What Rabbits Do You Have? Show Off Your Rabbits Here!

[OnlyOrps]

Thanks for the info! I'm interested in personal opinions from breeders as well. It's kind of difficult to know how accurate the descriptions on sites like those are. I prize personal experience with breeds above written articles but I certainly appreciate the link and will browse through each breed to see what my options are. Thanks!

 

[RedRidge]

Thanks for the info! I'm interested in personal opinions from breeders as well. It's kind of difficult to know how accurate the descriptions on sites like those are. I prize personal experience with breeds above written articles but I certainly appreciate the link and will browse through each breed to see what my options are. Thanks!

For meat you want to stick with commercial breeds - avoid small, key chain pets, and really large rabbits that have a poor meat to bone ratio.
The most common meat rabbits in the US are new Zealand and Californian. That said, we used to raise New Zealand and discovered our American Chinchilla had better growth rates, better mothering, sweeter temperaments, and better cold and heat tolerance. Not to mention a wonderful pelt. We raise standard rex also, another great option. But if I had to pick only one breed for meat, temperament, and general easiness, it would be the AmChin. ;-)

 

[OnlyOrps]

For meat you want to stick with commercial breeds - avoid small, key chain pets, and really large rabbits that have a poor meat to bone ratio.
The most common meat rabbits in the US are new Zealand and Californian. That said, we used to raise New Zealand and discovered our American Chinchilla had better growth rates, better mothering, sweeter temperaments, and better cold and heat tolerance. Not to mention a wonderful pelt. We raise standard rex also, another great option. But if I had to pick only one breed for meat, temperament, and general easiness, it would be the AmChin. ;-)

Thanks so much for your reply! I have never considered the American Chinchilla. They sound wonderful! I like that you mention their temperament. I have had many pet bunnies who get one on one time but I am concerned that raising for meat and show will limit the time I have to socialize each rabbit so a calm demeanor and good mothering ability are key. They have beautiful fur. Thanks again for all the great info!

 

[kacklinkelly]

The babies are almost 5 weeks old and plump. I put them in an exercise pen this afternoon so I could clean out the hutch. Within about 15 minutes I had bunny after bunny squeezing through the inch and half spaces between the wires of the pen.

I was shocked. Good Lord these critters are curious. They had food, shade and water inside about 8 feet of pen. They still wanted out.

 

[ShadyGroveFarm1]

Update: My doe had 6 kits on Wednesday morning. 1 was born stillborn and 2 died within the next two days, which according to a very reputable breeder I know, is normal. The three remaining kits will be 5 days old as of tomorrow morning. All look like they're being fed and are healthy. All are keeping warm too. If they grow up to be good show quality I'll keep one and sell the others at $80.00+ a piece depending on how much they actually conform to the standard. If they aren't show quality I'll pet them out at $15 - $20 a piece to loving families in the area. The rabbits I bred were a Broken Black buck to a Tort doe. From the looks of the babies they are one broken black and two broken torts

 

[kacklinkelly]

What breed of show rabbits do you raise that sell for 80.00 in your area? I'm completely new to raising rabbits. Mine are mutts

 

[ShadyGroveFarm1]

What breed of show rabbits do you raise that sell for 80.00 in your area? I'm completely new to raising rabbits. Mine are mutts

Holland Lops. And if you have show quality they can be sold for $80. But I have seen some really good ones for $125-$150. One of the breeders in my area has EXCELLENT quality Netherland Dwarfs and he sells them for $300 sometimes

 

[RedRidge]

What breed of show rabbits do you raise that sell for 80.00 in your area?  I'm completely new to raising rabbits.  Mine are mutts

Prices for rabbits vary a lot from breed to breed. You can buy am extremely high quality show AmChin for $65, but if you wanted the equivalent quality in a Standard Rex, you'd pay $200. It's very strange how pricing works for fully pedigreed show quality rabbits. Selling as pets or for meat is a totally different range and those are much easier to come by.
The biggest problem I run into is when I sell a decent, but not superior quality rabbit (with pedigree) to someone who just wanted a pet, and a few months later they are hooked and want to show. They have a nice rabbit, but likely not real competitive.
As a breeder, I sell my highest quality rabbits to those who are serious about showing and improving their genetics. Why? Because when they do well, I do well. I don't want to sell anything but the best to serious breeders.

 

[ShadyGroveFarm1]

Prices for rabbits vary a lot from breed to breed. You can buy am extremely high quality show AmChin for $65, but if you wanted the equivalent quality in a Standard Rex, you'd pay $200. It's very strange how pricing works for fully pedigreed show quality rabbits. Selling as pets or for meat is a totally different range and those are much easier to come by.
The biggest problem I run into is when I sell a decent, but not superior quality rabbit (with pedigree) to someone who just wanted a pet, and a few months later they are hooked and want to show. They have a nice rabbit, but likely not real competitive.
As a breeder, I sell my highest quality rabbits to those who are serious about showing and improving their genetics. Why? Because when they do well, I do well. I don't want to sell anything but the best to serious breeders.

Exactly! One reason I know of that dwarf breeds are more $$$ is because they are harder to breed. A lot of times half of the litter will die, so they have to sell the rest for more money so they can equal out expense wise

 

[Bunnylady]

Quote: Anyone that is expecting to make money breeding "pet" breeds is in it for the wrong reasons. In a breed as popular as Holland Lops, "showable" can be a far cry from "show winning." You can even breed two animals that have Grand Champion legs on them, and only get animals that fill out the class. The vast majority of the people who breed for show spend considerably more money than they make, even without figuring in the time involved.

Personally, I would NEVER spend $300 on a rabbit. Rabbits can be frustratingly fragile, and I have seen too many things go disastrously wrong (a grass snake crawls through the rabbitry, and a rabbit panics and breaks its own neck slamming into the cage wire, for example). I have even had rabbits develop GI stasis from the stress of being relocated, and die before they even got out of quarantine. So no, I am not going to be shelling out a lot of money to get my hands on some "top breeder's" bloodlines. But I understand that, to a certain degree, "you get what you pay for," and I have bought "good" rabbits from "good" breeders for "good" prices and everybody went home satisfied, because we all knew what we were dealing with.