Purebred or crossbred rabbits?

[Bunnylady]

.But as far as I understood it if I wanted to show it had to be a purebred rabbit with a 4-6 generation pedigree. Do they also have to be registered?

I'm not sure where your information came from; every rabbit pedigree I have seen in the 20+ years that I have been breeding rabbits only has 3 generations on it (parents, grandparents, great grandparents). And truth to tell, you don't need a pedigree at all to show, nobody will check to see if the rabbit has one. I had a Harlequin buck that won 3 Grand Champion legs (including a Best of Breed), but could never be a Grand Champion because his pedigree lacked a couple of great-grandparents.

Registration is a whole different ball of wax. For a rabbit to be registered, it must have a complete 3-generation pedigree (ear number, weight, and color on all of the rabbits on the pedigree, and they must all be the same breed). It must be at least 6 months old (or whatever age that breed achieves maturity, if it takes longer), and free of disqualifications. While a rabbit doesn't have to be registered to be showable, it must be showable to be registered (rabbits that are undersized, oversized or not a showable color cannot be registered). You can have animals that are the wrong size or a funky color as ancestors on the pedigree, it's just the candidate for registration that has to be the correct size and color.

 

[mountainrabbits]

Thank you so much! That really helps me!

 

[Ga_goat]

I had a huge meat rabbit operation about 25 years ago here , but had to quit with it because I could not keep a market . What I was useing was ,, I got 8 french lop does and bred them to a pure bred NZW ,, saved all the does out of that cross and bred them to a purebred Satin white buck , this gave me a doe with 10 teats and a weaned frier that only had to be fed for afew of days after weaning to reach 3 pounds . , but There just wasn't a market for the live rabbits tried to dress them myself but it was just too labor intensive . I was averaging about 80 to 90 every 2 weeks out of 50 breeding does .

 

[PattySh]

I cross NZ and Californian and think they are the fastest growing and most cost effective rabbit for the4 freezer! Pure NZ's grow slower and pure Cali's are smaller.

 

[Thundrr-Chicken]

i just bought 4 nzw does... 2 are 7 months old.. same breeder but not sisters... 2 are 5 months old...they are sisters...

then i bought a californian buck... he is 5.5 months old... and yesterday i got a pure nzw buck... 1 year old...

im going to go ahead and breed the nzw buck to the 2 does that are 7 months old and see if it takes... i'll let the californian and other 2 nzw girls get a lil older first before i start breeding them...

how old should they be?

 

[mountainrabbits]

i just bought 4 nzw does... 2 are 7 months old.. same breeder but not sisters... 2 are 5 months old...they are sisters...

then i bought a californian buck... he is 5.5 months old... and yesterday i got a pure nzw buck... 1 year old...

im going to go ahead and breed the nzw buck to the 2 does that are 7 months old and see if it takes... i'll let the californian and other 2 nzw girls get a lil older first before i start breeding them...

how old should they be?

Congratulations! New bunnies are always exiting! I think the average age for breeding for a non-commercial meat herd is somewhere around 7-8 months old, or when they are over 8 pounds. But some do breed earlier it really depends on the breeder and I think on the rabbits-here is a link to the rabbittalk forum concerning breeding ages and what effects them: http://rabbittalk.com/breeding-age-and-what-affects-it-t1920.html are you using hutches, wire cages or a colony setting? I'm very interested in what other people are doing and how it works

 

[Thundrr-Chicken]

originally i purchased 2 homemade wood shelving units... one 6 feet long... one 8 feet long... three shelves each... after figuring out what didnt work lol.. i decided to cut them up and put them on legs.. so.. i have two 6 feet long wood hutches...and 2 eight feet long hutches... all wood with 1/2 inch hardware cloth all the way around and the bottom..

i have since screwed plywood around the sides for the "winter" .. it doesnt get all that cold here.. but i want my bunnies comfortable.. and i'll unscrew all the plywood when spring hits...

since then i have built a 4 hole cage inside my chicken run... its attached to the wall studs of the chicken run...

i believe my next set of cages will go inside the chicken run as well.. the chickens are making fast work of the rabbit droppings..

we also have a few stand alone cages in the garage that we can use when needed...

i'll get some pictures and post em so you can see what i've done.. nothing fancy.. but it works for us

 

[mountainrabbits]

originally i purchased 2 homemade wood shelving units... one 6 feet long... one 8 feet long... three shelves each... after figuring out what didnt work lol.. i decided to cut them up and put them on legs.. so.. i have two 6 feet long wood hutches...and 2 eight feet long hutches... all wood with 1/2 inch hardware cloth all the way around and the bottom..

i have since screwed plywood around the sides for the "winter" .. it doesnt get all that cold here.. but i want my bunnies comfortable.. and i'll unscrew all the plywood when spring hits...

since then i have built a 4 hole cage inside my chicken run... its attached to the wall studs of the chicken run...

i believe my next set of cages will go inside the chicken run as well.. the chickens are making fast work of the rabbit droppings..

we also have a few stand alone cages in the garage that we can use when needed...

i'll get some pictures and post em so you can see what i've done.. nothing fancy.. but it works for us

It sounds interesting!