When u breed 2 dwarf rabbits, will all the kits be peanuts?

Question

I've tried to do a little research about when u get peanuts in rabbit litters, and all the articles i've read had said peanut kits have a double of the dwarf gene or something like that. i wasn't exactly sure what this meant. so if u breed to dwarf rabbits, will the kits be dwarfs?

Answer 1

No. I bred Neatherland Dwarfs for 5 years and I only ever got 1 peanut. Its a possibility in every litter but its not common enough to not breed dwarfs to dwarfs.

Answer 2

When you breed two dwarf rabbits (each rabbit has 1 dwarf gene and 1 non dwarf gene) you will get 25% non dwarfs (no dwarf gene), 50% dwarfs (1 dwarf gene/1 non dwarf gene), and 25% peanuts (2 dwarf genes), statistically.  The kits get two genes from each parent.  Which genes they get will vary but those are the possibilities/probabilities.

In real life, that is not always how it is.  You may get any combination of those possibilities.  Getting peanuts is just a part of the raising the dwarf breeds.  I just let mine stay with their littermates until they go their way.  I check the nest box daily for dead kits.

Some people breed dwarfs and non dwarfs (one true dwarf Holland Lop x one non dwarf (larger) Holland Lop (usually the doe)) and get no peanuts at all but 50% of those litters will be non dwarfs and 50% dwarfs.  I'd rather have peanuts than more non dwarfs but to each his own.