A very unpopular view

[Happi Bun]

Wow, I'm not sure what breeders you have seen but I for one have hadmuch better experiences with REPUTABLE breeders. Though I have never bought a rabbit from a breeder, I have talked to them and seen pictures of their set up and what you described pales in comparison.

Don't make the mistake of painting all breeders with the same brushor making such sweeping generalizations. I'm into rescuing, NOT breeding,but I can see many breeders on here taking offense.

Rabbit breeding has been done for centuries. We already havetons of proven lines and different breeds. There is absolutely no reason in my mind why we need to be breeding animals that we don't know what genetics they will be passing down. Especially with the overpopulation problem.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

Odviously this is my experiance and my opinion, not general fact. I have the right to my opinion, again odviously, breeders will not agree with me. I have met many great people threw breeding, great people but not many great breeders. Sure, they love their rabbits and they do what in the general breeder practice is saw as good/great but it pales to the life as a pet rabbit. They have cages 4 times a big as the rabbit, such and such cup pellets a day, hay 1-2 times a day, depending on cage setup cleaning once a week to once a season, playtime for 10 minutes/1 houronce a day to play time once a month if lucky(many do not give play time from who I have met),1-3 veggies once 2 times a week to once a month and other small things. Again, my experiance with show breeders AND money breeders, not the whole world of breeders.

Edit: Sorry, I forget another thing. Personally I believe breeders(duh... not in a rude way but it is not like non-breeders make it happen) make the biggest deposit into the overpopulation of rabbits, really any species for that matter. Lets show a Dutch breeder as example, shall we? Even with the best of lines a breeder is lucky(extremely lucky) to produce 1-2 perfectly marked babies out of every litter. I have saw some breeders of the best stock get 1 perfect from two litters of the same breeding. If the breeder breeds a doe 3 times before selling her and like most Dutch get 4 babies from each litter that is 12 babies. So they lucked out and got 2 perfects from one litter and 1 each from the other two. How many culls does that leave us with? EIGHT! That means 8 baby rabbits are now either sold to petstores, sold as pets to buyers, sold for meat, or sold to "BB" breeders. That is 8 more rabbits in the world that is not being put to "good use" and that is just from one doe alone. What if that doe is sold to another breeder who breeds her 3 times also with the same result? That makes 16 more rabbits in the world "not good enough" to be used.

 

[Revverress]

I read most of the replies, and I'm trying my best to stay on the original topic, so please forgive me if I've missed something.

I show English Lops, and I had my first litter back in June. Out of the seven babies, one little buck died at three weeks, and another boy, Rio, got pasturella at nine weeks. Rio was the star of his litter; he was the most sweetest, good matured rabbit I have ever met, and he had quite the personality. He and I had an amazing bond; I would spend hours with him in his "quarantine room" watching TV while he slept in my lap or groomed my fingers. He was my little angel.

Hundreds of dollars in vet bills and a dead baby later, I learned my greatest lesson about breeding- It isn't about having cute little bunnies. It isn't about having money tucked away "just in case". It isn't about the experience, or just the "joy" of having babies. It's about taking heartbreak with the joy. It's about proudly watching some of the babies grow up happy and healthy, while having to say goodbye to the others. While I'll never regret having had Rio for that short time, the experience has given me a fresh new perspective on breeding in general. All those horror stories you hear from breeders about things that can go wrong? They happen.

So, besides the obvious overpopulation crisis, and besides the health issues that can show up in stock of unknown genetic origin, I never recommend breeding pets, because it's not what you expect. While I always knew that it was extremely likely I would loose at least one from the litter, I never thought for a minute that Rio would leave us in such a heart wrenching way. I loved that little rabbit, like I love all of my "herd", and the reason I share his story is to warn those thinking about breeding "just one litter for fun":

Be prepared.

With that said... If you have the money, if you have the space, if you have the time, if there is not overpopulation crisis, and it you can somehow justify unknown health problems that may or may not be in the line... Then be my guest. They're not my rabbits, and I don't have a say over what you do with them [you=no one specific]. Just don't expect a happy, perfect ending.

Holly

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

I am not against all breeding. If you know what you are doing, you accept the risks, have the finances to support your breeding and are realistic about why you are breeding. You also need to know when to stop breeding an animals and to stop breeding altogether.
I do not support people who just put 2 animals together and hope for the best. People who do not know what they are doing and do not want to find out how to do it properly. Breeding just to have babies is not a good enough reason.

With regards to Becca, no 13 year old should be breeding. Anyone under 18 does not have the life experience, finances, or time to breed properly. Most adults do not have what is necessary either. I was 13 when I got my first dog, I did not know everything about dogs and was not going to breed her just to have puppies. I am 19 now and would still not consider breeding any animals. I am just not ready or able to breed. I do not have animals that I would consider to be right for breeding. If I were to ever breed, I would do a ton or research, be in contact with breeders, screen for any and all genetic diseases that I could (more with dogs). I would not get into breeding lightly as I would not want to risk the lives of the mother and the babies on a whim. A 13 year old is not ready to breed any animal.

