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

[saltandpepper2]

Yay! Do you know what color? And I actually don't have any experience with indoor rabbits (mine have all been outdoors). I fell like the bedroom would be a better option. With the rabbit in the basement it might be easier to overlook him and she might get lonely. Plus I feel like a lot can go wrong in a basement (temp swings, mold, darkness, etc.). It is slightly on the warm side in your room, but maybe if you keep it closer to 75 she would do better. You could also maybe get her a small fan or something? I would really go with the room if I were you.

I haven't actually seen her yet, haha. I breeder of show quality lops is having to downsize due to medical issues, and she called me asking if I could take this little girl, as she had been raising her to be her next show/breeding rabbit, but wouldn't be able to. Apparently she's a broken tort with a full butterfly. I'm so excited to meet her! And thank you for the advice! I will definitely consider moving it up!

 

[Bunnylady]

Quote: *sigh* There it is again. Does anyone know what that "full butterfly" means? Zip. Nothing. Nada. It has absolutely no significance at all. The breed standard for the Holland Lop calls for "no preference for a butterfly over balanced nose markings" on a broken. It goes on to state that unbalanced nose markings are a fault, not a DQ. When you consider that the standard only allots a whopping 4 points for color, which is to be divided equally between color and markings on a broken, no judge is going to care if the rabbit has a butterfly, so why do so many people seem to think it matters?

Congrats on your soon-to-be bunny - I hope she is all you ever dreamed!

 

[saltandpepper2]

*sigh* There it is again. Does anyone know what that "full butterfly" means? Zip. Nothing. Nada.  It has absolutely no significance at all. The breed standard for the Holland Lop calls for "no preference for a butterfly over balanced nose markings" on a broken. It goes on to state that unbalanced nose markings are a fault, not a DQ. When you consider that the standard only allots a whopping 4 points for color, which is to be divided equally between color and markings on a broken, no judge is going to care if the rabbit has a butterfly, so why do so many people seem to think it matters?

Congrats on your soon-to-be bunny - I hope she is all you ever dreamed!

I think it's more pride on the fact that it's a full butterfly. Lol. Yes, earlier today I was looking up all the showing points, and saw how insignificant it was compared to the stress judges put on head type, balance, etc, but I think since brokens are so haphazard in their markings, breeders take a type of pride when there's something uniform about it! And thank you, I'm very excited!

 

[Bunnylady]

I'm sorry, but I consider it a rather foolish kind of pride. I have had countless brokens with full butterflies - they are absolutely dirt common; IME, anything other than a butterfly is actually more unusual on a lop. To me, anybody bragging about a butterfly on a lop is just flaunting their ignorance.

I see the same thing in Mini Rex, where the butterfly is only slightly less common. We had a new breeder here that was saying regretfully that she though she was going to have to sell one baby as a pet, because it didn't have a butterfly so she thought she couldn't show it. Seriously, a judge will glance at the face, and as long as the nose isn't completely white, he won't say a thing; he'll go right on to more important things like broken/missing claws . . . .

 

[saltandpepper2]

Haha, well I'll give this little 80 year old breeder her right to ignorance.

she absolutely adores her rabbits, and this one has been hand raised, so I'm very excited, common or not! Do you breed holland lops?

 

[Bunnylady]

Yes.

 

[saltandpepper2]

what colors do you breed for/personally find more desirable?

 

[Bunnylady]

I have to admit to liking the eye candy of a broken blue or black, though I try to subscribe to a saying in the horse world, "a good horse is never a bad color." Right now, I'm having a lot of trouble with bad teeth in my Hollands; it's looking like I may have to start over with entirely new lines to try to get away from this.

 

[saltandpepper2]

I have to admit to liking the eye candy of a broken blue or black, though I try to subscribe to a saying in the horse world, "a good horse is never a bad color." Right now, I'm having a lot of trouble with bad teeth in my Hollands; it's looking like I may have to start over with entirely new lines to try to get away from this.

  

Ah, that's unfortunate! Being honest, that was one of the main reasons I picked the breeder I did. She's been doing this for 20+ years and her rabbits have never had any illnesses due to faulty genetics, and because of where I live, and not having a vet I could take a rabbit to, that was huge! I've hear that Hollands are predisposed to teeth issues

 

[Bunnylady]

All of the small breeds with short, flat faces and round heads can go there; it seems like the typier the line is, the more likely that some will have this problem. Most of them show signs of it as babies; I am almost obsessive about checking teeth on a litter as they grow. About 20 years ago, a friend was trying to breed chocolate magpie Netherland Dwarfs (lots of people play with unshowable colors) and when she got into financial difficulties, liquidated her stock and gave some of them to me. Disappointingly, I had to dump the lot because of bad teeth. They would look fine until sometime between 4 - 6 months, and then suddenly the bite would go off. I'd never seen that before or since - really weird.