# Mini Lop x Californian - Share your meat crosses!



## TheDairyEwe (Jul 1, 2015)

Since I had so much trouble finding any information on mini lop crosses for meat I figured I would share my experience in this project. I have a broken chestnut mini lop doe and wanted to breed her to a meat buck. Since I had nothing but a lionhead buck at the time my friend was kind enough to borrow me her Californian buck. Upon breeding the two I realized that I either have a huge mini lop, or she has a small Cal. Or both. The two of them were very comparable in size. 7-8lbs max on each of them. I'm not familiar with the weights on either breeds, but to me a mini anything shouldn't be the same size as a meat buck!

Fast forward about a month, I have 8 healthy kits and the mini lop dam is doing well. She ended up losing one, but now at four months all 7 are going strong. I have serveral broken blacks, solid blacks, and one broken chestnut. I had hoped for white but I wasn't sure genetically if that would happen or not.

They definitely needed these four months to grow. My biggest is a doe at almost 6lbs, smallest is 5lbs. Still have to process them and see how they turn out. I'll come back with more info after that. But not a bad cross if you have a mini lop around that needs to earn her keep. I have since acquired a New Zealand buck who is around 10 lbs and bred him to the mini lop and my hopes are higher. To my eye this new buck looks heavier in the frame, where as the Cal seemed to have more meat vs bone. 

Also fair to mention none of the babies have lopped ears! Which of course isn't a deal breaker but would have been neat at least.

Curious to hear what other crosses people have used, whether out of necessity or through careful planning. My next crosses coming up will be Mini Lop x New Zealand and Rex x New Zealand. Plus a litter of purebred Rexes. (I was going to breed both Rex does pure but the one wouldn't give my rex the time of day.) I also have a litter of Holland lops but I know for sure that isn't going to be competitive in the meat market lol


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## Agriculture (Jun 8, 2015)

There is a reason why you can't find any information on using Mini Lops for meat, but something tells me that you won't listen to why it isn't the slightest bit practical. Sure you CAN eat them, but.....


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

You can breed two different breeds but the babies should be a terminal cross. 
I have mini lops but would never breed them to a Californian. 
Only one doe I have here that I would use the Cal on is a black New Zealand. 
I prefer to breed a cal to a cal. That way I can sell the youngsters as 
breeding stock and make more money on them , than for meat purposes. 
I recently sold all my cal does except for one. I am going to concentrate on 
my pet lines.


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## JoannaCW (Nov 29, 2008)

We bought a Silver Fox buck and two New Zealand White does three years ago, and we're now breeding their offspring. We figured the NZWs were as meaty as they come and the SFs had a good dress-out rate and also (according to some things we'd read) throve better than NZs on natural feed rather than pellets. So far so good.


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## sandj81 (Apr 10, 2014)

I cross my nz and Cali doe. I also have a satin buck. I'll also cross him with my Cali. The rest of my does are nz. These I will only breed to my nz so I can sell for meat, breeders etc.


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## veruto (Mar 31, 2016)

Both my bucks are Rex. One is a standard Castor and the other is a mini Rex Mini Lop mix (supposedly..but he weighs 9 lbs and his kits with another doe that's the same mix grow out to the same weight.) I breed with Californian and another doe that's the same mix as the mix buck.
So far the Californian's have all had brown black (I guess it's called Agouti) colored kits that we just refer to as "meat mutt brown." However one of the last litters had three of those and four of this beautiful silver blue grey solid color kits as well as one solid black. I've never seen this color blue grey on kits that are clearly going to have satin coats. Just in the Rex coat.


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