Really strange bunnies!

[Patt]

We have had rabbits for about 8 years now. We raise them in portable pens on the ground. Currently we have a chinchilla female and a chinchilla cross (steel gray) female and we had a chinchilla buck. The girls each had litters a couple of months ago and we noticed the first one was kind of weird because a couple of the babies were brown like wild rabbits. We don't have any brown genetics in our rabbits though. Second litter is born and again weird colored babies. Then our buck who was quite old and was going to be retired to his own little green yard to enjoy the rest of his days went belly up. So we figured chances are he wasn't fathering babies.....

Husband butchered the first litter yesterday and they were most definitely not your standard domesticated rabbit. They had long faces like wild rabbits and the pretty much the same coloring.

So we are figuring our local swamp rabbit paid a visit to the girls and that's where our babies came from. Here's my question: I was planning to save 2 does out of the second litter for replacements. Do we want those wild genes or not? I am thinking they would be good just because of hybrid vigor. But there may be something I don't know that might make them bad?

[nehimama]

Patt, from everything I've ever read, wild rabbits do not interbreed with domestic rabbits. They are not the same species, as I understand. To be honest, though, I know nothing about Swamp Rabbits. Are they a different species of wild rabbit?

Anyway, I've had throwback browns in litters from white or b/w does and bucks, from time to time.

Hope someone with WAY more experience can jump in with a good explanation.

[SFM in KY]

I had one "wild rabbit" colored kit in a litter this summer ... first time I've had one of that color from anything, no clue where the color popped up from but I can definitely say that it was not sired by a wild rabbit ... mine are all in suspended cages.

And yes, it is true that wild North American rabbits can not interbreed with domestic rabbits, as the domestic rabbits are descended from European hares.

[Patt]

Well all I know is none of these bunnies look like chinchillas and I have a wild brown bunny who hangs around here all the time. Funny after 8 years I get 2 strange litters after never having them ever? I don't have a buck at all right now and all the babies are weaned and seperated from their mothers so if I get more litters I guess I will have to call in somebody from U of A.

[Paquebot]

American rabbits may breed with European hares but any fertilized eggs do not get past the first few divisions. That's due to the different number of chromosomes in their genetic makeup. Domestic rabbits are descended from the European hares and thus would carry the genes to produce an offspring of the original color.

Martin

[o&itw]

Maybe your "wild brown bunny" is a feral "domesticated" rabbit.

or....maybe one of your does isn't.... a doe I mean.

Or maybe one of the kits stayed in the cage too long.