How do you get quality rabbits to show and breed??

[crimson]

I breed mini lops, holland lops and french lops. There is not very much competition showing the french lops and I have been lucky to get a very nice buck and doe.
It is much harder to find mini lops and holland lops that are a quality that are able to do well at the shows. Breeders tend to keep their rabbits that are show quality and sell their culls.
It is very hard to improve your herd when it is hard to get rabbits of good type in the first place.

 

[HappyFarmBunnies]

The thing that I have found to work best for me is to stay in regular contact with the breeders in my area, check in with them every once in awhile to see what they're thinking of letting go, and building a relationship with them. That way they'll think of me when they're contemplating letting someone go (because you can't keep everyone!) and I can jump on it right away.

 

[RAL Rabbitry]

Buy brood stock that a good breeder is done with. Ask to see rabbits they have produced. Lots of breeders sell good brood stock because they are making room for upcoming juniors and granded seniors that they want to breed.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

The best thing to do is ask some breeders. Some might have good rabbits that don't fit with what the breeder is doing. They might also have an slightly older buck that is too closely related to what they already have, so would sell him.

Many breeders have sale pages on their website, but those can be the rabbits that haven't been spoken for yet. They will have other sale rabbits but those get sold too fast to be up on the site.

I would e-mail at least a couple breeders and tell them what you are looking for and ask if they have anything that would be good for you. You never know what they might have and are willing to sell.
Also ask if they would stud out a buck to you. Not all breeders will do this, but some might.

Remember to be polite. If you are rude, then they might not be as willing to help. Personally, I would try to avoid typing stuff at night or when I am really emotional as I can get a bit snippy. It is better to just wait a bit so you can be calm when you and typing and you might get a better answer. Also remember that breeders to talk, so you don't want to push your luck. Be honest and nice and it can take you quite far.

 

[GorbyJobRabbits]

You got to make friends with other breeders, and find the right breeders. A good breeder will sell you good stock. Essentially the puzzle pieices. You as a breeder must figure out how the peices fit and put them together to get your show stock.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat:, or Jesse James used a gun and mask.

 

[Blaze_Amita]

GorbyJobRabbits wrote:

You got to make friends with other breeders, and find the right breeders. A good breeder will sell you good stock. Essentially the puzzle pieices. You as a breeder must figure out how the peices fit and put them together to get your show stock.

Exactly why I've put a few of my own up for sale, I don't have what I need to complete my puzzles, while I don't mind spending the money for a bunny that completes a puzzle peice to one that I already have. Make friends with several breeders and you could go far really.

I've actually sold a doe that I really wanted to keep, but I realize that I couldn't keep everything, it would have fit well into my program. I have that little doe's mother and I could always get her re-bred to the buck(bit of a trip for that though) and I also had other bucks that would fit will with that doe. It's a personal matter really, I will sell some of my nicest bunnies, some of them I won't.

 

[rabbitgeek]

Something I remember about culls is that they have the genes. If I can get a cull from a top breeder to breed with one of my rabbits I often can get show quality rabbits in the next litter.

I try to get something without a DQ, although one of our best brood animals was an oversized Dutch buck that fathered three Grand Champions. He weighed too much for show.

I started with undersized American Blues and started getting showable rabbits in the next generation. I bred two Grand Champions in four years. It took that long because I was often the only exhibitor so it took a long time to get three GC legs in show.

Get the best you can and breed your way up!

Have a good day!

 

[DandelionHollow]

You may beable to get older stock with excellent pedigrees & show results that the breeder is willing to let go of because they dont fit into their breeding program anymore. Its harder to get excellent "young" show stock, but older stock is far easier to get a hold of and can be used as brood does & bucks for new stock.

 

[MiniLopLover3]

I definitely agree with keeping in contact with breeders you may know and making friends with them. And like someone already said, even a rabbit that doesn't look good show wise carries the genes so if the rabbit has a good background it's someone you can use. I bought a breeding pair a few years back and at the time the buck looked like he would turn out pretty nice and I could breed and show the guy. He fell apart when he got older though but his offspring are absolutely gorgeous. Some of the best Mini Lops that had been born in the past year in my rabbitry.