Selecting Show Stock

Hey everyone

I breed and show mini lops (BRC Standards) and I currently have a 3 week old litter and another litter on the way.

There is 4 kits in the litter and I have a few questions about selecting which kits I should keep and which kits I should sell.

What age should I select the stock that I want to keep? What is the best way to do this?

I am not breeding for colour - I am focusing on type and conformation. How do you tell what a kit may look like when older?

Do you have any tips that would help me make my decision?

Thanks very much All help is greatly appreciated.

I hear that 6 weeks is a good time to look at them and between that and 6 mos they go through an ugly phase where they shouldn't be faulted too much on anything

Thanks Is there any way that you may be able to tell how they look when they get out of the uglies or is it mostly just a guess?

This depends a lot on how much cage space you have to work with. When you are just starting to raise rabbits, it helps to keep whole litters until 4-6 months, when they start coming out of their baby/teen stages and filling out as adults. Doing this helps you watch how they develop at each stage and learn what to look for. If you begin line breeding (most people do, for competitive rabbits), you'll see that growth and development starts becoming more predictable at a younger age with each generation.

Selecting show stock is mostly a lesson in time and patience. If you're serious about competition, it helps to have room to keep kits until maturity. However, it is possible to work on a very small scale too, it just takes more time...and maybe a few mistakes! More than once, I've sold a rabbit and regretted my decision when I saw how nicely they grew into themselves.

Awesome, thanks for the great advice! I have a few spare cages at the moment, so that turns out perfectly

Thanks again