# Question for Harlequin breeders



## Funnyfarm (Feb 11, 2008)

I am new to Halequins and am still learning about what to look for. Is it acceptable/recommended to interbreed Magpies to Japanese? I have a Magpie doe that I bred to my Japanese buck and the three day old litter seems about half mag half jap. so far only one seems like it has potential for good markings. It is checkered better/more evenly than either parent. I bought the doe strictly to breed meat rabbits then found the buck at a swap meet cheap so I thought I would keep the best kit from each litter (kids are in 4-H) and just eat the rest. Any advice for a new Harlequin owner/breeder?


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## tailwagging (Jan 6, 2005)

no. don't if you can help it. you will get DQ white in your japs. then again you can always eat them.


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

Extremely simplified for my convenience:

The Japanese is caused by the harlequin gene which makes the agouti or self pattern to break into orange and black areas.

The Magpie pattern occurs when harlequin is affected by the Chinchilla gene, which turns the orange and black into white and black. 

Breeding the two together is not recommended. 

However, because Harlie breeding stock can be very hard to come by, sometimes we have to make do with what we have. 

I would recommend that you take the best japanese from the litter and save as breeders. I would focus on breeding the best japanese you can and try to cull out as much magpie as you can.

I think (just my opinion) it is hard enough to juggle the japanese harlequin pattern without tossing in the complicating factor of the chinchilla gene in the magpie.

Either way, pick one variety and and do your best to breed the best rabbit you possibly can.

Have a good day!


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## ladysown (May 3, 2008)

I ran into the white foot factor with my japs, so I switched to doing magpie only. Too frustrating to breed a litter of decently typed kits, and okay marked kits...only to have a stupid white foot on a beautiful animal. So I got rid of that factor completely and said.. lovely magpies...here we come.


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

The white foot thing does occur in in magpies too. The difference is that the magpie black/white pattern disguises/masks the white foot thing. Same for white toenails.

That is one of the reasons to avoid mixing Japanese and Magpie Harlies. Japanese Harlies are one of the greatest challenges to the rabbit breeder. 

They used to be commonly used as meat rabbits, so breeding for pattern was easy, culls were eaten. But the commercial meat market changed. I think it would be helpful if the Harelquin breed Standard for weight was increased to align more closely with commercial meat rabbits. Then more culls could be used in the meat market.

Have a good day!


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## HendricksHearth (Jul 18, 2009)

I completely agree with you Franco. Actually, I would like the points on type to be increased also because it would encourage folks to breed for good HQ's, shorter shoulders, etc. From what I understand, the standard released at the convention does not have any changes though. 

I posted on the yahoo forum that I am concerned that the American Harlequin Rabbit Club website has been down for months, but it used to have great info about breeding for the right markings, etc. One of my Harlies is from a Magpie X Japanese breeding and does not have any white toenails, but if I can get a litter out of the breeding I will be watching and culling hard. I am still pretty new to Harlies myself, but I feel that judicious culling would be very helpful to the breed as a whole already. 

Best of luck!

Lauren


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

Hi Lauren,

Yes, allowing more points for type would be good too.

My experience with the Harlies is that while they are dazzling, one has to breed tons of them to get rabbits with good markings for show. 

That's where selling them for meat would a good outlet for the culls.

About the only thing harder to breed for markings is Harlequin Dutch.

Have a good day!


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## Jackie (Jun 20, 2008)

Alright...so I assume that other breeds come in these colors too...

I have a torte mini lop buck and a silver grey (I don't know what the real color is) mini lop doe. Together they have either produced a magpie or a harli in every litter. Its been a bit shocking. The last one she just had is orange with black stripes and really looks like a little tiger.


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

Cannot assume other breeds come in this color.

In Minilops, harlequin japanese or magpie is not a recognized color for show.

But the harlequin gene together with the broken pattern gene will create the Tri-Color, which is a recognized color in Mini-Lops. So your Minilops probably have the harlequin gene.

Check the pedigree to see if you have tri-colored in the background.

Have a good day!


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## Jackie (Jun 20, 2008)

rabbitgeek said:


> Cannot assume other breeds come in this color.
> 
> In Minilops, harlequin japanese or magpie is not a recognized color for show.
> 
> ...


No pedigree. None of my rabbits have one. Tri-color would be cool too.


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

You'll need to start pedigrees on your rabbits if you plan to breed them for tricolors or any other pattern. That will record the results of the generations as you develop the bloodline.

Very few of us can remember every detail about every rabbit in every litter, so writing it all down is needed.

When you know where you've been, you can plan where you're going.

When you figure out which rabbit has the harlequin gene, you'll need to breed it to a broken to see if you get tricolors.

Have a good day!
Franco Rios


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## Funnyfarm (Feb 11, 2008)

First, Thank you for the replies, now if I were to concentrate on the Magpie variety would keeping the Japanese buck help in improving the pattern/markings on the Magpie offspring that I would get from Magpie does? It was mentioned that a magpie can give undesirable traits to a Japanese offspring but what about the other way around?


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## tailwagging (Jan 6, 2005)

Not that I know of. We raised and showed both. Japs are harder to find. we got ours from Pamela Granderson, in Leopold, IN and Judy Bustle, Marshville, NC


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