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| Ear length genetics | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 7 2012, 07:28 AM (1,462 Views) | |
| Disney | May 7 2012, 07:28 AM Post #1 |
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Somebunny is a awfully chatty
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I dont know why but when looking at a rabbit, i always checking the ears first, how long, thick and what shape they are.. It's almost like the ears decide if i like the actual rabbit or not, just because what the ears look like, despite having a nice type and color. I think its important to breed rabbits with nice ears instead of ignoring the long thin ears that make them look like a hare. it really annoys me that most mutts are bred this way but thats just me i guess. Im wondering how the ear length is determined when breeding 2 rabbits with different ear lengths, a short and long eared one. What genes are at play when such breeding has taken place? And how do you figure out what the ears are gonna come out like? Or do you just ignore it and suprise yourself? I dont think im able to do that.. Like when breeding a doe with 8cm ears and a buck with 7cm ears, will the kits come out with ears ranging between 7 and 8 cm? And is it possible that the kits have different ear lengths in the same litter, like one kit has 7cm ears and the other has 8cm? Or will they all have a set length, like 7,5cm? I remember, i used to have such litters when i was a kid, I bred an averiage size doe to a small buck, a falsedwarf i think. I kept a doe and buck from that litter and they looked different as grown ups, their size, head, ears, bodytype, nothing looked like the other sibling. I even thought for a while that i might mixed them up for siblings and they were from different litters, but that wasn't the case. But i didn't really noticed it back then, so it never bothered me. I tried looking up on forums and topics for a discussion about this but i didn't really find any, just a couple of articles of researches, but that didn't really give me the answer. I think the blue one has shorther ears than his siblings, and better shape than the right one, which i think is a lilac.. not sure tho
Edited by Disney, May 7 2012, 07:43 AM.
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| fuzzibutts | May 7 2012, 09:05 AM Post #2 |
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Somebunny is a awfully chatty
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I know when I used to breed and exhibit Mini Rex I personally would never breed two rabbits together that had long ears despite type! Nor would I breed one that had long ears to a short ear one. My reason was this why take the chance on having to cull a hole litter because ears are two long according to the breed standard. I remember culling Mini Rex at 9 weeks of age based on ear length (any with longer ears than 2 inches) most likely were going to have ears that were two long. Longer ears make the rabbit look unbalanced. Just my two cents...see if you can find some Top Mini Rex, Netherland Dwarf or Jersey Wooly people, or others who have breeds similar. Ask them there opinion on what they would personally do. |
![]() http://melynn.webs.com melynnoes@yahoo.com Blog: http://fuzzibuttsrabbitry.blogspot.com/ English Angoras, French Angoras, Giant Angoras & Satin Angoras My husband breeds and shows Flemish Giants in Black, Blue & White My daughter breeds and shows Jersey Woolies | |
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| NeuBunny | May 7 2012, 09:36 AM Post #3 |
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Genetics Geek!
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Like most body-type traits, I suspect ears are polygenic and co-dominant - with multiple genes involved in determining length, width, etc. The dwarf gene also seems to affect how ears are proportioned relative to the head (false dwarfs aren't just larger rabbits, I think they have relatively longer ears). The dwarf part is simpler to work with -- breeding a true dwarf with a false gives 50-50 offspring. Breeding 2 true dwarfs gives 1/4 false dwarf, 1/2 true dwarf and 1/4 peanuts. Polygenic genes are best estimated as a bell curve. Most offspring have ear lengths intermediate between the two parents. A few will be smaller and a few larger than either parent Let pretend we have 3 genes - cap letters make ears 'better' and small letters 'worse'. That means your best rabbit ears are XXYYZZ and the worst are xxyyz. If you start with rabbits that are somewhere in the middle, they might be XxYyZz or they could be XXYyzz. Best strategy for polygenic traits is the one most breeders instinctively use... breed the best to the best. Line breed for several generations to help match up any recessive genes that are in the line - always keeping and breeding the best from each generation. When the trait stops improving (say you hit XXYYzz and your population has no Z genes in it) outcross to an unrelated rabbit that also has excellent quality (in this case for ears) and hope that it's excellence introduces good genes (e.g., Z) you didn't have yet. Expect that quality may fall for a generation (e.g., the outcross may have been xxYYZZ), but linebreeding again should help fix more of the traits you want. The hard part isn't so much to breed for a particular trait - it's in breeding for all the good traits (ears, body, head, color, etc) at once! |
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| reh | May 7 2012, 10:08 AM Post #4 |
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Get the Duct Tape, Stat!
