Cross Breeding Pet Rabbits

Crossbreeding implies the mating together of animals from two distinct and pure, or relatively pure, breeds. It sometimes happens that the first generation progeny of these matings may be excellent, in fact the average quality may be betterthan the parents. 'This is due to the fact that generally,good dominant genes from one breed, acting together withgood dominant genes from the other, suppress the effects ofundesirable recessive genes which might have been homozygousin one or other of the parents. It may also be due to thecombination of the good characteristics of both parents. Thegrave disadvantage of the system, however, is that if thecrossbred animals from the first generation are mated together,a very variable, and often very unsatisfactory, second generationis produced.

The undesirable recessives have segregated outafter being temporarily covered up in the first generation.For any satisfactory system of crossbreeding therefore, twodistinct lines or breeds must be maintained, and animals only from these lines used for breeding, with all the crossbred stockbeing utilised fitr other purposes. This system is adoptedwith success in many cases, but it is doubtful whether such asystem would greatly commend itself to rabbit breeders, exceptthose producing large numbers of animals for meat and fur.It should perhaps be added that the majority of the presentbreeds of domestic rabbits have been produced by crossbreedingin some form or another, but after the initial type of animalhas been produced, it is usually many years before the newbreed is improved to a reasonable standard.