Buying from auctions?

[Somebunny2love]

Would you ever buy rabbits from an auction, or do you always go to a breeder so you can get the pedigree? I bought 3 little Lionheads at an auction last night because I just couldn't pass them up. I only paid $3.00 per bunny for them! I'll have to get a pic to post later!

 

[Bunnylady]

I really don't like auctions. The animals are there for a reason, and you don't know what that reason is. Ok, it may just be that the breeder has too many animals, and needs to thin things out a bit, but at $3 apiece, the seller didn't even get back enough to cover the cost of the feed it took to get them to sellable age. That sounds like, "as long as it doesn't come back home, it's fine with me," which makes me wonder how good their care was before they went to auction.

 

[crazyturkeydesigns]

I have bought rabbits from auctions in the past, some even came with a pedigree. Do I have any of these animals, or their offspring, in my herd/line right now? No. I didn't understand at the time that, in general (that is a big -in general-), most rabbits that are at auctions are culls, and usually low quality ones. I do, however, take American sables (usually does that have outproduced themselves as there isn't really a market for proven meat does in my immediate area) to the auction because they are still good producers but have produced better so they can go help someone else.
But, in general, I wouldn't buy a rabbit from an auction unless there is some sort of special circumstance.

We did buy what we thought was a little dwarf hotot buck one time (probably 7 or 8 years ago) and he turned out to be a she who had papers and blue eyes. She was a BEW netherland dwarf x dwarf hotot cross and boy was she cute.

 

[pennylove]

I wouldn't buy from an auction. I want to meet and speak with any animal's breeder in person, and hopefully see their other animals, too, before buying. It says something about the kind of breeder someone is if they're willing to sell their animals to the highest bidder without so much as a basic pre-screening. That's on top of what an auction says about the animal--that it's not worth the effort required for a more traditional sale and that the breeder doesn't care what happens to it, where it goes, or what is done to it. I disapprove of that kind of callousness on a personal level, but I am also suspicious of it--if you can't ask questions and talk with the seller, what do you really know about the animal? That's scary stuff to me, even with rabbits.

I do hope it turns out well for you and your bunnies, though. Good luck!

 

[manybirds]

i wouldn't ever buy rabbits from an auction but its a preferance i guess. they get diseases and you don't know ages, if they've been wormed, if ther prego, where they came from or (if you don't know how to sex) what genders.

 

[Somebunny2love]

These are young...I wouldn't guess anymore than 12 weeks, so definitely not pregnant. They are being kept separate from my other rabbits in case of disease. 2 are does, 1 is a buck.

 

[Somebunny2love]

Also, as soon as they are vet checked and given a clean bill of health, the buck will be moved to his own cage. Lol!

 

[crazyturkeydesigns]

First of all, those are some very cute rabbits! Brokens are probably my favorite variety! So cute!!!

Secondly, I'd like to say that this post is just my personal opinion.
I wish I had consistent access to a cull buyer. I also wish my area had a halfway decent pet market. Unfortunately neither of these things are true. We are lucky to sell maybe 5 rabbits to 4-Hers/FFA kids in a year, and those rabbits are all rabbits I wish I could have kept to breed or show. No one around here wants pets (and I will not sell to pet stores), let alone breeding or show animals. We don't even have a meat market around here. It's either too expensive or too cute to have anything to do with. Most of the cull buyers that come to shows want rabbits that are 3 lbs and up, and a Mini Rex generally won't reach that weight until they are at least 3-5 months old. I wish I had enough money to feed them that long, but I don't. We don't get to that many shows a year, either, so I try to breed around that so if I do have sable culls they can go, but it doesn't always work out that way.
So anyway, it's tough for me to get rid of culls. We do eat a rabbit or two, but it's not a good outlet for those we don't and can't keep.

At the auction that I go to, you are allowed to handle rabbits and all the rabbits go through a general health check before they go in. And unless you have bidders paid off and planted in the room, there's no telling what the price will be. It's not like you can put a price on the cage at the auction. The buyers pay what they want to for a rabbit. Some nights you are lucky to get a $1 for a rabbit, on others I've seen them sell for as much as $30. Most of the buyers buy to use for meat, I have no illusions about that. I would be doing the same thing if I could. My rabbits are livestock and I can't keep them all or sell to a nice cushy home whatever I don't keep. All the rabbits I take (and I do not take that many) come with a little envelope that has my name and contact info in case the buyer wants to get in contact with me for any reason.
I wish I could take the time needed to make a "traditional sale," but if no one will buy the rabbit, how do you make the sale? Maybe it makes me a callous and fishy character, but oh well. I do like fishing!