Rabbit Breeding Community

Young, Interested Newbie

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:47:07 GMT

Hello, everyone :)
My name is Laura, you can call me Dandy if you like, since I answer to my nickname more often than my actual name :P
I'm 18, live in Melbourne (AUS) and have finally acquired my first pair of rabbits; my big beautiful boy, Buckthorn (unknown breed, have been told he might be a British Giant X Chinchilla) and a sweet albino girl, Columbia (looks to me to be a New Zealand White, nothing fancy). I want to breed them for personal purposes, but want a bit of info first just to clear up some ponderings I've had. I haven't been able to get proper black and white answers out of Google and whatnot.

Firstly, what is the biggest size difference between rabbits that is permissable that will allow breeding without problems? Columbia is about 6 months old and I think she's just about stopped growing, but Buckthorn's still a bit bigger than her. I don't want either of them to get hurt during breeding, pregnancy or the actual delivery.

Secondly, Columbia is an 'inside' rabbit, while Buckthorn is an 'outside' rabbit. Would bringing his hutch into the kitchen where I let Columbia run around and keeping him in the hutch while Columbia's out help their introduction to each other? Just a thought, but I thought I'd run it by less-newbie-ish people here :)

I had other questions but I forgot them, I'm sure I'll post again soon.
Thanks,
Dandy

Mini Rex baby buns in Florida

Sat, 31 May 2008 05:12:50 GMT

Hi there. I have almost seven week old mini rex baby bunnies ready for new homes. They have partial pedegees. I have three black one REW and one Opal. Two of the blacks are bucks one is a doe and the white and Opal are both does. I'm in Jacksonville, Fl. These guys are hand raised and people friendly. I'll check back for any replies. Thanks ^_^

Sun, 25 May 2008 01:56:21 GMT

So I went to the Midland rabbit show this weekend. One that I did not want to go to because of the high gas prices, and that it is 3 1/2 hours away from me. Someone contacted me a couple of weeks ago asking if I had any standard chins for sale. I said yes, that I had a couple. I made it as clear as possible that one was an older jr. The other in the seven week range. They said it was OK. That they wanted to purchase them. I have sold to this person before, so I figured that she was trusting my judgment on them. These were pretty nice looking babies. The younger one was pick of the litter. Her Mom has great color, and placed sixth at nationals last year.

She made arrangements to have someone pick them up. Person taking them to Wisconsin insisted that I take them up to this rabbit show, so she could pick them up. Since she was supposed to take them to their new owner on the fifth of June. Said she couldn't meet me at any of the closer shows in June or July because of that (one ten minutes away from me) So I take these rabbits up there only to find out she (someone whom I also know via the show circuit) was just going to 'look at them.' At first she asked me if I was going to the Cal Bra Hill rabbit club show (the one that is ten minutes away from em she said she wasn't able to go to). Now all of the sudden she's not leaving for Wisconsin till the middle of July, and can I meet her with the rabbits at the Cal bra hill show? I just kind of gave her a WTF look, and asked if she was going to pick them up? Then she looked at them, and picked out the older jr, stating that she didn't want to the younger one till it was a little more developed out (its small, and still has its baby coat. Lacks ring color yet, but the coat is very promising, and should have good color when it moults.) Over all body type, good. I asked her if she would like to see the parents so I could show her what color it would end up having, since I had both of them there(moms color is fucking awesome. Dad's is fairly good. Kind of muddy Body type on both, excellent). She said no (most people would say yes, and would be glad to see the parents when I have them at the shows). Then turned around and asked me if I had any more available for her to look at for her friend at Cal bra. AFTER I had specifically told her that I only had two rabbits for sale at the moment several times via email. After which she had said, OK I will pick them up. Sorry but I want to keep something back for myself to show. So I pick up the bunny and walk off.

OK it does not make sense that she is keeping one at her barn till the middle of July. Yet I have to hold the second one for her so she can "look" at it again. So basically I wasted most of my day, nearly 7 hours on the road, and $40 worth of gas money to go a rabbit show I didn't want to go to in the first place to deliver a $15 rabbit. Yes, I did take a couple to show. It barely covered the show fees. Why the hell couldn't she have emailed me a couple of days ago saying she was going to the cal bra hill rabbit club one after all? I am kind of pissed over this. The only reason why I said I would deliver the rabbits was because the person wanting them lost the two does she had, and was having a hell of a time finding breeding stock locally to breed her two bucks to, since Standard chins are very hard to come by in most areas. Said she was having good luck with the one I sold her last year, and wanted more to match him.

