BluMagic wrote:
A breeder not far from me. . girl that sold me my lst Champagne. .has notified me of her current rabbits available. Here are the ones I should be taking:
Champagnes
Sr. Buck - too small to show, recent fight lead to torn ear BUT I think he'd make great breeding quality due to bloodlines
First of all - congrats on deciding to increase your herd. That is always fun - except for the waiting for the new bunnies.
But I'd like to share with you something I learned from my experience of breeding lionheads for over 3 years. When I was first told what I'm about to share - I was very angry and I argued with people about it - but after my first few litters - I came to realize that the information was correct.
While rabbits may do well at shows and have excellent "bloodlines" - many times those rabbits do not do well at passing those traits onto their offspring. It could be that an outstanding buck was bred to a lower quality doe - or vice versa. Sometimes an outstanding rabbit can be bred to another outstanding rabbit - and you still don't get the quality you're looking for.
What I was taught (and finally learned) - was to not even look at the pedigree or consider the bloodlines until I had that rabbit in front of me (or the pictures) and could judge that rabbit on their merits.
This doesn't mean I don't consider the bloodlines at all....but I don't base my decision on the bloodlines.
Let me explain better what I mean.
In the lionhead breed - there is one very very well known lionhead called "Cimmaron Firebear". (He just passed away last week at the age of 7). He is on many many many pedigrees (probably hundreds) - sometimes as the sire - sometimes the grandsire, etc. More than one judge has said that he was the "perfect" or "ideal" lionhead - and when I first got into breeding lionheads - if he was on the pedigree - you could easily get an extra $50 sometimes for the rabbit. He was known for his type and many times rabbits that were his offspring got his body type.
HOWEVER....his offspring didn't always keep their manes - in fact - most of the ones I've seen - lost their manes in later years (even though he kept his).
There was another well-known lionhead on many pedigrees- Bob Whitman's Blue Boy. Blue Boy was from England and he had horrible type (for the lionheads of that era - BUT - his offspring kept their manes.
There were other somewhat well-known rabbits that I knew of - and I talked to enough people to realize that there were certain crosses that worked well - and others that didn't seem to work as well.
So when I was looking at a rabbit - only after I decided if I was interested in him/her - would I ask about the pedigree. If it had Blue Boy on it - I knew I could use it to work on manes...if it had Firebear - I knew I could use that rabbit to work on type. If it didn't have those but had another - I would know the strengths of that particular line.
But I never based my decision solely on the bloodlines - because I saw some litters were there were one or two outstanding rabbits - and four or five that just were not good at all - only pet quality. Had I based my decision just on the bloodline - I could wind up with a lousy rabbit.
I've always been told (and I follow this) - to buy the VERY VERY BEST BUCK you can afford - especially if you will be using him with more than one doe.
Your doe will pass on her traits to her litter - but your buck will pass on his traits to EVERY LITTER he sires. It is best to have one high quality buck - than several lower quality ones.
I'd love to share more about things I learned - but I don't want to bore you.
I would encourage you to really rethink basing your decisions based upon bloodlines only. A rabbit can earn 4 or 8 or even 20 legs...but if doesn't pass on those qualities to their offspring - you wind up with a rabbit that won't do well at the showtable and people might not want to buy your rabbits (except as pets).
