When done with this article, don't miss our other genetics article Advanced Punnett Squares and then take our Punnett Squares Interactive Quiz.

Punnett squares are a very useful genetics tool. In determining rabbit color genetics, they assist us in predicting offspring color. In this article we look at a simple punnett square. In a future article we will show advanced punnett squares, and also have a punnett square teaching tool to aid in your study of rabbit color genetics.

Punnett Square: A square to help us determine the possible traits of an offspring. Lets take two rabbits and look at the A allele. Keep in mind that a rabbit has two genes fro every trait, and one of those two genes gets passed along to its offspring. Lets say we have a buck with this allele Aa, this would be an agouti rabbit carrying the self gene, and lets say the doe is a self, aa, and we want to figure out what the possibilities are for the offsprings.

We start by creating the box like the following:

We put the bucks genes at the top, one gene above one box.

We put the doe’s genes on the left side, one beside each box.

Now carry the A gene of the buck into each box below it.

Now carry the “a” gene of the buck into each box below it.

Now carry the top “a” gene of the doe to each box at the right. The dominant gene is always written first.

Now carry the bottom gene of the doe to each box at its right.

Now we have all of the possibilities available from this breeding pair, Aa (agouti, carrying self) or aa (self). In pure statistics half of the babies would be agouti (Aa) carrying self, and half would be self.

Check back as we will show more advanced punnett squares in a future article and also a teaching quiz that will assist in your study of rabbit color genetics.