If I would have known she was going to the other/clsoer shows, I would have gladly skipped driving to Midland.

I did show a mini lop, and a the standard chin doe. The mini lop didn't place. Which doesn't bother me. I only bring them for something to do anyhow, while I am waiting for the chins to be called up. The judge in the first show really liked the body type on my sc doe, but said to watch her fur since it looked a little bit more flyback then rollback. Judge in the second show loved her fur (even though it was blotchy in some spots) and her body type. She won best of breed over another doe shown by another exhibitor. Not a real big win. But better then nothing.

I donated the sr buck, a jr doe, and a jr buck to the raffle table to help boost the breed numbers of them up here. Some kid that raises giant chins won all three of them. So yay! A youth breeder getting started with them. Unlike the previous person, they were very interested in seeing the mother of the young buck (same doe I was showing) just so they could get an idea of what to look for, and what they were getting into. I left them my phone number,and offered to help them out when they needed it. They left with the understanding that they could show these rabbits, but they were more breeding stock then show. So hopefully we'll be seeing some chin babies on the show tables from them next year.

Now I am going to stop rambling, and crash.

Thu, 22 May 2008 02:15:38 GMT

I have a question to ask those of you that know some laws and live around Ohio.

Is there a minimum age that pet stores can sell baby bunnies at in Ohio? There is a girl that is selling babies at the age of 3 weeks; I told her that that was very dangerous, but I was just blown off. She routinely sells them at this age.

Now, I am a breeder, but babies shouldn't be weaned until at least 6 weeks. I have only weaned before that once, and that was because the momma attacked the babies :(

I just don't want any poor babies to die because of a stupid girl, or anyone to buy a bunny only to have it die soon after :(

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:10:52 GMT

Could you give me any good post neuter information?

An update

Tue, 20 May 2008 17:50:02 GMT

On these two rabbits.

http://community.livejournal.com/rabbit_breeding/53381.html

The buck has finally made it home from CA to MI thanks to mustanglover88! I managed to get him bred to another SC doe that produces beautiful babies.

And the SC doe I was having problems with gave birth to five healthy babies three days ago. So far she is has turned out to be a great mom with them, other then not properly covering them when she had them (hair was pushed above, and behind them when she built her nest). She is ready to feed when I take them out to her twice a day. And gets a bunny 'tude' and acts all upset over them being taken away.

I may eventually get one or two more litters from her, before retiring her from breeding and showing as a personal pet.

Someone I sold bunnies to at the national convention last year has ordered two more young does from me. They will be transported from MI to wisconsin after the Midland MI show this weekend. Possibly a third may be going is if the transporter has room.

Weet! Weet! Weet!

Fri, 16 May 2008 13:15:17 GMT

...In case you're wondering, that's the sound of a happy guinea pig. Or at least an emotional guinea pig; I can't remember which. Not entirely appropriate, but I never really thought of happiness in the sense of twisting in midair.

We recently hired someone to help us out on the property. For the many that don't know me, I have a very large rabbitry, and an average herd of 1000 rabbits from newborn kit to retired breeder. I asked his mother how they found out about us, and it turns out that the county extension office gave them our information for his sister, who bought a meat pen from us for the local Ag show. She told me that the extension office recommended us highly, not only for our professional bearing but also because we had the best stock in the area. They also told her that we are the ones that help out the kids the most, by training them on what to expect at the show, what to look for with a quality rabbit, and basically filling their heads with as much information as they can reasonably take. To make it better, the office had the contact info for several other breeders, but they didn't even bother to pass that along, because they liked us best!

This made me so mindlessly happy that I had to share. Isn't that wonderful news?? Especially since as far as I am aware, we aren't friends or anything like that with anyone in the extension office!

Tue, 06 May 2008 13:17:38 GMT

i went to the OSRBA convention this past weekend and i won...
2nd in rex
3rd in american fuzzy lops
1st in Sr. Breed ID
it was an awsome time like it is every year :) but now im VERY tired! lol

mini lop babies!!

Thu, 01 May 2008 20:15:56 GMT

I finaly have some mini lop babies :))
the mom is a broken black and the father is a solid black. 5 babies 3 brokens and 2 solids :)

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:08:05 GMT

I have two does that haven't kept their first two litters this year. First doe finally got it right with her third one, and gave birth to six fat healthy babies this morning. The only thing she messed up on was the fur. Half was covering them in the nest. the other half on the wire in front of the box. Been hoping to get babies out of her for some time now. Since she's a bunny I purchased last summer that has been bred down from my 2005 ARBA convention winner on the does side. And her fathers side is semi related with a little bit of new blood added in. Grandfather won spring nationals in 2006, and is one of a handful of rabbits that has managed to beat tex thomas's line for it. Since the buck I bred her to is a grandson of my 2005 ARBA winner, I should have a pretty good chance at getting something good and showable out of them. Now I just have to wait and see what doe #2 does. Since she is due around the 10th of next month.

