Longhornbreeder101
Loving the herd life
That red one does king of look like it but as @Fishychix says their more compacted
Would you buy these rabbits at this price??
- Thread starter Tre3hugger
- Start date
SA Farm
Herd Master
Around here the show quality NZs tend to have that short, blocky body in comparison to the ones bred strictly for meat. I’m assuming it’s just how they’re selected for the show ring.
Pedigrees can vary on info given, but should have at least farm name and contact info, name, gender, age, colour, and weight. Most will include breeding history and updated weights, when possible.
Pedigrees can vary on info given, but should have at least farm name and contact info, name, gender, age, colour, and weight. Most will include breeding history and updated weights, when possible.
rachels.haven
Herd Master
My mother bred NZ as their core meat breed for years. She last had at least two lines. One she bought from an amazing breeder in MI that had a closed rabbitry and had been breeding for 40 years and was even able to supply labs because of the consistency and disease free status of their stock. That line had incredibly heavy rabbits that were as solid as a brick and built in that shape too (that rabbitry did red, white, and unrecognized, blue Nz). The other lines they've had were even longer-longer faced, longer bodied, not rounded. The pictured rabbits do look like rexes or silver fox thrown in-maybe some Nz.
Bunnylady
Herd Master
Y'know, a number of years ago, an American Rabbit Breeders Association judge did an article in their magazine Domestic Rabbits in which he showed 3 pictures, and asked readers to place the rabbits in them in an imaginary show class. Then he explained that this was a sort of "trick question," because the three pictures were all of the same rabbit, it had just been posed slightly differently for each one. It was a clever demonstration of just how a rabbit is sitting can affect how it appears; you had to look closely to see that the apparent conformation faults in some pictures were actually caused by how the animal's feet were positioned. Careful, correct posing is essential to knowing the animal's true structure, as is getting your hands on it to feel what is going on under the fur. You really can't judge the conformation of a rabbit just by looking at it, especially if what you are looking at is a photograph of an animal that clearly hasn't been posed.
(Am I the only one who noticed that the pic of the Red one is clearly a baby picture? Compare it to the size of the rabbit in the cage next door!)
Most meat breeds are very similar in type (probably because many of the modern ones were created by selective crosses of some of the others). Even within the breed, animals bred for show may look rather different from those bred for meat production. Unfortunately, most of the traits that make animals good producers don't appear on the show table, so animals from show lines often don't produce well, and animals from meat production herds frequently do poorly on a show table.
Because of the many different genes involved in producing the colors of the two rabbits in the pictures you posted, the odds of getting a baby of a showable color from that cross is pretty slim. Reds especially really ought only to be bred to other Reds if you want good Red color on the babies. As far as I'm concerned, that pair need to be looked at strictly as meat producers, and whether they could produce enough to justify the price . . . . well, let's just say that if they don't turn out to be very fecund, that's mighty expensive meat.
(Am I the only one who noticed that the pic of the Red one is clearly a baby picture? Compare it to the size of the rabbit in the cage next door!)
Most meat breeds are very similar in type (probably because many of the modern ones were created by selective crosses of some of the others). Even within the breed, animals bred for show may look rather different from those bred for meat production. Unfortunately, most of the traits that make animals good producers don't appear on the show table, so animals from show lines often don't produce well, and animals from meat production herds frequently do poorly on a show table.
Because of the many different genes involved in producing the colors of the two rabbits in the pictures you posted, the odds of getting a baby of a showable color from that cross is pretty slim. Reds especially really ought only to be bred to other Reds if you want good Red color on the babies. As far as I'm concerned, that pair need to be looked at strictly as meat producers, and whether they could produce enough to justify the price . . . . well, let's just say that if they don't turn out to be very fecund, that's mighty expensive meat.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #25
Tre3hugger
Loving the herd life
I truly appreciate everybody chiming in. I decided to pass on these. No reason to drive super far and pay top dollar if they are questionable. Thanks again.
Tigger19687
Chillin' with the herd
I've learned a lot from this thread, thank you
Fishychix
Loving the herd life
I found a resource regarding record keeping. Here’s the link to their website: Rabbit records templates
Niele da Kine
Loving the herd life
That's a good link on record keeping, Fishychix. How to keep records may be worthy of it's own thread?
Fishychix
Loving the herd life
I would lve that 🤣. I just posted it here since @Tre3hugger is starting a business that they may find it helpful also.
- Thread starter
- #30
Tre3hugger
Loving the herd life
Very helpful. Bookmarked the page. Thanks!
