Some Friendly AdviceI see it quite often. New breeders get excited to be into the new fantastic world of showing and breeding rabbits, that they jump in too quickly. They buy a number of rabbits at one time, not really knowing the difference between quality and how to properly evaluate. I see it often, that the majority of time, said rabbits aren't actually very good quality. They may have nice points, but not overall a nicely typed rabbit, or at least not all of them are.
It is sad, that some breeders don't care about selling poor quality off to new breeders. Why care when it's money in your pocket right? Wrong. We as old time breeders should be helping those new breeders start off with QUALITY animals. We should take the time to go through each animal with the new breeder and talk with them and explain things. Help them learn how to properly evaluate and guide them in the right direction. Some breeders get so wrapped up in themselves and winning that they completely ignore the fact that they should be helping new breeders and not giving them a poor start. I don't care if you are a youth, 4H'er, an adult, new or old when it comes to showing; I will not sell anything that I would not use personally in my herd. Why would I sell something that I wouldn't want in my herd? I believe in helping everyone improve their herd, and not just selling off rabbits that should be culled just to make some money. I'm not in this for the money. It is a hobby, an expensive one at that and yet I still think everyone deserves quality animals. Back to my first two sentences. I see it very often. New breeders jump right into things without really stopping to think. They'll buy a good amount of rabbits, not always necessarily knowing the true quality of said animals. I find it is better to start off with a trio. Work with said trio a bit, get the doe's bred and see what they produce. Take them to shows and get opinions hands on from other breeders and judges about the quality. By getting a bunch all at once, the breeder can get stuck with some that aren't really of good quality. Then it becomes a matter of do you sell it for a pet at a discounted price than payed, or just say screw it and cull it. Either way, it most likely has become a waste and loss of money. By buying only a trio or smaller number of rabbits, it's not that big of a blow if they don't turn out to actually be too nice. I say it all the time, and I'm going to say it again. You've gotta know your lines! Buy rabbits that have the same lines in them, and work with those lines. Getting to know your lines is very important. Not all lines mix well together, so when you buy a number of rabbits and start breeding them, they may not all mix well together. They may end up producing poorer quality because those two rabbits just didn't mix well. Two amazing quality animals can produce crap, just like crappier rabbits do have the ability of producing good quality. Crap produces crap when bred together, but I've had a rabbit of poorer quality bred to one of decent/nice quality produce good quality. Just because two animals don't produce well together, does not necessarily mean that those two animals produce poor animals. It just means together they do. Test breeding them with different animals will help figure that out. By buying all at once, new breeders can set themselves up for heavy disappointment when said animals don't do well. They are excited about having rabbits, that hearing that the animals they just got aren't actually as nice as they thought they are. That really hurts. I know because it happened to me personally. I started out with a few animals, not many, and was told that they were really nice quality by the breeder. I start showing them only to find out they really aren't nice. It hurts. I kept them as pets, but had already bred them. I sold the offspring as pets and got some actual quality animals then. I just hate seeing new breeders jump in, just to crash and burn eventually. Another thing I notice, is new breeders getting a bunch of different colours all at once. Focus on a few colours and after you've got a herd established to a quality that you are proud of, then think about adding more colours, or even another breed. I really don't see how anything can be improved with smaller rabbitries when there are multiple breeds and/or multiple colours in each. There's no space to focus on improving said colour and/or breed. If you have a big barn that can hold a lot of animal, than that's great. I'm not saying there is something wrong with having a smaller rabbitry. I have a smaller herd and I have three breeds, but I cull. Culling helps a lot with keeping space down. This way I don't have to wait until that rabbit(s) that I am not using sells. I don't find it helpful to waste my cage space, limited money and time on an animal that I am not using. Another thing I'm going to note is price does not make the quality. You can pay a low amount for a really nice quality animal, and a high amount for a pet quality rabbit. Legs and wins on parents does not mean a thing either on offspring. Just because I may pay over a hundred dollars on the parents, does not automatically mean that every kit produced from those rabbits are worth that price as well. Just like I may pay fifty dollars for some rabbits, but sell their kits for a higher price. You have to price according to quality, not parents and ancestry. Trust me, you do not need to make up that money that was spent on the parents in one kit. If I spend say two hundred dollars on a pair of quality animals, and breed them and get a litter of six. Say I keep two and sell four all for fifty dollars, well there's my money back. Now anything after that litter is extra money because the parents have already paid off. Also, something I notice occasionally is new breeders, or even old breeders who price their rabbits high (despite quality and everything) just because they see another breeder who prices high. If someone, like myself, have put the time and money into getting those quality show animals, then the prices are most likely going to be higher than a breeder that doesn't like to pay more than forty or fifty dollars a rabbit. Price according to what you alone feel is the quality of your animals, not what others are pricing their rabbits. Take the time and research different breeders prior to buying. You don't need to jump at the first one you find, and don't need to get every rabbit that's for sale. Take your time. If the breeder isn't really willing to answer questions, than my suggestion if to find a different breeder. Always look them over in person prior to buying them and ask questions in person. Have the owner go over the rabbit, in proper pose with you. I wish all breeders were caring and responsible and actually took the time to help new breeders out, but sadly not all are. There are a lot more around now than when I started but still some that don't agree with this. All I can do is help guide these new breeders in the right direction of breeders that have quality animals and will help them as well. I know I for one am in this for better the breed's I raise, not just my own herd. I want to help improve the breed as a whole, and that includes helping others improve as well. These are all solely my opinion. You do not need to agree with any of it, but please do take the time to consider what was said. I have been through this personally and do not wish it on others. I started with a few animals that I was told were nice animals by the breeders, just to find out that they really weren't nice at all. Because of this, it has helped me very much to work hard at getting nice animals and help others to avoid it. I don't settle for anything. If I am looking at buying an animal, I will wait and continue to look until I find something that meets my requirements.
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AuthorPhotographer and crazy animal lover ♥ Archives
October 2017
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