Dichrome Rabbitry

Dichrome Rabbitry Breeder and exhibitor of quality purebred Harlequin, Silver Marten, and Californian rabbits. ARBA members.

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

06/27/2025
06/27/2025
Okay this is HILARIOUS!
06/25/2025

Okay this is HILARIOUS!

If rabbits were pokemon šŸ˜…

**p

It’s always the bucks that look this promising, I swear. But fiiiine, he can grow out.
06/21/2025

It’s always the bucks that look this promising, I swear. But fiiiine, he can grow out.

Educational post: let that baby finish maturing! Rabbits, like dogs (and people!) can go through some very awkward growt...
06/21/2025

Educational post: let that baby finish maturing!

Rabbits, like dogs (and people!) can go through some very awkward growth stages. Humans get pimples, weird limb ratios, and voice cracking. Rabbits get weird color and funky toplines.

Why I don’t judge color on baby coat, especially on magpies!

This chocolate’s baby coat color looks eh washed out, not amazing. Magpie especially can end up with weird brassy or pale color because the chinchilla dark (cchd) mutation that turns Japanese into magpie can cause those funky baby coat color phases. I find it’s always most noticeable on my chocolates and lilacs.

You can see the stark difference on the chocolate’s nose where she’s shed out into her junior coat versus everywhere else where it’s still baby coat.

The lilac shows nicely what I mean by brassy color. Her belly color is already a decent lilac shade, but her top color is very brassy yet. Knowing my lines, I know she will shed that out into a nice, rich lilac color. Eventually. šŸ˜‰

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Knowing your lines and how they develop is crucial. That’s true of any breed and any trait, not just color traits. Some lines might be best evaluated at different ages because they go into the ā€œugly stageā€ at different ages. I know my silver martens look most like what they will mature into from 8-10 weeks. I eval during that age frame. At around 12 weeks until what seems like forever, their toplines are out to war. Someday they’ll return from the war. šŸ˜‰ With mine, usually they start to come back together around 8 months (with some hopeful moments in between where they look nice again for a hot minute), and then they look amazing shortly thereafter. I made the mistake early on in letting some go that I really should not have. I saw them later at maturity and wanted to kick myself! The best sable in my barn by far is one who looked a hot mess for so long I didn’t think she’d ever come back, but I pulled her out for photos after she’d had a litter, and I was shocked at how good she looked. Let them ā€œbakeā€ unless you know that the trait doesn’t return to proper in your line.

A good route that comes near enough to me to utilize. šŸ™‚
06/19/2025

A good route that comes near enough to me to utilize. šŸ™‚

Let’s talk pedigrees. I often see people saying, ā€œI don’t care about pedigrees. They don’t make a good rabbit.ā€ Which is...
06/19/2025

Let’s talk pedigrees. I often see people saying, ā€œI don’t care about pedigrees. They don’t make a good rabbit.ā€ Which is partially correct. A good rabbit is a good rabbit, no matter what the pedigree has in it. A poor quality rabbit is a poor quality rabbit, no matter what the pedigree has in it.

HOWEVER, COMPLETE pedigrees are still vitally important in a good breeding program. Why?

1. Pedigrees tell you if there are any incompatible colors that might pop up. For example, I don’t want any lilac or chocolate in the pedigrees of my Silver Martens because I breed sables. Those colors don’t work with sable. No, it doesn’t show every single possible recessive, but if there’s a recessive visibly in the pedigree (or lines I know interbreed colors I don’t want in my line), that’s information.

2. They tell you weights. I’m going to harp on this for a moment. PLEASE PUT WEIGHTS ON YOUR PEDIGREES. It’s not a fully pedigreed rabbit if you aren’t including weights of the ancestors! You can’t register or grand champion rabbits without a COMPLETE pedigree, including weights! Don’t sеll ā€œpedigreedā€ rabbits if you’re not including the weights. At least note that they’re not fully pedigreed and why so people can make the decision before they purсhasе. I’m so tired of pаying for rabbits only to get the pedigree and find out it’s incomplete, usually due to missing weights. Even aside from ARBA requirements, weights are important information! If the rabbit comes from a line of underweight ancestors, I’m going to want to be sure I breed to a line that makes weight easily to counter that. Harlequins (one of my breeds) tend to not easily make weight and run undersized. Weights are ESPECIALLY important information that case!

3. Pedigrees tell you a lot about the ancestors which WILL pull through in some ways in what the rabbit produces. Say you know that Joe Glow’s lines tend to produce really strong hindquarters but weaker shoulders. If you have the pedigree and know Glow’s lines are in it, you may want to decide on breeding to very strong shoulder lines even if the rabbit in front of you has shoulders that are just fine. You might also just know that Glow’s lines absolutely do not play well with the lines already in your barn, so you might decide to just not get that rabbit in the first place.

4. Maybe you’re wanting to linebreed a little. Or maybe you’re wanting a complete outcross. You need a pedigree to do either of those.

Remember, you are NOT just breeding to the rabbit in front of you. You ARE breeding to all the ancestors in that pedigree, too. The strengths and weaknesses of those rabbits are likely to pull forward in subsequent generations because they can be carried as recessive traits.

An incredibly nice rabbit can be a fluke. If the rabbit came from a line that’s never been known to do well before, it’s likely to produce like its relatives (poorly), even if it’s a really nice rabbit, itself.

Yes, absolutely do breed the rabbit in front of you. But always keep in mind what is behind it too. Wins are the least important part of a pedigree, in my opinion. I don’t care if the sire was convention best in show. I DO care what lines the sire is from, if they’re compatible with mine, what strengths and weaknesses that sire’s line tends to have, what colors are in it, and what weights are in it.

