# Can you breed mini rex with holland lop?



## Tonya

I have a mini Rex doe she's about 6lbs. shes had 2 litter of kits, before my male past away. My sister in law has a holland lop male he's 4lbs and I was gonna get him, and thinking of breeding the two, can I breed them? If so what will the babies look like? (He's a broken tan color, and she's a REW with ruby red eyes and the broken hidden gene) Tia


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## DutchBunny03

The weight difference isn't enough for you to have to worry about breeding/kindling issues, especially since the doe is the larger of the two, not the buck. If the pair are in good health and not too old, the breeding should go smoothly.
I do not know enough about mini Rex and Holland lop genetics to answer your second question, but @Bunnylady might.


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## Bunnylady

A Mini Rex crossed with a Holland Lop will give you smallish (5 - 6 lbs), rather nondescript mixed-breeds with normal coats and normal ears that may wobble a bit. Around here, you might be able to give such animals away, but anybody that paid more than about $1/pound would be getting ripped off, and it wouldn't take them long to start saying so to anyone who would listen. If your intent is to produce rabbits to eat, you'd probably be better off getting larger animals that would make such an effort more worthwhile. 

There is another issue here besides just making mutts, though. When you breed two rabbits with the broken gene together, some of the babies will inherit it from both parents. These rabbits with two copies of broken are called "Charlies," and they have malformed digestive systems. How bad the issues they have can vary. Some Charlies seem almost normal, others have such severe problems they don't live long enough to crawl out of the nest box. Being nearly all white, Charlies are cute, but even those that are only a little affected tend to get worse with time, so they don't live very long lives. Anyone who has lost a rabbit due to GI stasis can tell you, it's a nasty way to go; responsible breeders will try to avoid producing rabbits condemned to a fate like that.


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