Anyone else breed/raise rabbits here?

[KikiDeAnime]

Then you mostly need to figure out your local market and which breeds sell. Otherwise you could breed dozens of the most amazing, pedigreed whatnots and not sell a single one. Look on craigslist, see what's around, see what goes quickly vs. what hangs around forever.

Where I am, Lionheads are the most wanted pet rabbit but there's not a whole lot for sale.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

That’s why we ask to see siblings and parents. Siblings are proof of some success and that the breeder isn’t just trying to get rid of a bad doe. And if there aren’t any siblings, we ask for records and pedigrees of they parents siblings and/or past kits of the mom. We often know the person we buy from though and we only go through this process when we go to a new person.

He did see the parents and siblings.

 

[Bunnylady]

most the money would go towards the rabbits' health and food.

If you have experience with rabbits you probably know this, but you are almost guaranteed to spend more than you make in the pet market (especially if you are selling to pet shops, in which case you have to deal with APHIS regulations and be working on a scale that most backyard breeders can't afford). Most people don't understand that, so they assume that any breeder is in it for the money.

Generally speaking, "small" and "cute" are what sell as pets. For quite a while now, the breed has been Lionheads, but there are relatively few breeders who are working with "good" ones. When people have called me for advice about a rabbit with a health problem, as they talk, I'm thinking, ". . . wait for it . . ." and sooner or later, here it comes - "someone told me it's a Lionhead?" There are healthy, beautiful, breed-standard Lionheads out there (well, I can't be sure about the seizure disorder, I don't know if anyone knows the numbers on that), but an awful lot of folks are so eager to get on the Lionhead bandwagon, they breed anything with a mane (or, related to something with a mane, not understanding how mane genetics work), so there are an awful lot of animals that get sold as Lionheads that have no mane, or very little mane, or are vastly oversized, etc. If what you have in mind is this:

and the animal you bought grew up to look like this:

(OK, so that picture won't show up, but it's the usual, 8+ lbs with a couple of tufts of longer hair behind the ears crossbred)
how would you feel about the person that sold it to you?

 

[Little Red Birds]

I agree with @Bunnylady. A mini came into her first rabbit meeting with Palomino the person she got it from said was a mini Rex. We got everything sorted out eventually though, because luckily she loved her and there was a local breeder of palominos. It seems that Lionheads and mini rexes are always “faked” or “misunderstood”.

 

[Little Red Birds]

He did see the parents and siblings.

There are so many factors that can go into a doe not breeding well, such as age, weather, stress levels, and health. I have a couple months in the year (July and August, sometimes September) were I just don’t even TRY to breed because it’s so hot! So it’s not always genetics.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

I didn't mean that I would breed Lionheads. I only meant that right now, that's all people want. I wanted to start with a breed I'm more familiar with: Holland Lops.

 

[Sara L]

I didn't mean that I would breed Lionheads. I only meant that right now, that's all people want. I wanted to start with a breed I'm more familiar with: Holland Lops.

If there aren't even ads on Craigslist and you've looked for a while, it might be that there's no breeder/supplier of lops near you. That might be a good thing if you are trying to sell them as pets.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

If there aren't even ads on Craigslist and you've looked for a while, it might be that there's no breeder/supplier of lops near you. That might be a good thing if you are trying to sell them as pets.

I've seen maybe 2 or 3 posts but the lops they're trying to sell are very low quality, even for pets. Even some of the colors are a bit off.
I already know of a good breeder for Holland Lops that would be able to help me out with what I want to do, despite the driving distance.

 

[jddowdle]

We have 2 not sure what breed they are both are female. We went to get my 6 year old daughter a rabbit. We were only getting one. She picked it out and we were box it up and my 2 year old so. Planted his self and couldn’t move him from the cage so we ended up with 2. Want to get a male from another breeder because I have always read not to breed brother/sister together.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

I've seen maybe 2 or 3 posts but the lops they're trying to sell are very low quality, even for pets. Even some of the colors are a bit off.
I already know of a good breeder for Holland Lops that would be able to help me out with what I want to do, despite the driving distance.

Sounds like you have a solid place to start then Lops definitely have the cute factor even if they're not mini. And a breeder mentor is a huge leg up!