Meat Rabbit Color/Breeds

I need some guidance.

I received 3 rabbits in a trade for some (free) hens. 1 buck and 2 does. I have posted about them previously. I have a large grow out cage and I have a rabbit tractor for the spring kits to pasture and I will have 6 breeder cages total to keep what I want for next fall. I can fit a couple of additional does in the grow out cage if it makes sense to keep more than 6 total.

Our breeding season here is from Sept or Oct depending on temps to mid April. It gets too hot after that from what I understand. I plan to breed my 2 does 1 more time each with my same buck then rest them until fall.

I am weighing my grow outs to see how well they put on weight but I also want to understand if the color of the kits is any indication of breed type (I have no idea what I have)  or if I should make an effort to retain certain color kits because they indicate a certain breed. I want to understand how much should this weigh in on how well they grow out.

We are keeping these rabbits for our own consumption and do not plan on selling any for pets or meat. I guess that is also why we took these 3 on to understand how it all works.

My question is if I should only consider how well the grow outs gain weight, friendliness, ability to mother in my breeding? Should I also weigh in the certain color kits that may be pointing back to better breeding stock and focus on breeding what I want in them? Strictly for meat purposes.

I plan to line breed.

Doe 1 is a REW and her 3 surviving kits consist of 1 REW and 2 that look just like the buck. The 1 REW has put on more weight than the other 2.

Doe 1's second litter consists of 4 REW and 2 black kits.

Does 2's first litter is quite a variety as you can see below.

Any input is appreciated.  

Hi,

in crossbred animals, there usually is no correlation between pelt color and other characteristics.
It would be different if you have 2 bucks, one from a commercial breed of one color, and one of a pet breed of another color. There, pelt color would indicate the father, therefore give an indication of the growth rate. But as here you have the same father for all kits, it isn't the case.

Therefore it is best to select for what you are looking for, and if you use the pelt, use it also as a selection criteria.
Good luck with your selection. Do you intend to bring in more genetics?

hans muster wrote:Hi,

in crossbred animals, there usually is no correlation between pelt color and other characteristics.
It would be different if you have 2 bucks, one from a commercial breed of one color, and one of a pet breed of another color. There, pelt color would indicate the father, therefore give an indication of the growth rate. But as here you have the same father for all kits, it isn't the case.

Therefore it is best to select for what you are looking for, and if you use the pelt, use it also as a selection criteria.
Good luck with your selection. Do you intend to bring in more genetics?

The 3 I have are supposed to be unrelated so I had planned to use them to line breed to see where I can end up as far as desirable traits. I will bring in other genetics eventually as I better understand what I am doing in meat rabbit production.