# What’s this breed



## Tina Sabol (Jul 12, 2018)

View attachment 50234 View attachment 50231 View attachment 50229 I was told these were New Zealand’s but they don’t look like New Zealand’s that I’ve looked up. These are my daughters market rabbits for the fair in August


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## Tina Sabol (Jul 12, 2018)

Tina Sabol said:


> View attachment 50231 View attachment 50229 I was told these were New Zealand’s but they don’t look like New Zealand’s that I’ve looked up. These are my daughters market rabbits for the fair in August


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## promiseacres (Jul 12, 2018)

chinchilla is the color. new zealands are self colored though I've heard they can have steel colors behind them. 
@Bunnylady  is my go to for breed and color information.


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## BunnyTree (Jul 13, 2018)

Maybe some sort of chinchilla? They look New Zealand...idk but those are my guesses


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## Bunnylady (Jul 13, 2018)

New Zealands don't come in chinchilla; the closest would be American Chinchilla.


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## Tina Sabol (Jul 13, 2018)

Bunnylady said:


> New Zealands don't come in chinchilla; the closest would be American Chinchilla.


There is also brown in the color not just black n white


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## Tale of Tails Rabbitry (Jul 13, 2018)

Tina Sabol said:


> There is also brown in the color not just black n white


The chinchilla coat can be a bit brassy when younger, which _usually _molts out. They can also get pee-stained.

Also, even if these were from New Zealand rabbits (which I would say maybe be true in part as they could likely be from cross breeding), "breed" depends on phenotype (how they look) not genetics. It is usually not based on "color" alone, but in the commercial class, _most _of the breeds have very similar standard of perfection.


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## Ridgetop (Jul 18, 2018)

Whoever told you these were New Zealands was mistaken.  They may be crosses.  New Zealands come in only 3 colors.  _That color is *not* one of them._  There is NZ White - a pure white rabbit with pink eyes.  NZ Black - not too common - rich completely black coat with dark eyes.  NZ Red - also not too common - a rich dark chestnut red.  The blacks and reds have some conformational flaws and are hard to find with a true New Zealand packed with meat body.  Probably why they are not so common for meat pens.  _*Any rabbit can make up a meat pen, as long as your fair doesn't specify a breed.*_

My concern would be their weight, and their body conformation.  A meat rabbit should carry his meat across the loin, his hind quarters should be well rounded, and his shoulders in proportion.  He should have a wedge shape looking at him from the side, with his rise starting right behind his head and carrying over the loin, hind quarters, without a flat spot above the tail.  Looking down on him from the top he should have a wedge shape from the front widening into the butt.  You should not be able to feel any bones.

That said, you need to know what weight your meat pens are required to be - usually 4-H pens specify 3.5 - 4.5 lbs.  They cannot be older than 70 days old unless you have a roaster class.  When in August is the Fair?  We used o leave our meat pens on the doe until 24 hours before Fair.  Then we would go over them carefully and pick those that were closest to the Standard of Perfection.  Once we had the best specimens chosen we weighed them to get 3 that were (hopefuly) identical in weight for the pen.

Suggestion:  When you tattoo, do not use 1, 2, 3, since half the barn meat pens will have those numbers!   Instead number them with the child's initials and the number.  With a lot of identical rabbits you don't want yours mixed up with someone elses!  (Happened at an ARBA show  )

Also make sure you tattoo in the correct ear.  One year the _entire Grange meat pen entry_ was DQed because they had put the number in the wrong ear.  DH had offered to come over and help them but been rudely rebuffed.  The Youth Grange Leader was livid, and the uproar as she screamed at her husband who had tattooed all their rabbits became legend!  

Feed at night with a high quality rabbit pellet.  Also give 2 ounces of rolled oats daily per rabbit - oats put on hard flesh.  If they are not putting on enough weight, you can mix a small amount of calf manna into their feed - no more than 1 ounce daily.  Watch for loose stools since calf manna is a rich feed.  

As long as your Fair doesn't demand purebred meat pens, and the bunnies have good conformity and weight you should be fine.  If you want to breed your own meat pens, I recommend Californian rabbits for meat pens.  They are slightly smaller but the bunnies make weight a little sooner than New Zealands.  They are also calmer for kids to handle.  

GOOD LUCK AT THE FAIR!


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## Bunnylady (Jul 18, 2018)

Ridgetop said:


> New Zealands come in only 3 colors.



Ehhh, not quite right - NZ's also show in Blue and Broken, now. 

Oh, wow, what a disaster. Per the ARBA's rules, the only ear the breeder can put a tattoo in is the left ear. The right ear is reserved for a registrar's mark (assuming the rabbit meets the requirements for registration); any other mark in the right ear is an automatic DQ. How embarrassing that must have been!

Getting a rabbit posed properly is incredibly important when it comes to evaluating type. I remember an article a judge wrote for Domestic Rabbit, in which he posted 3 pictures and asked the reader to place the rabbits in an imaginary class. It was a trick question - all three pictures were of the same rabbit, it had just been posed slightly differently in each picture. Getting the feet too far forward, or too far back, can make the rabbit look shorter, longer, chopped off, flat; you'd be surprised how much difference it can make!


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## promiseacres (Jul 18, 2018)

Once upon a time our county required meatpen bunnies to be tattoed in the right ear.... I assume it was to prevent them from going on to be bought  and shown...


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## Tina Sabol (Jul 18, 2018)

They tattoo and weigh them at the fair in August, the tattooing is the first week and the fair is the 3rd and 4th weeks


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## Ridgetop (Jul 19, 2018)

Do you have to put the ear numbers on the entry form when you send in your entries, or do you do that when they come onto the fairground?  Bunnies can change their weight a lot in 2 weeks (sometimes just in the days they are at Fair before judging).  I know that a lot of Fairs tag and take DNA samples a month or two before the Fair on larger livestock, but since you want to choose your meat pens as close to show time as possible, this makes it hard to properly select a good pen.

The rabbit shown is not a blue or broken though.  Blue is a dilute of the black gene and is a solid blue gray.  I would still stay with a NZ White for meat pens.  Unless in the past 10 years the blacks have gotten really good in body type, which is possible, then the blues would not have started with exceptional meat type with the blacks as a foundation.  I don't know what the cross would have been to produce a broken, but unless it was a good meat type breed they would have had to catch up to an established meat standard in the original NZW.   Californians are also a good standard meat breed for meat pens.


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