First Rabbit Show , ever !!!

Hi, everyone! This past Sat. I attended my first Rabbit Show . I lovedevery minute of it...I would have stayed longer but my 13yr.old (soonto be 14) had a shooting session planned that afternoon with his cousinwho'd recently purchased a new rifle.

For someone who loves bunnies, it waslovely beyond words to be able to view so many different breeds. I entered 4 of my rabbits in open class---1 Flemish giant ,1 mini-rex , 2 Netherland dwarfs .

To start off with, my Flemish"girl" turned out to be a boy , and was thusdisqualified .What a bummer , she/he is a beautiful Fawn color, but he has a ratherdifferent shaped sausage...it's like a wide circle that protrudes witha vertical slit at the end, not the familiar "doughnut" that most bucksare adorned with. Also, there are no testicles yet. He is around 3 1/2mo. now.

My mini-rex was shown next, and he hadsome good points but was weak in the back/hindquarters---hispersonality gets 1st place , though.

AAACK !!! The opal Netherland D. doe wasDQ'd for having brown eyes instead of blue....I did'nt knowthat ; her breeder thought she would do well on the show tables, too.She certainly has a body type to die for, IMO --small ears and a"cobby" body.

My orange Neth. D. doe won BOSV ; or ,"best opposite orange" . Hats off to her breeder's hard work!

I have to say it was a great day! Also need to add that I respect all of thebreeder's I've purchased bunnies from, they've been soencouraging and helpful . The best partofthe show was being able to listen to the judge'scomments and learn more about what my bunnies should look like , faultsto avoid, ect.

Do some judges DQ for things that otherjudges do not ? Just curious about the opal Netherlanddwarf's brown eye color and also the split P.--all of my N.D.'s werebought from the same breeder ( who is a very friendly person to workwith ) and 2 of my orange bucks have a split P. Having paidfor show quality bunnies for all my rabbits (except Gimli) , I'mwondering if it's o.k. to ask about an exchange for show quality bunsw/o said defects. --Also wanted to exchange the Flemish buckfor a doe of the same quality--just not sure about proper protocol??? I probably spelled that last word wrong .

Thanks in advance for any advice !

Kadish Tolesaurplepansy:

Hurrah 4 Rabbit Shows! I'll Be Back!!!!!

Hello,

Glad your first show went well. I would just politely tellthe breeders about what happened and ask nicely aboutexchanges. I think most breeders would help you out as bestas they can.

Robert

O.K., Robert,

thanks, Kadish Tolesa

Congradulations on the bosv for your first show!Some judges will catch a dq and some won't. Ive got a standard chin srbuck ive been showing for the past year now thats only been dq'd oncefor not having the blue undercolor on the feet. Most newer judges don'tcheck for that. BUt they are supposed to!

Dq's can be frustrating. Butyou can learn alot about them.And you can also have bad show days, where your animals get dq'd,missed classes, excetra. But its mostly fun. Though I get bored at themreal easy lately cause I have a breed thats always shown last.

congrats on your first show, they are greatplaces and as you said you learn a lot, so does that mean you will bechanging her/his name?

Glad to hear you had such a greattime! It's certainly not unreasonable to ask for an exchangefor a wrong sexrabbitand the rabbits withcongenital defects such as split p.

As for whether or not the judges will DQ -- Generally, a judge ishandling an average of 200 rabbits at a show, so defects can certainlybe missed.They oftendon't spend as muchtime looking for DQ's on a rabbit placing lower in the classthanthey would on one placing high in the class.

You'll find that having rabbits withfaults or DQ'a certainly presents a good learning opportunity!

Pam

http://www.geocities.com/pamnock/

Any reputable breeders should replace rabbitsthat were disqualified for wrong eye color or split penis,ifthey sold them to you as show quality.I would most certainlyask.bluebird

Hi, samandshawn, Ihaven't named my Flemish yet:shock::shock::shock::shock::shock:

I'm considering some names fromWatership Down ; and I'm surprised that I haven't come across anypeople's rabbits with those names......read that book ( W.D. )many years ago and really liked it . I need to buymyself a copy for my library soon.

I've decided to keep both boys ( Flemish)for ever and ever !!!!!!!!!!! They are out of differentlines and can be used for breeding and improving the fawnFlemish .

I need to see about getting them some wonderful Flemish gals.

Kadish Tolesa urplepansy:

You want some watership down role playing names? yeah thats right we have those based on the book.

I play willowrah doe rah of efrafa on this one.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/efrafa/?yguid=89153630

http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/thehoneycomb/

http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/feverviewwarren/

Wd is one of my favorite books btw.

i also used to name all my show rabbits after the WD characters in the book and in the rpgs.

Dixonsrabbitry , I likethe name "Willowrah" ! I'd thought of naming our futurerabbitry " Two Willow Rabbitry " because of ourwillow trees , but I haven't decided yet.

Thanks for sending info. on the rpg site .

Kadish Tolesa inkpansy:

Willowrah is my favorite character to play.She's a chinchilla colored european wild rabbit. She fiesty yetsensitive at times. Doesn't take any hraka off of anyone. She holds herown against the boys, including mate who is bigger, and can befeminist. Think of him like woundwart. Only shes been the only onewilling to stand up to him, and generally doesnt fear him most of thetime.

Willow would be pleased with that name.

Hi, bluebird , Pam, and everyone ; I recentlyrecieved a message from my breeder ( from whence came all my Netherlanddwarfs ) and she said she'd swap an opal buck w/ correct eye color formy orange buck w/split p. ; to be bred in the future withmybrown-eyed opal gal. I assume the resultingbabies will have right eye color (fingers crossed)

Presently I have 2 orange bucksw/s.p. The breeder said it would be o.k. to use theremaining orange buck for breeding only ; I just can't showhim. Question : will the s.p. deformity be bred out,eventually ?

Thanks in advance,

KadishTolesa:bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance:love this emoticon !!!!!!

Split p (hypospadias) is nearly impossible tobreed out, partially because it is not known how it is inherited andpartially because carriers are difficult to identify. (Can'ttell if a doe is a split p carrier).

The gene may be a simple recessive or could be x linked. There is speculation there may be environmental factors.

Whatever the cause, it is not recommended to breedsplit p bucks.

Pam

O.K., Pam ; thanks

I don't want to pass this deformity on , as it's rather disheartening !

Kadish Tolesa urplepansy:

Most breederswill let you exchange because they would want to sell as many rabbitsthey have. Some breeders take that bunny and keep it as a pet or stockincase somebody wants to buy that special rabbit. My sister and I dothat so we can get more oppatunities on showing and breeding. Judges goby the ARBA standard rabbit diqualifications andrules of that breed of rabbit. A show that I went to the judge didn'tdisqualify my rabbit who had a kind of good sized rip in his left ear.Some judges are just too nice.

Check out my website that has my sister's rabbits on it, too.We show, breed and sell show and pet quality French Lops, Mini Lops andin a month Himalayans. We went through a lot of troubling trying tofind Himalayans.

website address:http://www.geocities.com/wishuponastarabbitry

The French are my rabbits and Himalayans and Minis are sisters.

If have any questions just email at[email protected] or myemail:[email protected].

Later,

Cleo:magicwand: