Things are changing around here as I reevaluate the direction and goals of my breeding program. My first goal is meat production. My 2nd goal is improving Americans as a breed. My 3rd goal is to develop a competitive line of blacks. These goals mostly run concurrent to each other.
I've just acquired a really nice trio of blue chinchilla Americans who are all REW carriers. These are nice, big rabbits, with good width and rise. Size has been a problem for me in the past, but adding these rabbits will hopefully fix that. Blue Chinchilla is not an approved color, nor do I think it should ever be. However, if you understand color genetics, those animals can still play a valuable role in a breeding program. REW (c) is the most recessive on the C locus, and requires a copy from each parent to express. When breeding a chinchilla to a REW, the white offspring are free from the chinchilla gene. There is nowhere for it to hide, it cannot be carried to future generations, it's gone. My plan is to produce quality American Whites from these blue chinchillas. They will not be bred to my blues, but their white offspring may be.
So, the composition of my herd is changing fast. I've removed or am removing the lesser quality individuals from my herd, and really focusing on conformation before color. Color is easy to fix, conformation is much more difficult. I think this is why our white Americans outperform our blues on average. People get hung up on color.
Current herd buck:
Bickle's CH3 ~ 10.00# Blue Chinchilla buck
I've just acquired a really nice trio of blue chinchilla Americans who are all REW carriers. These are nice, big rabbits, with good width and rise. Size has been a problem for me in the past, but adding these rabbits will hopefully fix that. Blue Chinchilla is not an approved color, nor do I think it should ever be. However, if you understand color genetics, those animals can still play a valuable role in a breeding program. REW (c) is the most recessive on the C locus, and requires a copy from each parent to express. When breeding a chinchilla to a REW, the white offspring are free from the chinchilla gene. There is nowhere for it to hide, it cannot be carried to future generations, it's gone. My plan is to produce quality American Whites from these blue chinchillas. They will not be bred to my blues, but their white offspring may be.
So, the composition of my herd is changing fast. I've removed or am removing the lesser quality individuals from my herd, and really focusing on conformation before color. Color is easy to fix, conformation is much more difficult. I think this is why our white Americans outperform our blues on average. People get hung up on color.
Current herd buck:
Bickle's CH3 ~ 10.00# Blue Chinchilla buck
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