Dichrome Rabbitry

Dichrome Rabbitry Breeder and exhibitor of quality purebred Harlequin (Japanese/magpie), Dutch (gray), and Silver Marten (black, blue, sable) rabbits. ARBA members.

Informational content on rabbit genetics, showing, care, and more.

Got a great new sweatshirt with custom text from Horse N Bull Craft Co.! We harlie breeders are coming in unhinged with ...
12/25/2025

Got a great new sweatshirt with custom text from Horse N Bull Craft Co.! We harlie breeders are coming in unhinged with the custom text. I’m not the only one to get a similar custom text. 🤭

Common mistakes we see:
1. Brown, blue-grey, and (as of the new standard) marbled eyes are all accepted in all magpie colors. Chocolates and lilacs have a ruby glow, and that can make blue-grey eyes look a bit more blue than normal, especially in young juniors!

2. They don’t have to have a perfect face split. That’s ideal, but it’s not a DQ as long as it’s still discernible. The face split also isn’t the most important marking. It’s worth the same amount as any other marking group. Head and ears is 20 points, so 10 for each. Body and chest is also 20 points, 10 for each. Feet and legs are also 20 points, 10 for each. Please don’t judge mostly on the face split! Yes, a nice face split is very aesthetic, but it’s not worth more than any other marking group!

3. The ONLY thing the standard says about the belly markings is “pattern around the back and belly may be banded, barred, or combination of both. Clean lines are to be stressed.” Belly is just one small part of that 10 points for body, and that 10 points includes the back and both sides. The standard doesn’t specify a checkerboard pattern to the belly. Too many judges think that’s the perfect belly. It’s pretty, yes, but it’s not necessary, as long as it’s clean!

4. Come on. Really. Read the point schedule, PLEASE. All of general type is worth 10 points. Head, ears, bone, midsection, shoulders, and hindquarters are all squeezed into that tiny little 10 points. One single marking group is worth the same amount as ALL of general type. Yes, we’re working on type, but not at the expense of the markings that make the breed so unique. Please judge by the actual standard, not by what you think the standard should be.

5. Japanese can have light, dark, or mismatched nails. White nails mean actually white or clear, no pigment at all. Hold a piece of white paper up to them if in doubt. Magpies can have any nail color, mismatched, whatever. If they have all the required nails, boom, done.

6. It’s 5-7 bands AND/OR bars per side. The standard doesn’t say “judges get to pick which they like best!” It says “may be banded, barred, or combination of both, WITHOUT PREFERENCE”.

7. The standard hasn’t called for a 4 part front in FOREVER. If you’re still looking for a 4 part front, that tells us you haven’t read the breed standard in something like 20 years. Please do better. We’d really appreciate it.

8. Japanese are to be either “golden orange” or “golden fawn”. The standard doesn’t call for rich red bands/bars.

Bonus: if you think it’s a poor color blue, please make sure it’s not actually a nice, rich lilac. 😅

Happy holidays, and a friendly reminder, please be sure you read the standard. Especially if you haven’t judged the breed in a while. We pay the same entry fees as every other breed, and we deserve to be judged fairly.

Some of the non-bunny critters. Blue Cheese and his harem haha.
12/22/2025

Some of the non-bunny critters. Blue Cheese and his harem haha.

12/22/2025

Mothers of all species understand. 😅

12/07/2025

Well, Nani’s first litter is really calling forth her grandsire’s amazing face split! She’s a Gaston daughter, and Gaston is the only Erik offspring I have left. Makes me happy to see a piece of him here in his great grand kits.

Arthur show is a wrap! We didn’t do so hot show A, but show B we completely cleaned house with 1st in all four magpie cl...
12/07/2025

Arthur show is a wrap! We didn’t do so hot show A, but show B we completely cleaned house with 1st in all four magpie classes (no Japanese entered), BOS, and BOB.

Dichrome’s Tenor got his senior leg for his grand champion. Yay! And one of our junior does got her first leg.

That’s partially a reminder that just because you don’t do well one show or DO well one show, look at the pattern of comments. Different judges will prioritize different things or notice different things. I know of multiple judges I like for the same breed, and they always pick different rabbits than each other.

