# New to Blue eyed holland lops



## Alicia G

Ok well first off I should start with saying I am a newbie when it come to breeding rabbits and the color genetics behind it.I recently bought a blue eyed white holland lop doe and I was wondering if anybody knows about the general color genetics of them. I want to breed her when shes old enough but I Dont know what she should be bred to. I would imagone a blue eyed white buck would be the best but there isnt a large gene pool of them around where I live. So I guess my big question is, if I cant get a nice blue eyed white buck what would be the best to breed her to. I d like to get at least afew babies with blue eyes if possible. My friend has a gorgous fawn buck with a beautiful head, what would happen if I crossed the two?

Side question-when do you believe a rabbit is old enough to breed? all opinions are welcomed!


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## Thundrr-Chicken

from what i understand... if you breed your bew to another bew you will get all bew's .... if you breed your bew to a vienna mark .. you will get some bew's and some vienna marks... 

from what i know those are the only 2 ways to get bew's out of breeding ... but.. just like you ... im new so i might not be 100% correct...

here is the link to the site i read about bew's on

http://www.miniaturelops.com/bewgenetics.htm


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## Bunnylady

BEW crossed to anything else usually produces bunnies that look like badly marked Dutch rabbits, with wide, lopsided blazes, and that may or may not have blue eyes (or even one of each!). The Vienna-marked  BEW cross can also have just a little bit of white on the nose, or even no white at all (though this is fairly unusual). Most of the rabbits that one sees that have just a little bit of white on the nose or toes are actually showing the influence of a genuine Dutch gene, so unless you _know_ that a particular rabbit has BEW behind it, you can't assume that animal is a BEW carrier. 

Because there is no color at all in the coat, there is no way of knowing what other color genes a BEW rabbit is carrying (unless the pedigree gives you hints). There is a broad range of possibilities when crossed to a Fawn, but the most likely scenario would have all of them splashed with white on the face, paws, maybe shoulders, and therefore unshowable. Since a lot of rabbit hobbyists really don't know color, and just put whatever they have together, there is a vague chance that both rabbits may be carrying REW, and you could get a REW baby (I have seen it happen!!)

I am assuming that this is a real BEW. As you observed, they aren't dirt common, but they are out there. I only mention this, because I have seen people selling Ermines as BEW's (not accusing anyone of deliberate deceit, these folks really didn't know what they had). BEW's have bright blue eyes, Ermines can have a sort of blue-grey color. Ermine is a whole different kettle of fish genetically, not involving the Vienna gene at all.

Oh, yeah -  Holland Lops are generally old enough to breed at 6 months of age.


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## Alicia G

Wel she is DEFENTALLY a blue eyed white hollandlop, she came with a pedigree and I have seen pics of her parents (both BEW) and her ansesters are all blue eyed white exept for one agouti (buck I think) about five generations back. I will look for a BEW buck to breed her to, but theyll most likely be related in some way or another. thank for all the help!


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