Quick survey of rabbit breeds

[MidwestMatthew]

My wife and I are (I hope) within a few weeks of getting our first meat rabbits. We're considering Champagne d'Argent, New Zealand Whites, American Chinchilla, or Silver Fox. Unfortunately, we're having trouble finding answers to some pretty relevant questions for each of those, including:

Litter Size
Weight by 8-10 weeks
Flavor / Texture
Temperament / Motherhood Skills / Care Requirements

We'd really appreciate any feedback we can get on these questions for those breeds, as we try to narrow down which to start with. So thanks in advance for any thoughts!

 

[SandDherds]

I think New Zealands and Californias but since you didn't mention Californians I'll just go by New Zealands

My average new zealand litter are 8-10 kits normally a few more or less

Weight at 8-10 week im trying to remember I think it was 4 1/2 lbs or 5lbs not sure I don't do meat rabbits anymore just pets and breeder for other people to get meat rabbit


Flavor/texture at 8-10 weeks they very tender and juicy when smoked they tasted like chicken but sweet and had kinda it's own unique flavor can quite describe what it taste like

They are excellent mother they never fail to amaze me at how careful they are with there babies by far some of the best moms I've seen, they are definitely very good tempered my Cali new zealand mix Anna is the sweetest thing ever and her mom a new zealand is super sweet I can do anything with her of course she will growl a little when she is pregnant but almost all rabbits will
And care requirements they don't need alot they dont need lots of food pellets,hay,some fresh veggies are nice but not too many they don't need too big of a cage ours were free ranged you could say so they didn't have a cage but they do just fine in one but if it's a wire cage they will need a piece of wood or something to rest there feed on, they don't need any grooming maybe once or twice a month sometimes you don't even need too they also need there claws trimmed and some wood to chew on would be nice but nothing that is extremely hard

I have also had champagnes so if you want to hear about them let me know and I'll wright about them in the morning good luck with the rabbits they sure are fun little critters

 

[MidwestMatthew]

At the moment I'm leaning toward NZW simply because they seem more "foolproof" for beginners than the others. However, there's something about the Champagnes that's just kind of drawing me in. So I would love to hear about your experiences with them and thoughts as to if they might be a good choice for rank beginners.

 

[SandDherds]

Okay so everything is pretty much the same temperament is very good very very sweet rabbit I have 4 as just pets/breeders right now very sweet rabbits easy to handle. They are excellent mothers I had one that when her kits were weaned she adopted a whole litter of totally different kits and raised all of them. Weight is pretty much the same I would say 3 1/2 -5 lbs if you fed them right because champagne does don't produce as much milk as a NZW there kits will be a bit lighter and grow just a tad bit slower but this isn't the same for all does some produce heavier kits than others and some has lots of milk so it depends on the doe as for care everything that applies to NZW is the same for champagnes only problem was I had about 1 miscarriage per year normally from the same doe but I have had it happen to another before but 1 time per year is not bad at all. As for taste man were mine sweet! They tasted like there was a pinch of sugar kinda very good just a tad bit more of a tough textee texture again not by much. And everything else if pretty much the same very great rabbits even for beginners they are even bigger than NZW at least mine were. Hope this have helped some! I did love the champagnes pelt it gave some color rather than just white but I liked white because I could dye it if I wanted to but I probably like champagnes better the pattern is so pretty!