Not all judges are great with all breeds, either. I’ve had judges try to disqualify my harlequins for things that definitely aren’t a disqualification (like blue-grey eyes on magpies, and yes, it was specifically stated for blue-grey). Over time you’ll learn which judges are at least decent for your breed, but in the mean time, listen to all comments and consider them as a WHOLE, as data. No one judge’s comments make a breeding program.

Just a cute little magpie baby for the visual. 😉

A lot of people say you can’t breed consistent patterns in harlequins. This isn’t true. It’s hard to breed consistency. ...
12/05/2025

A lot of people say you can’t breed consistent patterns in harlequins. This isn’t true. It’s hard to breed consistency. It’s impossible to breed 100% consistency. But you can absolutely breed for a higher tendency to produce correct patterns.

This isn’t to disparage any other breeders. If it works for you, great! This is, instead, to explain my method.

I select based on not just the individual rabbit, but the entire litter (and other closely-related rabbits). A one-off nice rabbit in a litter of otherwise mediocre rabbits is unlikely to be able to reproduce that quality. Which, in my opinion, is why so many people talk about the nice harlequins that can’t produce well. What was in their litter? What did their parents and half siblings look like?

Find the patterns. If a rabbit has a lot of fully white chests in the litter it came from, even if it has a great chest, it’s likely to produce incorrect chests more often than correct chests. Conversely, if you find a rabbit in the litter with all the right marking parts but one, but that one missing part is prevalent in its relatives, keep and breed it! You’re likely to get that part in its offspring.

All of these rabbits are full or half littermates (same sire). All but one have a 1st place win at either Convention or National Specialty. The one that does not sired the 2nd place jr doe at Convention this year. Their sire came from a litter in which I liked a lot of the parts across the litter. He wasn’t great as far as body markings, but he had other pieces I liked. He’s worth his weight in gold as a herdsire, and two of his sons have already produced very nice three part offspring, as well, showing further consistency in the line.

There’s so much wrong with the rescues, and this is a well-written response. Of course, the rescues are still using pure...
12/01/2025

There’s so much wrong with the rescues, and this is a well-written response. Of course, the rescues are still using pure emotion to talk about how “cruel” it is, without even checking to see if any of what they have to say is factual.

“Those poor rabbits are being kept on wire for the show!” At ARBA Convention, rabbits are cooped on solid flooring. Not that properly maintained wire of the appropriate gauge and tautness is bad for rabbits that aren’t structurally incorrect. Good structure means proper angulation of hocks, which translates to a lack of extra pressure on the hocks. Poorly structured rabbits can end up with sore hocks even on solid surfaces, but I can see why people would provide fully solid surfaces for poorly structured animals. Said animals shouldn’t be bred, and ethical breeders are NOT using animals that develop sore hocks as breeding stock. They either lack proper structure or proper fur density/structure. Good structure is an incredibly important part of selecting which rabbits we choose to breed. I’ve decided not to breed some truly beautifully marked harlequins because they just had too bad a structural conformation, and I will never intentionally pass that on for their offspring to either suffer or have to be carefully managed. Our rabbits get resting mats, but most only choose to use them sparingly and seem to prefer the wire. The ones who prefer the resting mat tend to be the ones with pinched hocks. We’ve made vast improvements in hock and hindquarters structure in our herd, but it’s always a work in progress.

“They’re going to get sick!” This is just one reason we breed for robust immune systems. Rabbits with strong immune systems can go to shows frequently and not get sick. One harlequin has been to every national show (2x a year) and many local shows since 2019. Amazingly, she hasn’t become sick and fallen over dead.

“Limited access to water.” They have water 24/7 while traveling and at the show. Most exhibitors also provide electrolytes, probiotics, and anything else we can to even further reduce any risk.

“Heat stress.” Convention is always in autumn. It was not even remotely hot. Where is this “heat stress” coming from? If you mean “human comfortable temperatures”, then aren’t all house rabbits under constant heat stress. Make it make sense! Show rabbits are either well-acclimated to natural temperatures or are kept in climate controlled environments. Convention was a bit chilly, honestly, just how rabbits like it. The comfort of the rabbits takes priority over the people.

“Bad ventilation!” The ventilation was amazing, actually. And coops were cleaned very regularly so ammonia never had a chance to build up. I used to volunteer at a rabbit rescue, and their ammonia build up (while still within acceptable limits) was always worse than it was at Convention.

