Rabbits!

[AxolotlLove]

I think if you want a true breed and an animal true to type, you have to go to a registered breeder of that breed, otherwise it's a lottery as to what you end up with.  

My bunnies are all adopted.  One of them is described on her vaccination card as an angora mix (or something like that, one of the soft-coated little bunnies).  She's a giant breed rabbit.  How any VET could manage to not recognise a giant rabbit is beyond me.  I don't know much about rabbit breeds, but as a lay person it's not hard to know that this enormous mega-bunny is not an angora. 

If you don't know,I think people should just describe its appearance.  Huge grey bunny.  Or small black bunny with brown tips or something.  When you are saying a breed, you should know what the breeds are.  Sometimes people are honestly ignorant, other times they'll throw something in because it's a desirable breed and they want to suck people in. 

SpitFire IS a pure bred Tan. She is from a rabbit breeder and shower. She was a show rabbit and competed in "hopping competitions" I have her pedigree.

 

[Bunnylady]

I believe the "true breed name" is "Tan." I think you will find that the "American" is part of the name of the club. There are some breeds that do have "American" as part of their name (American Chinchilla, American Fuzzy Lop), but Tans are listed as simply "Tan" by the ARBA. You won't find "American Tan" among the ARBA breed standards, but you will find "Tan." So either what you have is an unrecognized and therefore unshowable breed, or you are confused about the name.

 

[User395221]

SpitFire IS a pure bred Tan. She is from a rabbit breeder and shower. She was a show rabbit and competed in "hopping competitions" I have her pedigree.

I wasn't referring to SpitFire (who is gorgeous, BTW). Bunnylady was just mentioning how somebody online was misdescribing Netherland dwarves and I was just saying that it's common for non-breeders or non-show animal people to not really know about breeds and what they are offering. If people want a true purebred they need to do what you did, and get it from a breeder. It's a bit of a lottery buying off classifieds.

 

[Bunnylady]

Potato chip, are you familiar with the French Angora? They are basically commercial-type rabbits with angora coats, and can weigh as much as some of the meat breeds. Perhaps that is what the vet was thinking about? There is also a largish breed called the German Angora, and fairly rare breed called the Giant Angora - though there are small breeds with Angora wool, there are some big ones, too. I do wonder why the vet thinks she has angora breeding for another reason - the hair. The gene for the Angora coat is recessive, so in order to have long hair, the rabbit has to get it from both parents. If your bun has long hair, I can see why the vet would identify it as an angora mix, no matter what the type; if it has a normal coat, I wonder why they went there?

 

[User395221]

If your bun has long hair,

She doesn't. She's an enormous grey, short-haired bunny. She looks nothing like an angora. When I saw her innoculation record, I looked up pictures and asked my vet when she went for her booster and my vet said she's definitely not an angora. Having said that, until recently, pet bunnies weren't allowed here. My vet is a bunny specialist, but "regular" vets may not know much about bunnies at all. When I wanted to get my other girl "fixed", that same vet wanted me to sign papers that she could die.... I ended up taking her to the specialist bunny vet for her op.

Edit: I haven't got a good photo of her, but this is her

 

[Shadow920]

we raise both meat and pet quality rabbits. right now we have pets/breeding stock. we have a lionhead pair, a californian pair and three New Zealand does. our lionhead doe has just recently reached the age where she no longer wants to share her space with the buck. so we need to build a new hutch. we need to do that anyway because we want more rabbits. one of the shadiest places on our property is around the chicken coop. my mom is worried about anything that chickens can carry that might make the rabbits sick. so can anyone tell me if there are any life threatening illnesses that can be spread to our rabbits from our chickens.

 

[Bunnylady]

If your bun has long hair,

She doesn't. She's an enormous grey, short-haired bunny. She looks nothing like an angora. When I saw her innoculation record, I looked up pictures and asked my vet when she went for her booster and my vet said she's definitely not an angora. Having said that, until recently, pet bunnies weren't allowed here. My vet is a bunny specialist, but "regular" vets may not know much about bunnies at all. When I wanted to get my other girl "fixed", that same vet wanted me to sign papers that she could die.... I ended up taking her to the specialist bunny vet for her op. Edit: I haven't got a good photo of her, but this is her

If I saw that rabbit somewhere, my first thought would be Flemish Giant; nothing about it suggests anything about any of the angoras of which I am aware. I know, in your part of the world, "rabbit" is almost a dirty word, lol. Finding a rabbit-savvy vet would be particularly hard, good job on finding one. But I don't blame the other vet for doing a little CYA; rabbits are tricky to anethetize, and even very experienced vets lose a few.

 

[AxolotlLove]

I believe the "true breed name" is "Tan."  I think you will find that the "American" is part of the name of the club. There are some breeds that do have "American" as part of their name (American Chinchilla, American Fuzzy Lop), but Tans are listed as simply "Tan" by the ARBA. You won't find "American Tan" among the ARBA breed standards, but you will find "Tan." So either what you have is an unrecognized and therefore unshowable breed, or you are confused about the name.

Saying American Tan is just the same as Tan, I am aware the name is also Tan, but as I mentioned before, I want to avoid a discussion about why she isn't a tan color. American Tan, Tan, same thing.

 

[AxolotlLove]

I wasn't referring to SpitFire (who is gorgeous, BTW).  Bunnylady was just mentioning how somebody online was misdescribing Netherland dwarves and I was just saying that it's common for non-breeders or non-show animal people to not really know about breeds and what they are offering.  If people want a true purebred they need to do what you did, and get it from a breeder.  It's a bit of a lottery buying off classifieds. 

Thank you, yes, at a local farm store there a bunch of hot it looking mixes, and a few larger rabbits.

 

[BirdsNRabbits]

Wow I've missed so much discussion since I last posted. I disagree in the sense that you should only buy purebred show stock from registered breeders. I've seen some newbies to the rabbit world, including myself at times, who have really good stock and we aren't registered. If someone is serious about getting a purebred rabbit that meets the standard correctly for that breed then they need to be familiar with the standard, get to know the breeder/owner first, and examine the pictures of the rabbits and finally before you buy it try posing the rabbit themselves and get the feel for the rabbit. Sometimes non-registered breeders have better stock than registered.

I also have never heard of anyone calling them American Tans. I have only heard the name Tan. I understand what you are saying though, as I was about to start in Tans and whenever I told anyone about it they always asked "So... they are Tan?". Officially your rabbit is just a Black Tan. Saying American can be misleading and cause some to think it's an actual breed, which isn't true. And I totally understand bunnylady in trying not to correct people not familiar with all the breeds. Most people around here just describe my rabbits as Brown, Black, White, Red Eyed etc and that is the only thing they examine to determine the value of the rabbit. Whether it's cute and what color it is. So then they ask question about it and I have to explain the breeds and all and it makes me look stuck-up. Same with Chickens. Most people around here really don't care though