Will show pictures of babies and maybe momma later on.

Help...please

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:50:31 GMT

The runt of the litter has been identified because he isn't getting his belly filled like the others. He's half the size of a couple of his siblings but still about the same as one of the others that is getting fed. The two feed stores I called don't have bottles to feed an infant rabbit, one does have the formula. Any advice??
This morning when we checked everyone the runt was off by himself while everyone else was warm and curled up together....I take that as a bad sign.

Here's all six

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:31:55 GMT

I checked and everyone is still alive and very active...lots of grunting and flingy-wobblyness!

A great end to a crappy day!!

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:57:15 GMT

I will never doubt Loki and Blackjacks abilites to produce young again! She gave birth to six beautiful kits tonight. It was a bit difficult to find them in the nesting box but I kept digging till I had the full count ( the second time)
Here is a picture of four of them I know we have a few blacks, one that looks gray and one that is pink skined so I assume it's going to be white:

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:55:57 GMT

Just some pictures of sadie and my English spot bunny. This was supervised. he was trying to get her to play with him, until she started to ignore him.

Getting an Opal Doe soon!

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:08:16 GMT

Finnally....FINNALLY, I have found an opal mini rex doe for my opal buck. She's still a baby and I don't have her yet, but she's held back for me. Their dam is beautiful, and they have more than one registered grand champ in their pedigree. Here are some photos of them the breeder sent me, pudgy litlte wrinkly things lol:

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:23:30 GMT

I was just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on crossbreeding? Cause there is a hotly debated thread about it going on over @ rarebreed rabbits yahoo group, where a couple of people are saying two breeders (one of cinnamon's, the other standard chins) are crossbreeding them with Satins (cinnamon breeder), silver martins, Florida whites, and Californians (chin breeder) like its a great improvement to the breeds. Problems is, these rabbits do not breed true.

I think that if you are going to do that, it must be for improvement purposes only. And as a last resort. Not as a quick fix just to win nationals.

I tend to think that a lot of people that do that don't realize the genetic mess they could be creating down the road because they want that quick fix. It's a lot of fun breeding the REW gene out of a line of supposedly purebred standard chins.

And why is that everyone and their brother seems to think its OK to crossbreed everything to a Florida white? Seems to be happening with some of the newer thrianta breeders.

Thoughts?

Day 20

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:50:54 GMT

So it's day 20...since I bred Blackjack with Loki....and I can't tell if she's pregnant or not. She did the nesting in the litter pan thing about 4 days or so ago and has now strew the cage bottom with the hay and paper. She doesn't look any plumper....but I would hate to be wrong. Any advice?? Is there another sure fire way to KNOW she's going to have kits or do I just have wait out the next 10-12 days and not over think this?

Does she look pregers to any of you?? This is my first attempt at breeding ( in case you couldn't tell).

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:09:44 GMT

Just some updated bunny pictures of some of the babies I have in my rabbitry right now. Plus one of my newest litter of mini lops.

Standard chinchilla bunnies.

Florida whites.

Feeding time.

Baby mini lops.

Updates

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:10:52 GMT

So I finnally found a good mini rex breeder, its not her primary breed, but theyre good rabbits. I got a baby mini rex doe, broken lilac. She's got a great personality. The genetics are interesting, and she will be a good match for my buck. She's got under 50% coloring, so she probably won't be shown, but she carries more color and Huckleberry (my buck) is a solid, so if I am correct their offspring should be a good mix.
He's just now around 6 months of age, and I am probably going to be taking him to his first show in NC in Taylorsville. I got into that rabbit shows yahoo groups which is great, and a new friend turned me on to the show. I'm really excited, I'm going to get him registered too. Its on March 29th.

Here's a photo of the new baby doe, shes a real cutie:

Question on butterfly marking: Does the color of the nose have to be touching in the middle for it to be called butterfly? Or does she have the butterfly marking as it is? (I named her Clover)

I've also decided to get a felmish giant from the same breeder, but not to breed. I have jsut always wanted one! I am going to neuter him and kepp him inside some of the time, he's going to be a big pet. She has an opal MR doe about to bust now, so hopefully I will be getting my second breeding doe out of that litter.