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You may find Genetic studies of the rabbit from Robinson interesting. There is something about ear length in the part about quantitative inheritance. You can read it online on http://lit.rabbitcolors.info (it needs the djvu plugin - djvu is a very smart and small format for online books) |
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www.rabbitcolors.info - Images and Gene Codes www.satinangora.de | |
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| The Thicket Rabbitry | May 7 2012, 09:13 PM Post #5 |
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Somebunny is a awfully chatty
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I don't have an ear length problem, so I never bring in a rabbit with long ears no matter how nice they are else where. Ears are very important to me as well. I also have a hard time liking a rabbit with horrid ears! I assume it's the same as any other conformation feature. If you breed two short eared rabbits together, your chances for getting longed eared offspring is small but possible. Linebreeding on short eared rabbits will help with getting more offspring with short ears and will emphasize that trait into your line. If you breed two rabbits with long ears, most of the offspring will have long ears. It also has a lot to do with what's in the pedigree of the parents. If Grandmother had long ears, the offspring could very well inherit it.Also would like to add that my mother bred a Harlequin to an English Lop for her project. I don't think any of them had ears quite as long as the E Lop, but the majority were in between the two (more the length of the Harlequin). All were loped! Edited by The Thicket Rabbitry, May 7 2012, 09:19 PM.
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The Thicket Rabbitry Jackie, Erin and Heather, and our many beautiful bunnies! | |
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| SundewRabbitry | May 8 2012, 10:28 AM Post #6 |
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Hopelessly Addicted to the Fuzz
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When my Mini Lop doe was bred by a Jersey Wooly buck, none of the pffspring looked the same at all. A couple ended up with lop ears, but most had erect ears. Some had short coats, some had medium length(but still hair, not wool) coats, and one actually had a mane and flank wool. The ear length on the whole litter was the same though...right about in between the ML and the JW, with the false dwarfs having slightly longer ears, but the proportions to the body were the same. With my Jerseys, I actually have gotten quite a few kits who ended up with 2"-2 1/4" ears, even when both parents had 2 1/2" or 2 3/4" ears! But, the majority of my dwarf kits' ears matured to be the same length as the shortest eared parent. Length is really all I can add though. I won't keep a rabbit with long or out of balance ears. But, I really couldn't care less about substance or shape. Some of mine have horrible ears, others have good substance, one or two have good shape, but I don't pay much attention to them...lol! My main thing is body and heads. I can't stand to keep a rabbit that fails in these areas. But, I've also been lucky to get good coats along with body. But my ears are definately the weakest part of my herd. |
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| redbunny | Feb 7 2013, 03:56 PM Post #7 |
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Hey, look at you! You chatterbox you. Now you can request a new title! PM the Admin to do so
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This s an amazing topic with some incredible comments. The implications are limitless. |
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I assume it's the same as any other conformation feature. If you breed two short eared rabbits together, your chances for getting longed eared offspring is small but possible. Linebreeding on short eared rabbits will help with getting more offspring with short ears and will emphasize that trait into your line. If you breed two rabbits with long ears, most of the offspring will have long ears. It also has a lot to do with what's in the pedigree of the parents. If Grandmother had long ears, the offspring could very well inherit it.
9:39 AM Jul 11