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| Tri English Program |
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| This is Trixie owned by Darlene Head in Florida |
| Tri is a very rare and unusual color for the English Lop. I've decided to imbark on this challenge and start my own herd.I've decided to post up info for anyone also interested in starting a herd of their own. I decided to start a small herd of tris after wanted a little bit of a challange with my English Lops. I was luckly enough to have a friend that breeds Harlequins so I got a nice typed Junior buck from her. If you are interested in starting a herd you can start from scratch like I'll be doing or you can purchase an F1 (First Generation cross). |
| Okay chosing what to breed your Harle (or tri) bunny to... This is very difficult, or atleast this was a tough one for me. I first thought that breeding to a self (Black, Blue, Chocolate, Lilac) bunny was how I was going to do it. But soon discovered that is not what you want to do. You want to breed to the Wide Band Group (Fawn, Orange, & Red)... This is the best group to breed to. it will keep the colors clean on the next generation and not cause alot of problems in future generations. Another group you can breed to is the Agouti Group (Chestnut, Opal, Lynx, Cream). Althought I'm not sure about this idea. I'll have to play around with it. But from Breeding to an agouti you are going to get banded (the rings on the Agouti) harles. These aren't showable but can be used for breeding. When choosing an Agouti bunny to breed to, make sure the bunny is out of a wide band. I found out the groups you NEVER want to breed to. These are or course the shaded group. Breeding to these will produce tris with shaded qualities (points on the ears, feet, Tail nose). Torts are another one you don't want to breed to. They will produce Torted tris and cause a lot of problems down the road with them popping up. Alot of English carrier the tort gene so it's going to be very interesting to see what I get by cross breeding. I also found out that Steels are okay to use. But when choosing a Steel make sure the are out of a wide band bunny. Also that they are a good colored Steel and have excellent tipping, if they are smutty Steels then they carrier to much of the self gene and shouldn't be used. |
| DLR's Carson - My Harlequin Buck |
| Possible faults you're breeding in and what to do about it... Crown & Ear Length: I think the biggest fualts will be ear and crown wise, over time you'll get you're ears back up there. A way to avoid this possible a little would be to breed to a doe that has over 24 ears to start out with. The crown is also something you'll just have to breed out on. The Harlequin's ears stand so over time the Tris will lose it if you keep breeding to bunnies with no crown. Weight: Harlequins have a max weight of 10 lbs... and English Don't have a max weght... so remember with breeding, you don't want to keep or breed to bunnies that don't make weight, keeping the parents of good weight will make sure you don't have tiny babies. Deviated Sternums: This is a big thing with English Lops. You Shouldn't breed any bunny with a Deviated Sternum, check your babies and cull all babies with it, even really nice ones, that will stop it from popping up in later generations. Please if you have any further information on breeding Tri English and want to share it would people just send if to me and Ill post it up... pictures would be great too. |
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