Thank you. She is a very pretty girl which is why I am working to fix the crazy instead of get rid of her. I think her offspring will be very good to take to fairs and shows in the future once I have finished building up my lines.
What I was trying to say is that one's goals as a breeder or rabbit keeper may have nothing to do with how a rabbit is sold, pedigreed, whether the rabbitry is registered or how much the rabbit costs, etc. If someone were going right into show it'd make sense to have all those things... But my best and oldest production doe that produces kits with an 82% dressage ratio, 4-5lbs at 10 weeks, and consistently has litters of 7-9 is a non-pedigreed, non-show quality, not even very good looking for the breed (kind of longer and lower, not very compact) doe with no background on her I got for $15 off of CL. She is low, long and what people would call a poor quality rabbit looking at her... In a pedigreed, show, ARBA, etc herd she would have been culled years ago. But given that her kits consistently dress out to crazy numbers, I call her one of my best rabbits and I will work with what I was given. (Several kits from multiple litters dressed out from just under 4lbs live to a flat 3lb carcass, plus livers which I didn't weigh.) (Mind, I don't sell the kits as SQ or anything, just really good quality producers! One of her kits is in my herd right now and had 11 in her second litter!) Considering I expected to get lucky if I got rabbits that had 6 kits regularly, I got a great deal!
The nice thing about rabbits is that meat is meat and unless your rabbits won't reproduce/care for the litters then it's hard to screw up getting meat out of a rabbit! And one can always cross the getting stock with certain traits (such as peds, SQ, etc) bridge later if they feel the need once they have some experience under their belt. Kind of like getting a mutt pet dog before ever trying to breed something purebred. And rabbits, of course, typically reproduce like rabbits. :3 So unless someone gets a bunch of rabbits and proclaims they're SQ rabbits without knowing even what that means there shouldn't be a problem. Just know what you've got if they're good stock or have no idea and say so.
~~Chicken farmer; I do agree that crocks for water suck, though!
Even in freezing temps like Ohio got this year, I cling to my water bottles like a leech. I will never use water crocks again... I also agree that the rabbit doesn't need the salt/mineral blocks if it's on pellets. One buck we have would not stop eating salt blocks no matter what... He was going through like a whole 32oz water bottle a day and he's a mini lop (pet)! We just took his salt away in the end... He doesn't need 'em.I would get your rabbits some long-strand grass hays if I were you. See if your feed store has orchardgrass or timothy bales. Alfalfa is very high in calcium but could make a good high-calorie treat that's also high fiber. He does look a little malnourished and getting him up to weight and condition will mean good quality feed and lots of fiber and water! A malnourished buck won't breed. Feed him as much hay as he will eat and give a rationed (but lots of) high protein (16%+) pellet every day; he will get his condition back soon enough. If you wanna feed veggies, go slow and feed one fruit/veggie at a time until he's used to getting them regularly in case something upsets his tummy, that way you can stop fast. The last thing you need in a malnourished rabbit is an upset stomach!