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:29:46 GMT

Question:

I recently got a new rabbit (I have two all together). My new rabbit was bought for a pet store and at first she seemed fine, but after a few days she developed a serious sinus infection and gave it to my other rabbit. They have gone to the vet and the newer rabbit is fine but my older rabbit still has an infection. I've had him on antibiotics for a week now and it seemed to be getting better but now he has weepy eye. I guess I'll continue him on the antibiotics and I'll call the vet back and see what they suggest.

Problem though, my narcotic, easy going, glass licking rabbit won't have anything to do with me now, it's like she hates me. I guess I would hate me too if I forced antibiotics down my own mouth twice a day for five days... but she's really obnoxious about it. If I pass her cage she will thump her foot, if I give her food she thumps her foot and shivers, if I let her loose she will thump her foot when I move even the slightest inch. It's weird though because if I catch her and hold her for a while she will calm down and give me a few licks... and also demand being pet, but besides that she hates my gutts. She even refuses strawberries now!

What should I do to make my rabbit like me again?
What should I do about the weepy eye?

It's all very confusing.

Thanks!
-Jill

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:51:14 GMT

Oneof my mini lops gave birth to seven babies a couple of days ago. 3 look like they are going to be ruby eyed whites. The others are brokens. Possibly chestnuts, opals, or steels. Time will tell when they get their coats.

Should I keep the REWS, or pet them out? The reason why I want to know is that I know there are mini lop breeders working on improving the REWs to make them more showable. Not really a fan of the variety myself. Thoughts?

Lets talk!

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:11:43 GMT

I wish this community was more active!!! I am sick of being bombarded and hated in the "pet" rabbit communities (even if their description says they won't do that) for being interested in breeding rabbits and buying pure breed rabbits and...god forbid....showing. Yes, the evils of rabbits shows!

Somebody will come on there looking for information about breeding, and the whole community will simply shun them. No help, no advice, not even advice that would constructively lead that person to either STOP breeding or to do is on a small scale and do it right.

Don't get me wrong, I am ALL for adopting animals in need. That's where I got my one dog and three cats and one of my older rabbits. BUT, I am also intereted in pure bred rabbits, and breeding rabbits, and with a pure bred rabbit, you know what to expect when it comes to personality, physical size, and much much more. I wish ignorant people out there would stop breeding mongrels and filling up shelters and pet stores with mixed breed rabbits who aren't as generally as happy to live in captivity. In my personaly experience, which includes a lot of rabbits, the LARGE majority of mixed breed rabbits that I got from unknown origins were never as happy or agreeable to being pets and hutch rabbits as my mini rex, or my harley, or my mini lop. THis isn't with every case, but it is with a lot.
Rabbits are not the same as dogs and cats when it comes to pure bred vs mixed breed most of the time.

I want to talk about rabbits. My rabbits are pets! But I also greatly enjoy breeding pure bred, well bred rabbits. This is a mortal sin to some. I don't even eat them, which is one of the best things a rabbit is for. Mother nature made rabbits to be eaten, that's why I think they are such an extraordinary creature; they are so specialized in saving their own hides. They are fascinating.

But no. I am evil because I am buying from a breeder.

Wow, sorry about the off topic rant. Just really aggrivates me. Anybody wanna talk about rabbits?

Looking for mini rex does

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 05:43:37 GMT

ok, so I'm working on beginning raising mini rex. Despite this breeds current popularity nation wide, I am having a great deal difficulty finding the kind of doe I want. My buck is opal, and I want two does, one opal and one blue. These can be broken or solids, I would actually prefer one of each if I could be picky. I live in west virginia, and the only three breeders in the state I have contacted about it don't have what I need. I did have a blue doe lined up in PA, but the breeder sold her to some one else without notifying me or giving me a time frame withiin which she wanted the deposite. Misunderstandings happen, but I was really dissapointed!

Does ANYONE know a breeder that not halfway across the country, near WV, who does mini rex? Any info at all is appreciated!

I'm NEW!

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:14:20 GMT

Hello!

I just in the past few days go really into bunnys, after watching

that on tuesday, it was amazing to be that close to a new life! so my friend ( owner of the bunnies) is going to help me get started on a rabbit rescue.. I'm excited! i'm going to my frist rabbit show tomorrow, and i'll hopefully find one to get me started, and also, i'll be fostering a french lop from her =)

wish me luck!

Looking for a new comod

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 05:04:04 GMT

If anyone would like to co-mod the community with me, please let me know.