What are my babies

[Therry]

Top one is Charlie castor, bottom is broken harlequinized castor. Breeding charlies can never create solids, but it doesn't create all brokens... You can get charlies too. Charlie x Charlie = 100% Charlie, Charlie x broken = 50% Charlie, 50% broken, Charlie x solid = 100% broken. Even if you are not breeding for show, Charlies often have a slower growth rate than other varieties, so I would avoid breeding charlies to anything but a solid (because that is the only combination that will assure that you don't get any charlies in the offspring). (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0093750)

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Therry]

She was bred before I got her, she's due Jan. 3rd. What problems arise with Charlie's? Anything? Or just slower to mature?

 

[SableSteel]

As they get older, some charlies have trouble keeping condition and are prone to digestive issues (mainly megacolon). However, some charlies never develop problems - it varies largely on breed and line (for example, English spot charlies have problems more often than, say, new Zealand charlies).

 

[Bunnylady]

The same gene that causes the broken pattern affects the development of the digestive system, Broken patterned rabbits have lower gut motility (in other words, their digestive systems run slower). A single-copy broken's digestive system runs a little bit slower than a similar, solid color rabbit, but it isn't as much of an issue. A Charlie's gut runs a good bit slower. One of the banes of the rabbit keeper is GI stasis, where the digestive system shuts down completely. Because the Charlie is running slow anyway, it is more susceptible than most, so it is absolutely critical that the rabbit keeper make sure that a Charlie has plenty of fiber in its diet and never runs out of water. Even with good care, a Charlie may have "episodes;" when I first got into rabbits, I had a Charlie Mini Lop doe that had one every time I bred her. She would kindle, then spend the next day sitting in a corner, grinding her teeth in pain. Fortunately for us both, things got moving for her a day or so later. I bred her 3 times before I finally learned what was going on; then I never bred her again. We were both lucky - rabbits often die of GI stasis; when a digestive system shuts down, it can be hard to get it going again.

Charlies almost never have enough color on them to be showable, which is one reason not to breed them. The GI stasis is another. To make sure that I don't create Charlies, I make it a point to only breed broken to solid. Some people will tell you that broken to solid breeding will create booted brokens (which have too little white to be shown) and that is sometimes true. However, if a solid has good broken relatives, it will probably have inherited the genetics for good broken patterns, even though it isn't a broken itself.

 

[Therry]

Thank y'all!

 

[Therry]

She was actually bred before I got her. It's nice to know this though