Ignorance is not an excuse for poor breeding practises. If you don't know, don't do it.
There are too many unwanted animals in this world. There is not need to breed because you have a cute pet or you want another one or you just want one litter. You should breed because you have an exceptional specimen of the breed and want to further the breed. Brining new animals into the world is serious and should only be done by those who know what they are doing. A 13 year old does not know enough about breeding to breed properly.

If everyone who bred cared about the animals and only bred those who are healthy, and a good specimen of the breed, then there would be no pet over population. The supply of pets would equal the demand for them. There would still be a small percentage of pets who needed to be re homed, but shelters would not be flooded with pet they cannot adopt.

 

[gentle giants]

bunnybunbunb wrote:

I just spent quite a while reading the first page. I do not feel like reading the other pages however I feel I should reply. I believe most breeders are "backyard breeders", almost every breeder I have met/known/talked to do not take the rabbits "true" health and happiness into mind. Small cages, wire floors with no resting boards, barely any free time, pellets as staple and they breed their rabbits till they die or they decide to replace them. Also if they really took their rabbit's health and happiness into mind they would not breed them and wouldneuter them. Breeding shortens their lifespands, makes their only thoughts "BREEED" and a huge percent of female rabbits either have, get or die ofa type"female" cancer.

You're not looking at good breeders then, plain and simple. And bad breeders are notthe only ones who mistreat rabbits, there are many, many bad pet owners too. I have never had a rabbit come into my resuce from a breeder, all of them have been pet homes. And d*** near every one has been kept locked in a tiny cage, usually with a buildup of filth in it, and crap feed.

This whole knowing a rabbits genetics before breeding thing is balogna to me. Most rabbit breeders I "watch" bring in random rabbits from other breeders and breed them into their stock. If they see a rabbit with rare color or nice type they buy it and breed it in. Pedigrees do NOT tell genetics, they state breed, ages, colors, weight, names and wins. Even if you buy one from the small fraction of breeders who list the known color genetic code of the rabbit it does not state if the rabbit carries such and such genes for bad teeth, misscolored toe nails, I.G. track problems, arthritis, etc.

When you buy from a breeder, you can go into their barn and you can look at the rest of their breeding stock. That will give you a pretty darn good idea of what may come up as far as poor coloring, and no good breeder will breed any rabbit that has health issues anyway. That is where a little reseach comes in-find out how long they have been breeding, and how well they do on the show table. If they don't take proper care of their rabbits and breed the healthiest, etc, they won't be winning either.
I personally think a pet owner with breeding, health and happinessknowledge would raise better rabbits than a breeder, pet wise. The babies would get handled very much, raised inside, be around other animals, not be killed/sold willy-nillybecause they do not look good and would probably go to pet homes where they are not shipped from breeder to breeder having 3-5 litters a year.

When I was breeding, all of my babies got handled from day 1, and were also around my dogs and cat as well. The only reason they weren't in the house is because my house wasn't big enough to house them-and we do have at least one breeder on here who does have all his rabbits in the house. And none of the breeders on here EVER would kill extras or sell to petstores.

 

[Sabine]

Oh dear, what have I started? I thought the thread was long dead and buried
Anyhow although bunnybunbunbs opinions seemed to offend quite a few breeders it rekindled my suspicion that it may not be a coincidence that in countries that have very few standards for rabbits with only casual breeding practices the overpopulation isn't as high as in places where breeding is better organised. I strongly believe that a lot of breeders do the best for their animals but I wonder if bettering the breed is necessarily doing anything for the happiness of rabbits as such.

 

[BlueGiants]

I think you need to consider the size of the country and the population, not just how organized the standards are.... No matter how you look at it, if you average it out to 5% ofa population keeps rabbits, there will be a lot more rabbits in acountry with a larger population.

 

[polly]

As Blue Giants said also as Michaela said there is a problem with overpopulation in Ireland justmaybe not exactly where you are

 

[irishbunny]

polly wrote:

As Blue Giants said also as Michaela said there is a problem with overpopulation in Ireland justmaybe not exactly where you are

I can't agree here as I know there isn't

 

[Happi Bun]

 

[Luvmyzoocrew]

Happi Bun wrote:

haha hahahahahahahhahahahahaha that is one of the funniest emoticons i have seen !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MissBinky]

Luvmyzoocrew wrote:

Happi Bun wrote:

haha hahahahahahahhahahahahaha that is one of the funniest emoticons i have seen !!!!!!!!!!!!!

LMBO! Thanks for that That is an awesome emoticon! LOL