• The Nature Trail's Nina x The Nature Trail's Q- Nina is a big beautiful brood doe with a gorgeous top line. She's a full sister to Mercedes, so I always keep what's going on with her in mind as I plan their breedings. Nina and Mercedes are a little on the edge of my genetic pool since their mother's side is mostly from lines I no longer work with. But their dad's side goes back to Gibeault's Bonzai as does Camelot's Merlin, so I looked there for a match. Although I think that Nina and Merlin would make nice babies (Nina needs shorter ears and Merlin could use more depth over the hindquarter), I decided to go with his solid son Q. Q is a REW carrier, I think (I'll know more when his latest kit is a few days older). Nina has produced a sable point. So there's some color potential there, too.
  
• GC The Nature Trail's Mercedes x The Nature Trail's Bear - Rather than looking for a good match for Mercedes, I've really been looking for a good match for Bear. He needs a doe with short, wide shoulders. Everything about Mercedes' body is marvelous. She's not got much of a head - it's cute, but not massive. And what head she had, she lost when she started kindling. Bear has a head, so that's a good match for Mercedes, too. They both have Camelot's Kawa Bunga back there in their pedigrees, so they are not total outcrosses. Bear has 8 junior legs and I hope to get that senior leg this year. He's had several second places, so it's not unreasonable to hope for. If I grand him, then this match could contribute to my project to have rabbits with all granded ancestors.
  
• The Nature Trail's Spice x GC The Nature Trail's Rio - Spice just had a litter with Q, which was an inbreeding (brother to sister). I believe that has revealed that both carry the REW gene. We'll soon see. Her kits were fostered, so she's available to breed again. Now that I've bred her tightly, I'm ready to try a bit of an outcross. This match, with Rio, is mostly a physical match. Spice could use a more prominent head. Rio could use the smaller size. I do notice that both Spice and Rio have a good bit of Styles in the background, but Gene has such a large barn, I don't know whether they are from compatible lines within his barn or not. We'll see.
  
• The Nature Trail's Celeste x GC The Nature Trail's LaForge - Celeste is a bit of a big girl with a very full body, but I do see peanuts in her kindling records. She is strong in the chest area, but weaker in the top line. I have paired her with LaForge who has a wonderful top line. The kits may not have as bold a crown as I would like, but you can't always fix everything in one generation. Maybe an ancestor will contribute a bold crown somewhere.
  
• Saynora's Katee x The Nature Trail's Wizard - I did a midterm rebreeding with Katee, so she may or may not have missed last time. She rarely does that but has once before. We'll see if she accepts breeding. I had paired her with Merlin when she missed over Christmas, feeling somewhat experimental (I know I can breed her to Brendan and expect good things). Katee needs shorter ears and better shoulders. She pretty much can handle everything else without any help. But this time, I've decided to go with Merlin's son Wizard, who was too young to breed last time. It will take Charlies out of the picture since Wizard is solid. But he has the cute ears and nice short body that Katee needs. Now we just need to see if we can get them bred and if Katee matches well with yet another buck. She's easy to breed, but Wizard is a novice.
  
• Styles Stella x GC Camelot's Merlin - I am going to breed her to Merlin every litter until she no longer produces. The reason? Wizard, May, Purdy, Hilary, Jewel, Morgana, and two cute pre-juniors. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  
• GC The Nature Trail's Belle x GC The Nature Trail's Rio - Belle is a fickle girl with three misses and one live baby on her record. I suppose I'll give her two more non-missing chances before I give up on her. She has an amazing body, but needs a head. So, I went directly to the head man himself, Rio, for this one. I am risking both Charlies and perhaps fuzzies with this breeding. I suspect that Belle's dad was a carrier. Rio is definitely a fuzzy carrier. She's half-sister to Mercedes and Nina through their dad. This is mostly a physical match since Rio is primarily Tunes and Styles while Belle is Camelot, Saynora, and Salem. Still, Styles and Camelot often work well together, and perhaps all five will do nicely. If it works, then I may have another start for my all-grand-champion pedigrees.
  
• The Nature Trail's Triss x The Nature Trail's Mars- This will be Triss' first breeding. She's a product of GC LL Brendan and Saynora's Katee. She has two full brothers and one half-brother in the barn. I selected her full-brother Mars to try first. Besides being nice physical matches for each other and an inbreeding pair, Mars is broken to Triss' solid pattern, giving him the edge over LaForge and Antony. I do love my brokens.
  
• The Nature Trail's Zsa Zsa x GC LL Brendan - Here's another girl pushing my patience. She's been bred four times, with two misses and two dead litters. I'll tolerate another miss, but another dead litter and she's out of here. Zsa Zsa is another nice body that lacks a head. She goes back to GC Tunes Adrian on her dam's side. And Brendan is out of GC Tunes Adrian (Adrian has something like 55 legs, so he seems like a good one to base a breeding on!) Plus, Brendan has a good head and throws it.
  
• GC The Nature Trail's Brook x The Nature Trail's Antony - She's breaking my heart. I've never had a rabbit grand so easily, collecting seven legs with several BOS and BOG wins in a very short period of time. She's missed three times and had two dead litters. I guess I have to say this is her last chance, too. Or maybe next to the last chance. Even though I would be happy if she'd just have one live baby with the ugliest Holland on the planet just to get her started, I have paired her with half brother Antony. They share their father, GC LL Brendan. Also, I truly believe that Antony will grand sooner or later. Another all-GC pedigree pairing, perhaps?
  
• GC The Nature Trail's Roxie x GC Camelot's Merlin - Aside from Stella and Merlin, this was the easiest match for me. Both Roxie and Merlin are grand champions with two grand champion parents. They are the basis for my best chance at starting my all grand champion pedigrees. Plus, they are physically compatible, with Roxie going back to Camelot on her dam's side. Wouldn't you love to see how Merlin looks in black or broken black? I surely would!

So as you can see, I just slap a couple of rabbits together randomly and see what happens. NOT!

There's a lot of thought that goes into every breeding. I consider inbreeding, out-crossing, and line breeding. I think about previous successes in crosses and match-ups. I think about how I'm breeding their siblings. I look to see if nice bucks are getting left out of the gene pool. I try to minimize Charlies and fuzzies if there are other good choices available, but will not avoid a good match-up because of them. I look at the physical strengths and weaknesses of the individual rabbits involved. I do not consider color, but I do note it because it is fun to see color pop out of a breeding that is primarily done for type.

I hope that this in-depth description was helpful for those of you just getting started or struggling with making breeding matches. I can't say I'm an expert or know everything about it, but I think it's helpful to find out how lots of different people make their breeding decisions and then incorporate the parts you like into your own program.

Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
Holland Lops Of Distinction
Precious Pet Rabbits
Pet Rabbit Care Information, Quality Pet Rabbit Breeders, and Rabbit Fun

¶ 11:03 AM