr's bucks weighing 7lbs 14oz and 1 Jr Buck at a Senior weight of 8lb 2oz. A rabbit should easily make their senior weight and get there fast. These guys are all on the lean side, certainly not fed up to a "show" weight. I'll give them a few months to flesh out and see how they look then.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the results so far, and can't wait for the next generation of this line.



This is 0C54B, also an F2 Buck from the same litter as the buck above






This is 0C57B, also an F2 Buck from the same litter as the bucks above. There is a 56B also, but the picture was not good enough to use.

Rabbit Nutrition, an answer to: What should I feed my rabbit?

Help! I don't know what to feed my new rabbit!

OK, you just got a rabbit or are thinking about getting a rabbit and want to know what you should feed your new rabbit. Cool, I am glad you are searching for info and want to do the right thing.
The first thing you notice when you start your Internet search is you will get lots of opinions and that they vary greatly in content. Well, I'm no different, and what follows is my opinion. now you are probably thinking;

What are your qualifications, Dave?

Good question! I am not a Vet, nor am I am not a nutritional Scientist. What I am is someone that maintains a herd of 50+ rare breed rabbits (ok, I've got a couple dwarf bunnies too!) that are healthy, happy and well cared for. My rabbits do not suffer from digestive problems, hair block, G.I. Stasis, diarrhea. You can read more about my rabbits on my website, Crystal Creek Rabbitry.
My position is, who would you rather take advice from, Someone with a rabbit or two in their house that they have to take to the vet, or someone with 50 to a 100 rabbits that must be cared for 24/7, 365 days of the year and are well maintained and trouble free? The information and opinions I offer here are based on my experience, reading and research on rabbits and their husbandry. I have some more in depth info on my Rabbits Diet page.

Here is what my healthy, happy and thriving rabbits get.

WATER - Clean, clear and available 24-7. A water bottle is more dependable and sanitary than a crock.
PELLETS - You must feed your rabbit the correct, measured amount of feed daily. A fat rabbit is an unhealthy rabbit. Here are the feeding guidelines from the ARBA, This must be an alfalfa based pellet to be the mainstay of your rabbits diet. A grass based pellet does not have all the protein and nutrients your rabbit needs.

That's it, that is what I feed my rabbits every day of the year and they are in great condition, healthy, productive (breed well), long lived, and problem free. Isn't that what we are looking for?

Now I know you are all saying:
(1) "But everything I have read says rabbits must have hay to chew to wear their teeth properly". Wrong. Malocclusion of the teeth is a genetic trait passed down from parent to offspring. Come on over and I'll show you a bunch of 1-8 year old rabbits with perfect teeth that never get hay.
(2) Another common falsehood is; "Pellets don't have enough long fiber to keep a rabbits gut working". Wrong again. High quality Alfalfa based pellets are ground to provide the proper amount of fiber for your rabbit. Again, come on over and you can see a barn full of rabbits that don't get hay with perfect poops and perfect teeth. I guess that covers the rabbit from end to end! Get it, end to end? Teeth are in the mouth and poo comes out he other end?. . . . , OK, well I thought it was funny.
I do feed hay to litters at weaning age which is 4-6 weeks, but suspect even that is not necessary.

If I could give some advice to a new rabbit owner it would be these three things.
(1). Get a cage with a wire floor and a tray below that collects the poo and urine. I know a lot of the hutches that are available to buy are cool with multiple floors and stuff. But the reality of cleaning them on an almost daily basis is more than most rabbit owners signed up for and can sour your rabbit experience.
(2). A Water Bottle is more dependable and sanitary than a crock. It will keep clean water available for your bunny all day long and they can't tip it over or poop in it.
(3). Feed Alfalfa based Pellets as the mainstay of your rabbits diet. If you want to give treats like a grape, slice of apple or banana, keep the portions small and infrequent.

That's it in a nutshell. I know you wish it were longer and filled with mystery, but a rabbits diet can be a pretty simple thing. It can also be as complicated as you want to make it. Unfortunatly the rabbit is the one that pays for a poor diet, filled with sugary, starchy treats. Too often with their lives. Do your bunny a favor and keep it simple.

Blan de Hotot x Californian cross F2 litter

This is the 2nd generaton of mt HT x CA cross line. They still have a good amount of spotting, but remember we are going for type here.

