Breeding info

Breeding Lionheads

I found this info on another website and found it very usefull! 

With Lionhead does it is usually easy to spot when they want mating,
they seem to show more visible signs that other breeds of rabbits
say like lops.
The doe will be seen rubbing her chin over things, carrying hay
around, or even spraying while running around.
Again during mating, they are equally frisky and often give the
bucks quite a run around while teasing him at the same time,
eventually they will get into the mating position and lift for the
buck.
As with all matings, it is best to let this happen at least twice
before removing the doe from the bucks hutch, also if possible
repeat this again a couple of hours later as this heightens the
chance of a doe conceiving.
Litter size in Lionheads is usually between 5-7, although larger
litters are not unusual.
The does usually prove to be easy birthers and very good mothers
pulling a great mound of fur for their nest. Sometimes when a doe
is bred from or during the resulting moult, she will lose some of
her beautiful mane. sometimes this will grow back, but in some
does it may take a couple of good moults before it re-grows, or
you may simply (and sadly) be left with a short haired rabbit.
Although these does will still produce beautiful litters with perfect
manes as babies, theses babies are also likely to be carrying this
trait, so if possible, it is best to breed from does who keep their
manes, as this is somthing that still needs 'fixing' in the breed.
When it comes to breeding Lionheads, we must not (and it seems
cannot LOL) forget that the breed is still very much in the early
stages,
Litters can be very mixed in many ways, firstly the colours seem
not only to come in the regular (showable) colours, but also in the
very unusual mixes and many colours that we have never even set
eyes on before. These odd coloured babies usually are very eye
catching, and it is very tempting to keep them, how ever, if you
really are set on keeping Lionheads for show, then it is better just
to keep colours that are already showable in other breeds of
rabbits, as these are more likely to become standardised first.
Colour is only half the problem here, the litters are very mixed,
not only by colour, but also by type, body and the mane length
and texture.
I find that babies who have very little mane at 8-10 weeks very
rarely improve, so it is far wiser to choose babies with better
developed manes.
When your litter is about two to three weeks old, you will notice,
that the places where the longer hair should be (i.e. on the neck
and mane) is noticeably shorter than any where else on the body,
do not worry about this as this will soon grow over the next
couple of weeks until at about 3-4 weeks, you have a rabbit with
even length hair all over.
This is when something strange really happens, you see to get
from the long coated rabbit to a short coated rabbit with a mane, a
lot of fur needs to go from the min body area, this seems to
happen relatively quickly usually over the period of couple of
weeks, now the part that I find strange is 'where does the hair go!'
it doesn't seem to moult out because the hair is not at all lose if
gently pulled on the back, very strange, and I am still looking for
the answer to this!
As well as lionhead type rabbits in the litter, you may
occasionally get either normal short coated rabbits and even
occasionally some fully long coated rabbits, obviously to keep the
quality of your line, you do not want to include these rabbits back
into your breeding programme.
Breeding Lionheads can be very rewarding as the babies seem
quite sprightly and resilient, and have very few genetic problems
such as malocclusion etc