I have recently been asked by some people how I determine which bucks and does to breed and how do I go about it. I decided to write a quick post to my blog and discuss it a bit.
When I choose to breed rabbits I look at the overall picture. I ask myself questions then evaluate the rabbits. For example: 1) What qualities does a Doe and Buck have? 2) What am I looking to improve? 3) Are these rabbits compatible 4) What specific body type do I want and will this cross give me at least one good rabbit? 5) Do I have space for the litter? 6) How soon will I have to cull and do I have time to do it? 7) How busy is my work and family life schedule at this time.
These are just some of the questions I ask myself when breeding my rabbits. My goal is to breed a show rabbit to the ARBA Standard Of Perfection, and in order to achieve that, I have to thoroughly evaluate my rabbits, my time, and what I want, overall.
Due to a major past event in our family I had to re-build our rabbitry from scratch. Therefore, I have bred slowly, but culling heavily. Many people shy from culling, but I realized that this is imperative if I seek a great show rabbit. I cannot see it in my heart to sell a substandard rabbit. Some people love to sell “pets”, thus breed indiscriminately for novelty colors, and to sell. Others sell “pets” because they cannot find it in themselves to cull a rabbit, which is understandable, but the problem there lies, they end up selling their substandard rabbits to people who end up breeding them, thus promulgating substandard rabbits.
For me, I learned from many great breeders that breeding rabbits is a private matter. Breeding requires concentration; focus, attention and overall, a goal.
If one chooses to breed without showing, one cannot fully evaluate what they have by an “impartial person”, thus, never fully know the potential, or lack of it in their efforts to breed a Best In Show rabbit.
It has taken my family 3 long years to re-build and I finally believe I have some good high quality rabbits. However, the road to it has been tough by having to make serious decisions. However, the joy of showing a rabbit in the hopes to getting that ever elusive Best In Show, is worth all the hard work we have gone through.
To summarize, I just breed selectively, carefully, and only the best I have. My rabbit breeding is reserved to a few as I do not believe breeding extensively as that is not the road to acquire the Best In Show rabbit that every true breeder covets dearly.
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