Can't wait to see how they grow out!

F2 Blanc de Hotot x Beveren litter

This is a Beveren F2 litter. The F1 was Bevern x Californian, which resulted in a HUGE Dutch rabbit.This litter comes from the F1 doe X a purebred Blanc de Hotot buck.

Looking pretty Hotot, but we'll see how they grow up.

New Blanc de Hotot litter

New litter of eight purebred Blanc de Hotot rabbits. They are about a week old here, their eyes will open up at about 10 days, and they'll be out of the nest for good at 21 days or so.

New litter and some other breedings...

There is a litter of pure HT in the nest right now, they'll be 20 days old on May 11th. It was a litter of 8. One was a runt, leaving 7. Four of those are big, healthy beautifully marked Hotots. Two are sports with a few small black spots and one is a dutched sport.
The breeding was April x Spot so I expect a few big, well typed rabbits from this litter.

In addition to the outcross litters, coming up, there are two more litters of pure HT due in the next 30 days or so. I'll post about them when they happen. So with a little luck, it will be a busy May-June!

Blanc de Hotot x Satin Cross UPDATE

I'll try and get some pictures up of my Satin cross doe as soon as I make up my mind. It is down to two candidates. They both have nice type, one possibly better than the other, but I can't decide.
One will sit and let me pose it up perfectly and stay that way for a few seconds. This rabbit appears to have really, really nice type. Super compact with an immediate rise from the back of the skull, nice shoulder, good flesh and and rounds to the table nicely.
The other appears to have almost or as good type, but won't sit still for a second! And this feisty one is heavier that it's litter-mate. Given the choice, with type being equal, I will always choose the heavier rabbit. In this case, my choice would have been: lighter rabbit with great type or heavier rabbit with what looks to be good type,.. but I can't tell because she won't sit still!!
So I put them both back in the cage and will look again in a day or two.

Blanc de Hotot x Californian cross UPDATE

This HT x CA doe took her first breeding today (5/1/10).

She was bred to HT Buck 0C36B, who has 4 GC legs. She has an almost immediate rise from the back of the skull with nice depth, and rounds nicely to the table. Her fur also is dense with visible guard hairs. The roll-back fur is is just starting to be noticeable of course. She is compact, a trait needed in the breed. The dewlap will have to be reduced, since no dewlap is allowed on bucks and only a small dewlap is allowed on does.

Her weight is a hair over 9 lbs. She maintains that on 3/4 cup of feed daily with no supplements.

Easily making Sr. weight and staying there without having to be on free-feed and being an overweight ball of fat is a must in my opinion. Fat rabbits aren't healthy and can have problems conceiving.

If they make Sr weight with a lean body, it is then easy to put them in show condition, and they'll be right in the middle or top of the breed weight range and in nice flesh.

Californian x Beveren cross UPDATE

The Ca x BV doe took her first breeding this week. She was bred to HT buck 0C12D, a pure HT that has 3 GC legs. He is also more compact, since the longer shoulder from the Beveren needs to be shortened up. Well, it's no surprise, I knew this would be a longer road than with a Californian or Satin.

Highlights in this doe? I feel there are a lot! First is the fur of course. The BV fur is the big attraction to this cross, it it roll back and longer than most other breeds so it is already the right fur, and it is pretty great! This F1 doe has dense, long fur with the roll back well on its way. Just a great thing to run your fingers through!

She has no blue in her eyes which is a good thing, but we all know that Vienna Gene is waiting there to pop out sometime.

The small dewlap is a good thing too. Better than having to breed it down, that's for sure!

The loin and hind quarter are MASSIVE! While the CA I used in this initial cross was a compact rabbit with a strong shoulder, I give credit to Kim Calloway who bred the Beveren I used in this cross, for the rear 3/4 of this rabbit. Kim's rabbits have loins that are wider than the palm of your hand, and the depth in his rabbits is just great too. He's been breeding Beverens for 30 years or more and has what are generally considered some of the best if not the best there are.

This doe weighs in at 9 and a half pounds, and true to requirements, she maintains that weight on 3/4 cup of feed a day.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with the results of this first step in my BV project. If the shoulder can be shortened up and the fur maintained, I think that will be the biggest part of the battle.

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.