Instructions
Find two lionhead rabbits that will give you the broken coloring you're looking for. If you breed a broken colored rabbit to a solid colored rabbit, there is a 50 percent chance of the babies being broken colored. If you breed two broken colored rabbits, there is a 50 percent chance the babies will be broken, a 25 percent chance they'll be solid, and a 25 percent chance they'll be Charlie colored, a coloration similar to broken, but undesirable in show rabbits. Breeding a Charlie colored rabbit to a solid colored rabbit usually results in 100 percent broken colored rabbits.
Ensure that the male and female rabbit you've selected to breed are old enough and in good health. Take them to a vet to have them checked for any illnesses, including vent disease.
Look at the female rabbit's vent area. Female rabbits don't go into heat, so they can be bred at almost any time, but there are a couple of days every month when female rabbits won't breed. You can tell that a female rabbit is ready to breed when the vent area appears red, purple or dark pink.
Bring the female rabbit to the male rabbit's cage and place the female inside. This method works better than bringing the male to the female, because male rabbits can become too distracted with the new surroundings to breed.
Observe the rabbits. They will chase each other around for a few minutes, but should settle down to breed shortly. The female will raise her rear end toward the male. When the lionhead rabbits have successfully mated, the male will fall off the female, and may make a sound like a grunt.
Bring the female rabbit back to her cage. Let the female rest. You can bring the female back to the male about eight hours later and let them mate again, to ensure that the mating was successful.
How to Breed Broken Lionheads
Lionheads are a new breed of pet rabbit, first bred in 1996. Lionhead rabbits get their name because they have a "mane" -- a thick ruff of fur around their head and neck. Because the breed is so new, the genetics are not yet perfect. Breeding two lionhead rabbits does not necessarily guarantee that all of the babies will have manes. The word "broken" describes the color of the lionhead rabbit. Broken rabbits are white rabbits with darker coloring on their ears and noses, and along their bodies.