Breeding Show Rabbits

Showing rabbits is fun, but what is even more fun is having a rabbit of your own breeding win! It's one thing to purchase a known winner and win, it's a split moment of joy, but you expected it to happen to a point. It's slightly more exciting when a junior or un-shown rabbit you purchased, and saw the potential in, wins, you get that pride that you know how to pick a good rabbit. But you didn't produce that rabbit yourself, it has someone else's prefix.

Creating a good show rabbit doesn't happen over night. Sure you can get that once in a "lifetime" rabbit that you produced by accident from a certain cross, but when you go to repeat it, they throw only brood animals. No matter how many times you did the cross, you never got the same quality again. New breeders hear of others who got a big winner in their first litter, and think that will happen to them, when in reality it was a fluke. It was that one in a million and it happened to another breeder.

In reality, it takes a lot of time depending on the quality of your starting stock. The point in breeding is so that you can consistently produce winning animals. I'd much rather have an animal that consistently places 2nd or 3rd no matter the judge than have one that wins the class once and then places in the bottom all the other shows.

I get disappointed in breeders when they only care about constantly winning, and get very upset when their rabbits do not win. Everybody has bad days showing, some more than others, but it happens to everyone at some point. My mantra with every hobby I have is "if it isn't fun anymore, don't do it". I am in this hobby because I enjoy it! I have fun, even when I loose, I take it as a learning experience and evaluate where I am heading with my breeding program.

I didn't expect to get my first wooly and be able to grand him in about three shows, I didn't know that would happen. Sure I was hopeful that I had purchased a rabbit that could win, but without knowing what I was looking for I just wanted a learning experience and something fun to show. I guess I knew I was heading down the road to only having Jersey Woolies after getting my first BOG, but it was still unexpected.

Being able to consistently put winners on the table is an awesome feeling that I hope I can have in the near future. But, I don't want to always win, I want to have competition because that pushes you to become better. How can I hope to do well at a national level if I am not competing against quality stock locally?

This blog is written more out of being slightly taken aback at what has been said by newer breeders in the hobby. They are wanting to produce show stoppers their first litter with complete outcrosses or the like, and don't understand why they aren't. It all comes back to knowing your lines and starting with related stock from one or two sources. I have been there done that, and I have sold out of 3 breeds before understanding what I wanted to do and what it would take to achieve it. I wish I had taken that advice my first time out rather than picking and choosing and hoping they would produce well.

Until next time,

Kelsey Nelson

KN Rabbitry