I have been raising rabbits for almost four years now, and I have worked with many different breeds of rabbits! I've had Satins, New Zealands, Californians, Harlequins , Dutch , Netherland Dwarfs , English Angoras, etc. along with many different kinds of mixed breed rabbits. But the Holland Lops and Fuzzy Lops and Mini Rex are my very favorites. I love the lops, I think their ears are so adorable, and they have such sweet, gentle dispositions! And I loove the velvety, plush fur on the mini rex!
As you probably already know by now, I raise my rabbits for show. As with all breeders, I have show/breeding/pet rabbits all available at times, since unfortunently, all rabbits aren't born to be show stompers. So I usually have different qualities of rabbits availble, and princes that vary depending upon quality. However, my goal is to try to raise the best rabbits possible, and do breedings to try to produce the best rabbits. My goal is to raise quality rabbits that will do well on the show tables, and benefit my herd as well as other breeder's herds. I have only fully pedigreed rabbits, and I cull my rabbits hard because of my limited cage space.
Ofcourse all breeder's want to get their rabbits as perfect as possible and have everything about their rabbits be wonderful, which we still all try to do, but all breeders still usually have their main points on their rabbits that they focus on. And with besides body type ofcourse, I try to focus alot on the ears of my lops and the fur on my mini rex, since I feel that is what "makes" those breeds mainly.. and the wool on the Fuzzy Lops too! I also focus alot on the color of my rbbits, because working with only certain colors, I want to be known by those colors., and have the best castor mini rex, blue fuzzies and tort hollands as possible.
The Holland Lops were one of very first interests in rabbits and one of the very first purebred breeds I aquired. They always have been, and always will be my favorite! I've probably had hollands for almost three years now. When I was getting into rabbits it started out with some mixed breed bunnies I had as pets that I got babies out of... how it starts out for lots of breeders! :) After almost a year of dabbling around in mixes for almost a year, giving them to my friends and posting them around at my local feed mill and other places for sale for five dollars each and breeding a few different breeds I wasn't really enjoying, I finaly learned about something that sounded like so much more fun that I wanted to do... raising pedigreed, purebred rabbits for show! So I started researching the different breeds and I loved the lops.. I was really attracted to their ears. The Hollands appealead to me because of their their small size, variety of colors, disposition, and populaity. I found a nearbyreputable breeder who lives in Matthews and raises pedigreed show hollands, and I went and got my first pair of hollands from her, a broken tort buck and a tort doe. And, that started my love for hollands!
I've probably had Fuzzy Lops for around a year and a half, maybe two years.After getting some of my friends from my Homeschool group into rabbits because they loved my hollands, they went to buy their first fuzzy lops from a breeder in South Carolina... then I ofcourse loved those, and they sold me my first fuzzy. Then my good friend Katie Kirkpatrick who raises the fuzzy lops and is really into that breed helped me out alot and gave me a buck to go with the fuzzy lop doe I had just gotten, which was my first pair of fuzzy lops... a black buck and a broken black doe! And, thats how that started! :)
I worked with my lops for a while and, because of what my fuzzy lops carried in their backgrounds, they produced not only more brkn/solid black babies, but broken and solid blues as well! I was so excited.. the blues had always been my favorite in the fuzzy lops! So, I kept some of those babies... (thats how I got into working with the blues and broken blues).
around the same time I was getting into Fuzzy Lops, I got interested in the Mini Rex. After seeing them on websites I thought they were pretty, but they are even prettier in person! I had gone to a 4-H Summer Fling class that some friends from 4H were putting on about rabbits, and they had some of their Mini Rex there and I fell in love with them and just went crazy over that soft, velvety fur! I knew I wanted some! It wasn't much longer when I was on Beth Haye's website, BentWillow Bunnies and saw a beautiful chocolate Mini Rex doe she was giving away to a good home, that she had gotten from a rescue shelter or something and taken it home and wanted to adopt it out to someone. Ofcourse, I wanted to have her! A few days later we met and I got Simone.. one of the prettiest and sweetest rabbits I had ever seen! ... my very first mini rex! I just kept just Simone for a whle since I hadn't found a buck yet, then... Simone died though :( And, it broke my heart. She stopped eating and drinking.. and I don't know why.. but I couldn't get anything into her, and I lost her :( Then later I was really excited when I got a call from a local rabbit breeder, John Frazier, who has been really helpul and supportive of me. He said he would give me a broken opal mini rex doe.. and he brought her to me a few hours later! She was SO cute and pretty too, I was so excited to have her and named her Simone too. I had good times with her too, until I lost her too, to snuffles, which made me sad as well! Almost made me want to give up on mini rex... which Im glad I didnt though, it dosen't have anything to do with the breed, I was just getting into rabbits enough to start experiencing some of every rabbit breeder's problems! I went again for a while without any mini rex until John Frazier called me again and said he could give me a good deal on a nice pedigreed Castor Doe. So I went the next day and picked her up,I was going to name her Simone too (hehe) but Raisin seemed like a more fitting name for her, so thats what I named her (hehe) and she has done well and I still have her, and i'm excited about her being the start to my castor herd. When I went to get Raisin I remember thinking WOW she really is pretty! So ever since I got Raisin, I knew the Castors were my favorite and what I wanted to work with. I always really liked them, but they are especially pretty in real life!
I had gone for about a year then with just Raisin, and just recently got myself a buck that John Frazier gave me too.. he is a beautiful tort mini rex buck. I now have bred him to raisin and have my first mini rex litter on the way.. Yay!! I know its kinda a wierd color cross.. but its the only thing I can do for now. Anyways.. I was told by another breeder I should get some castor babies out of the breeding though (im crossing my fingers!), that would really help me get my castor herd started which I am really excited about. I love my tort buck, but he may be rplaced with more castors later. I am still looking for a buck rightnow, just a Cstor buck though, that is pedigreed ofcourse. Please contact me if you have one.
I'm really excited about working with my tort hollands and blue fuzzies and castor mini rexs. Hopefully soon you wil see my rabbits on the show tables often , and doing well!
Because I had been having some of every breeder's problems.. I had gotten discouraged and gotten out of rabbits for the past 4 months actually! Luckily I had just sent everything up to my best friend's house, Robbie, and he kept it all for me until I decided to get back in. Well..i'm back in now! Yay! So.. I guess you can tell those 4 months were no fun! I'm glad to be back in and now have 12 rabbits again. I have my rabbitry set up with 15 holes on two walls, and my grooming table, shelving, etc. on one of the walls.. pictures below! Thanks for reading about my rabbitry and visiting my website, please come back soon!
~Sara~
NCRBA Youth Royalty Queen , NCYRBA Vice-President, RTINC Asst. Manager, ARBA and NCYRBA member, ORAFLYSC Newsletter Editor.