This little guy is way cooler than I am. I can take that.
06/17/2025

This little guy is way cooler than I am. I can take that.

Looking for all of our educational posts? Find them here in our master list, neatly sorted by topic! Full Facebook links...
06/16/2025

Looking for all of our educational posts? Find them here in our master list, neatly sorted by topic! Full Facebook links can be foundd in the comments, if you don’t want to follow a tinyurl link! (Make sure you select ā€œAll commentsā€ if it sets it to ā€œMost Relevantā€ for you, or it won’t show all the commented links)

GENETICS
- Shaded genetics: https://tinyurl.com/shadedgenetics
- Genetic mechanisms of harlequin: https://tinyurl.com/harlstripes
- Fur type genetics: https://tinyurl.com/furgenetics
- New pale yellow on E Locus: https://tinyurl.com/paleyellow1

COLOR
- Blue-grey eyes + ruby glow visual: https://tinyurl.com/blugreyruby
- "Chin eyes" visual: https://tinyurl.com/chineye1
- Shaded color visual progression:
== Newborn to 8 days: https://tinyurl.com/shadeds1
== 13 days: https://tinyurl.com/shadeds2
== 4 weeks: https://tinyurl.com/shadeds3
== Kit vs adult: https://tinyurl.com/sablevs

- Sable magpie vs "tort shading" in harlequins/magpies
== Part 1: https://tinyurl.com/shadeharl
== Part 2: https://tinyurl.com/shadeharl1

CONFORMATION/BODY TYPE
- Importance of hock set/width: https://tinyurl.com/hockset
- Assessing commercial type: https://tinyurl.com/comtype1

SHOWING
- Don't scruff a rabbit!: https://tinyurl.com/noscruff

BREEDING AND RELATED TOPICS
- Sexing young kits: https://tinyurl.com/kitparts
- Why pedigrees DO matter: https://tinyurl.com/Pedmatters
- Know your lines and how they grow: https://tinyurl.com/yourlines1

BEHAVIOR
Trances? Not a thing! https://tinyurl.com/rabbittrance

BREED SPECIFIC
Harlequin brood does: https://tinyurl.com/harliebroods
White Silver Martens? Yup!: https://tinyurl.com/whiteSM

OTHER TOPICS
- Dutch-like mutation in wild Volcano rabbit: https://tinyurl.com/wilddutch
- Photographing rabbits: https://tinyurl.com/photorab
- Japanese language rabbit etymology: https://tinyurl.com/rabbitetyd

If you enjoy our educational content, please consider helping my best friend as an exchange for my time spent on the edu...
06/16/2025

If you enjoy our educational content, please consider helping my best friend as an exchange for my time spent on the education. He’s autistic and called the police when his roommate was trying to steal his things and instead he ended up slammed into a table so hard that he had multiple brain blееds that required two brain surgeries. I’ve put together a GoFundMe. You can share the link below and encourage others to share, which will help even if you can’t dопаte. If you can dопаte, even a little bit will help. I’ve gotten him a lawyer with half down (his public defender was more than willing to let video evidence that would potentially show his innocence be deleted since his apartment complex deletes after 15 days without a subpoena, and his public defender did not care), but I still need to pay for the remainder. That’s not even considering his medical fees, which is a bridge we will have to cross when we get to it. My deepest thank you to anyone who can help in any way.
šŸ’™ā™„ļøšŸ’™ā™„ļøšŸ’™ā™„ļøšŸ’™ā™„ļøšŸ’™ā™„ļøšŸ’™ā™„ļø

IT STARTED WITH MY BEST FRIEND BEING ROBBED Mark Orapello called th… Corb Giers needs your support for Urgent Support Needed for Mark's Medical and Legal Aid

Educational post! Hock straightness and set. Why is it so important no matter what breed and no matter what you’re breed...
06/16/2025

Educational post! Hock straightness and set. Why is it so important no matter what breed and no matter what you’re breeding for? Because it can literally be life or death!

Hock position tells you a lot about the pelvis of the rabbit. Straight hocks indicate a proper pelvis angulation. Wide hocks indicate a good pelvic width. Both of which are necessary to reduce risk when does are birthing.

Additionally, properly set hocks with good width between them give the rabbit a proper sitting position, which vastly reduces risk of sore hocks.

Finally, wide hocks with good furring also contribute to preventing sore hocks. Wide hocks indicate good bone size for the size of the rabbit, which lends support for the whole frame.

GOOD EXAMPLES:
Rabbit 1a: Excellent hock set. Very straight, set wide apart, and you can draw a nice square almost perfectly in between them. The hocks themselves are very wide and well furred.

Rabbit 1b: Transposing a square over the hocks shows that it’s more of a rectangle in the space between the hocks, which indicates straight but narrow set hocks.

Rabbit 1c: Pretty straight hocks. Very slightly turned inward but not bad at all. A little bit narrower than rabbit 1a.

POOR EXAMPLES:
Rabbit 2a: I am only being picky with this doe because 1a is her brother, and he’s amazing. Very nice wide set hocks, but they do turn in a bit.

2b: This rabbit has very pinched hocks. They’re so pinched that the lines converge into a V before they even leave the rabbit proper. This rabbit would be at higher risk for sore hocks and birthing problems.

2c: Decent width, but pinched hocks.

2d: Straight hocks but very narrow set. It’s a skinny rectangle between the hocks.

The amazing parts can never land on the same animal, can they? 🤣 Look at the hock spacing and straightness on the buck. ...
06/15/2025

The amazing parts can never land on the same animal, can they? 🤣 Look at the hock spacing and straightness on the buck. But then ugh I don’t like his shoulders. The doe has a much nicer topline but her hock straightness isn’t as nice.

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Macon, IL

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