Gentics NOT feeding determines the size of the rabbits.
if your feeding too little to keep them small you are creating a manurished rabbit.
If you have a larger brood doe weighing 4 to 5 lbs and want smaller you breed her to a smaller buck, one weighing in at 3 lbs and under, If You want to increase size on a breed you breed to larger animals of the same breed.
Line breeding comes into play here, in reducing and gaining size.
I have seen"pet" breeders do this 100's of times , under feed an animal and tell an unsuspecting buyer , yes it will stay this small, only for the owner to get it home and in 4 months have a larger than wanted rabbit.
prime example, 4 to 5 week old baby rabbits, told its a Netherland Dwarf, wont get over 2 lbs, 4 months later it turns into a 5 lb dutch rabbit,. why ?? cause cute underage babys sell. how do they get away with selling babys under 8 weeks old>? easy claim its a Netherland.
Holland lops ,, yeah this is another breed that gets claimed and turns out to be something different.
I had a pet owner call me one day, asked if Holland lops got to weigh 10 lbs, Um NO they do not, asked age, 5 months old, hmm curious I asked him to bring the rabbit to me, he brings the rabbit down, I take one look at it and say
follow me, take him out to the barn and he sees my rabbits, WOW you have huge Hollands, um NO I have huge French Lops, and my dear thats exactly what your rabbit is, this breed can get to 14 lbs. needless to say he was taken back a bit.
Now on to Californians, normally they weigh 10+ lbs, to get them smaller the breeder is line breeding or what would be known as incest, breeding mother to son, father to daughter , breeding siblings to reduce the size. then moving forward with smaller animals for the next breedings, ever moving down the size genetics.
Making them pet Quality.
There are quite a few rabbit breeders on this forum that will and can explain it better than I can , I have only been breeding and rasing the size of the Silver Fox for 6 years, the ever increasing battle is the body is too small, the size needs to be increased and the only way to do that is to breed to larger animals of the same breed.
if your feeding too little to keep them small you are creating a manurished rabbit.
If you have a larger brood doe weighing 4 to 5 lbs and want smaller you breed her to a smaller buck, one weighing in at 3 lbs and under, If You want to increase size on a breed you breed to larger animals of the same breed.
Line breeding comes into play here, in reducing and gaining size.
I have seen"pet" breeders do this 100's of times , under feed an animal and tell an unsuspecting buyer , yes it will stay this small, only for the owner to get it home and in 4 months have a larger than wanted rabbit.
prime example, 4 to 5 week old baby rabbits, told its a Netherland Dwarf, wont get over 2 lbs, 4 months later it turns into a 5 lb dutch rabbit,. why ?? cause cute underage babys sell. how do they get away with selling babys under 8 weeks old>? easy claim its a Netherland.
Holland lops ,, yeah this is another breed that gets claimed and turns out to be something different.
I had a pet owner call me one day, asked if Holland lops got to weigh 10 lbs, Um NO they do not, asked age, 5 months old, hmm curious I asked him to bring the rabbit to me, he brings the rabbit down, I take one look at it and say
follow me, take him out to the barn and he sees my rabbits, WOW you have huge Hollands, um NO I have huge French Lops, and my dear thats exactly what your rabbit is, this breed can get to 14 lbs. needless to say he was taken back a bit.
Now on to Californians, normally they weigh 10+ lbs, to get them smaller the breeder is line breeding or what would be known as incest, breeding mother to son, father to daughter , breeding siblings to reduce the size. then moving forward with smaller animals for the next breedings, ever moving down the size genetics.
Making them pet Quality.
There are quite a few rabbit breeders on this forum that will and can explain it better than I can , I have only been breeding and rasing the size of the Silver Fox for 6 years, the ever increasing battle is the body is too small, the size needs to be increased and the only way to do that is to breed to larger animals of the same breed.
