Monday, April 23, 2007
Parts
A couple of weeks ago, I heard the comment that you should keep all kinds in your barn for your breeding program. You never know which piece you might need in order to create a great rabbit. I've also heard the advice before to be unafraid of keeping a rabbit with a fault if it has some nice attribute.
I agree with these statements to an extent. If you only keep perfect rabbits, your rabbitry will be empty. And look at your great rabbits. I bet their parents and/or grandparents were faulted in some way.
But there are some faults that make me pet out a rabbit regardless of what else is good with it. For me, a primary suspect would be severely undercut rabbits - anything approaching a cow hock. Those hindquarters are pretty stable features of a rabbit. It's hard to breed out a cow hock problem.
I also won't tolerate pin bones. I don't mean that a rabbit is a bit rough over the pins. I mean that those bones are very sharp. If you can't feel the pins when the rabbit is in good flesh, okay. But with sharp pin bones, it almost doesn't matter how good the flesh is - they are still prominent.
Rabbits that slope badly off at the hindquarter are good candidates for pethood. Again, it's that hindquarter thing. A little slope is one thing. I really want good depth over the hindquarter, but can tolerate something less than perfect for an outstanding front end. But when the sloping is bad enough to detract from the entire appearance of the rabbit, he or she has to go.
There are other characteristics that I dislike, but will tolerate because I know that they fix easily. I hate thin, folding ears, for example, but ears and crown are easy to fix. I don't, however, tolerate those long, long donkey ears. A longish ear on a huge head may be acceptable (though not the goal), but when you see ears down to the knees, that rabbit has to go. Those ears will pop up and haunt you for years, I fear.
Another thing to consider when you decide what faults you can tolerate is to look at your barn. If you have the same strength-fault combination all over your barn, you don't need to keep another one. However, if you get a strength in something you really need, then you might be more liberal in what you tolerate otherwise on that rabbit.
Let's say that you need bone. If you produce a rabbit with outstanding bone, then you probably need to keep that one, unless it has one of those unforgivable sins.
One thing I see is that people are attracted to certain characteristics. They collect rabbits with those characteristics and then buy more rabbits with the same characteristics. That's fine for that good part, but what that often causes is a redundancy of the parts they care less about.
This practice can make those faults really strong in a line - where both the dominant and recessive genes are the same traits and there's nothing in the herd to fix it with.
I think the only thing that can help us is to get opinions from other breeders we trust. They can help point out a fault that runs across our rabbitry - one that we are blind to.
Some people use the philosophy of taking two great rabbits from other breeders and then producing a great offspring. But I think there's a lot of joy in putting together characteristics from different lines. Wouldn't I be thrilled to get a rabbit with Mercedes' coat and condition, Rio's head, bone, and cheeks, Merlin's chunky crown, short, fat ears, and short bone, Brendan's depth and top line, and May's showy attitude and full, boneless-feeling hindquarter (who produces 6 to 8 kits per litter like she does)?
The various characteristics you have represented in your barn are like a pallet of colors to an artist. Make sure you have all of the colors you need. You can't paint a true-to-life picture if all you have is blue and green on your pallet.
Work with your line for a while. Know what you have and how it behaves during breedings. Bring in the parts you need when you identify that something is missing. And celebrate when your unique combination of parts work together to create a winner for you!
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 11:13 AM
I agree with these statements to an extent. If you only keep perfect rabbits, your rabbitry will be empty. And look at your great rabbits. I bet their parents and/or grandparents were faulted in some way.
But there are some faults that make me pet out a rabbit regardless of what else is good with it. For me, a primary suspect would be severely undercut rabbits - anything approaching a cow hock. Those hindquarters are pretty stable features of a rabbit. It's hard to breed out a cow hock problem.
I also won't tolerate pin bones. I don't mean that a rabbit is a bit rough over the pins. I mean that those bones are very sharp. If you can't feel the pins when the rabbit is in good flesh, okay. But with sharp pin bones, it almost doesn't matter how good the flesh is - they are still prominent.
Rabbits that slope badly off at the hindquarter are good candidates for pethood. Again, it's that hindquarter thing. A little slope is one thing. I really want good depth over the hindquarter, but can tolerate something less than perfect for an outstanding front end. But when the sloping is bad enough to detract from the entire appearance of the rabbit, he or she has to go.
There are other characteristics that I dislike, but will tolerate because I know that they fix easily. I hate thin, folding ears, for example, but ears and crown are easy to fix. I don't, however, tolerate those long, long donkey ears. A longish ear on a huge head may be acceptable (though not the goal), but when you see ears down to the knees, that rabbit has to go. Those ears will pop up and haunt you for years, I fear.
Another thing to consider when you decide what faults you can tolerate is to look at your barn. If you have the same strength-fault combination all over your barn, you don't need to keep another one. However, if you get a strength in something you really need, then you might be more liberal in what you tolerate otherwise on that rabbit.
Let's say that you need bone. If you produce a rabbit with outstanding bone, then you probably need to keep that one, unless it has one of those unforgivable sins.
One thing I see is that people are attracted to certain characteristics. They collect rabbits with those characteristics and then buy more rabbits with the same characteristics. That's fine for that good part, but what that often causes is a redundancy of the parts they care less about.
This practice can make those faults really strong in a line - where both the dominant and recessive genes are the same traits and there's nothing in the herd to fix it with.
I think the only thing that can help us is to get opinions from other breeders we trust. They can help point out a fault that runs across our rabbitry - one that we are blind to.
Some people use the philosophy of taking two great rabbits from other breeders and then producing a great offspring. But I think there's a lot of joy in putting together characteristics from different lines. Wouldn't I be thrilled to get a rabbit with Mercedes' coat and condition, Rio's head, bone, and cheeks, Merlin's chunky crown, short, fat ears, and short bone, Brendan's depth and top line, and May's showy attitude and full, boneless-feeling hindquarter (who produces 6 to 8 kits per litter like she does)?
The various characteristics you have represented in your barn are like a pallet of colors to an artist. Make sure you have all of the colors you need. You can't paint a true-to-life picture if all you have is blue and green on your pallet.
Work with your line for a while. Know what you have and how it behaves during breedings. Bring in the parts you need when you identify that something is missing. And celebrate when your unique combination of parts work together to create a winner for you!
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 11:13 AM