“They’re just numbers, not names!” Well, anyone who has followed this page more than half a second knows we name every single rabbit we keep. We even ask new owners if they have come up with a name so we can include it on the pedigree. One of my biggest joys is when babies are old enough to be past the delicate stage, and I can give them their official names. Until then, we use How To Train Your Dragon style naming to ward off the death streaks. 😉 We have a “Stinky Mackeral” and a “Roadside Gravel Corn” right now. 🤭 Bold Print, who used to be “Musty Mildew” placed 2nd at convention. Even breeders who don’t use names know EVERYTHING about that rabbit and keep meticulous records. Rabbits don’t know if they’re a number or have a name. The rabbit I named “Two” didn’t feel any less loved and cared for than the rabbit I named “Grizabella”.

“They’re scared and terrified being shown.” Again, look back at my previous posts. There’s no sign of being scared. They’re calm, curious, eating well (and anyone who actually knows anything about rabbits knows how fast they go off feed when stressed), coming forward to be pet, playing, self-grooming. There’s no freeze responses, no ears pinned back, no rapid breathing; all species-specific signs of stress and prey response. I know that because I actually have studied rabbit behavior EXTENSIVELY to ensure proper care. So how are they so calm? Good breeding and good socializing. The same as with any other domesticated species. It’s a combination of genetics and socializing. We play with the babies from the time they’re born. Many of our mommas will put their noses in with us while we check their babies. I’ve even had some push my hand in further. They’re so used to people that they are calm when we check their babies. Are all rabbits like that? No, and for mommas that are more stressed, we keep the checking to a minimum until they get used to it. Our aim is never to stress our rabbits out. Even from a purely selfish standpoint, that would make no sense. Stressed rabbits won’t keep good condition, which means they won’t win. So, even someone who truly didn’t love their rabbits would be stupid to cause unnecessary stress. And most of us do love our rabbits.

Just because your only experience with rabbits is poorly bred ones who stress easily and aren’t built properly doesn’t mean our wellbred rabbits have the same problems yours do. You’re welcome to your poorly bred rabbits. Love them. Play with them. Please do. But don’t you dare try to take away our wellbred rabbits just so you can have a bleeding heart story.

She sure is pretty. Dichrome’s Grizabella. She was 1st jr doe at this year’s national speciality, but now she’s all grow...
12/01/2025

She sure is pretty. Dichrome’s Grizabella. She was 1st jr doe at this year’s national speciality, but now she’s all grown up and ready to make the next generation. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t still get plenty of head scritches. I can’t resist that face. 🥰

11/28/2025

Don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious

Now that it’s been about a week for everyone to settle in after Convention, I have an announcement! I tried Californians...
11/27/2025

Now that it’s been about a week for everyone to settle in after Convention, I have an announcement! I tried Californians before, and they just weren’t the breed for me. I think I need something that makes me swear when I look in the nestbox, either because I see something increadibly good or because the whole litter is mismarked. 🤪 I thrive on a challenge. With having harlequins already, I think non-marked breeds just don’t have quite the same zing. (The zing is also known as ‘pulling my hair out’ 😆).

So the Cals are gone, but I came home with a pair of adorable gray Dutch! I haven’t had a rabbit breed this small in about 20 years, and I can’t get over how adoably teeny tiny they look in my big harlequin and silver marten size cages. 🤭

Ultimately I’d love to breed golden yellows, but I wanted to learn the breed with a more developed variety first. Look for us on the Dutch table soon, hopefully!

And yes, to my friends with dwarf papillons, that’s still in my future. I’m just really hoping for tricolors to pass. I’m also hoping they don’t pass TOO soon, so I can have time to do barn expansions.stio

11/27/2025

I do so love it when people who have been fed ARA lies and assume that wellbred rabbits can’t possible be calm and relaxed at shows try to intimidate me with biology terminology. 🤭

It’s a great use of my PhD in genomics to not only be able to jump right in understanding exactly the terms used but to then go far deeper than they expected or can even keep up with. When they know what a mobilome is, we can chat again. 😉

Video is of one of the rabbits I bred showing clear (sarcasm) stress response by not being able to play while at National Convention. Poor tortured soul. :(

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Macon, IL

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