LAZY HAZY DAYS OF SUMMER     By Al Roland   

 

     Here we are, the shows are over until fall, now we can sat back and let the world go by, but wait, what about the fall shows, and the big (ARBA CONVENTION SHOW), are the rabbits going to be ready and available on their own? 

 

     This is the time we must find those future winners, the time to breed for our meat pens, and too it is the time to analyze breed stock, we must go over our records as well as our livestock to see which ones did the job.  What do we look for?

 

1.      How easy was the Doe to breed?

2.      How many kits did she give birth to?

3.      How many kits did she raise?

4.      What was the quality of those she raised?      

5.      Size at 8 weeks (Litter weight?)

A.     How many were show quality? 

6.      What was her condition when the kits were 8 weeks old?

7.      Remember the Californian is a must type rabbit, she must be capable of raising 40 rabbits each year, and these kits must weight 4 pounds each or better at 70 days old.

Now take each Doe, analyze her, did she qualify in all categories, did she come close?  You must decide this now and make your decision to keep her or not.

 

Now lets look at your Bucks, it is said that a Buck is half of your herd, bare this in mind when you analyze them.

 

1.      How old are your Bucks, a Buck does his best from 1 to 3 years of age, after that kits from him will usually tail off.

2.      Does he still have substance or is he generally run down?  (Because he is old and out of condition)

3.       Is his fur still good, does he molt often?

4.      How is his health in general?

5.      Has he been throwing large or small litters?

There are things on older Californians you don’t have to be concerned  about, here is a couple of them.

 

1.      Most older Californians have smut, this does not pass down to their kits.

2.      Most older Californians are not quite as firm as they once were, but still have good substance, and condition.

 

 You should Cull older rabbits when the things stated above are evident, also if they have thin or sore hocks.  There are other things I am sure that could be included, but this a very good start.

                                                                                                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          CONDITIONING A RABBIT                                          BY:   AL ROLAND

 

To be competitive, anything must be in good condition.

 

1. What is condition in terms of a rabbit?

 

1. The physical state of a rabbit in reference to health, cleanliness grooming and general condition of it’s fur.

 

2. Condition in most rabbits are included in TYPE in the standards as:  Flesh to be firm and free from over-fatness or a loose flabby condition.

 

3. Every breeder who wins consistently has his own pet theory that works for him, it may not work for you but here are some tips you might try, I am sure some will work if you work at them.

 

1. Breeding:

 

(1)    Stay within the bloodline.

(2)    Sire and Dam must be in good average condition at the time of mating. 

(3)    If the Doe is kept in good condition, she will bear a litter a lot easier and do a better job raising them.

(4)    Two or  three days before kindling, cut her feed down slightly (she may do this herself), so she will not have milk when the young are born , and first start nursing.  She should have a sugary type liquid the first couple of days.

(5)    The Doe may need rest after each litter, some do not this depends many times on how you breed your bloodline.

(6)    Things that upset the animal can affect their condition.

(7)    Pick young to save that are good eaters.

(8)    Pick young that are hard and have medium to short fur, and relatively thick fur, never pick one with long fur.

 

      

2. (!)  Use a good basic pellet, 15 to 18% protein, and 18 to 20% fiber.
3. (2)  Feed 5 to 6 oz daily to single rabbits, after the Doe kindles increase her feed to 10 oz gradually, starting on the third day, if droppings stick to wire,    

                        decrease the feed slightly.

(3)      If rabbits go off feed give them:

         

a.       Hard stale bread.

b.      Hay or straw.

c.       Wild grape or strawberry leaves.

d.      Small amounts of dandelion greens.

e.       Comfrey.     

f.        Oak leaves, green or dry.

 

4. Rolled or crimped oats are good for kits, feed separate from pellets.

 

5. Never rush the kits along, if you do you will throw them into a moult or get them hog fat.

 

6. Never change brands of pellets during the show season, when a Doe is nursing or during a conditioning period if you can help it.  Some feed companies change ingredients in feeds to save cost, stay away from  these companies that practice this if possible.

 

7.  Carry your own feed to over night and longer shows, also your own water if possible.

 

NOTE:  Here are the things to remember

      .                                                                                  

A.        You must keep young rabbits eating  at this age, if they lose condition, they never regain it.

 

B.         Handle your rabbits often.

 

C.        Shorter fur rabbits condition easier.

 

D.        Keep rabbits that are good eaters.

 

E.         After a period of time, too high of  protein  can cause rabbits to become flabby in flesh.

 

F.         Proper caging, keep it clean and dry.

 

G.        Ordinarily you feed less in the summer, corn or calf manna is given only to the Does with litters.

 

H.        Heavier rabbits will break in fur more often then leaner ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                         TIP OF THE ICEBERG – READY MADE                        

 

                                                               PART 1                                                          

 

                                   

Through out my years of showing rabbits, I have found three main types of competitors.  The first type is the buyer, they art the individuals who go to shows with stock they have purchased and take credit just like anyone else if they wins.  If they lose they will often try to buy the rabbit that won, this is after they has ridiculed and run the judge down for doing a poor job.  They will boast that this rabbit owned by them was “Best of Breed” three weeks ago and that the judge does not know a good rabbit when he/she sees one.

Many people will buy a grand champion and a month later it will not resemble the same rabbit.

 

I don’t mean to ridicule the person who goes out and buys a good rabbit and later shows it and perhaps makes it a grand champion, you note I said makes, for the person does have a great deal to do with making it a grand champion. Lets discuss how they made it a grand champion.  In the first place they purchased it before it was a champion, they feed and groom this rabbit, they pull it from it’s cage many times, posed it, rubbed it, cleaned it and improves it’s table manners, they put it into top condition and kept it that way, this is a lot of work and if this person was just a buyer, they would not work this hard to get a champion, they would buy it “READY-MADE.

 

 

                                             PATIANCE AND DEDICATION

 

                          PART II

 

 

The second type of person I have met in my years of showing rabbits is the raiser.  This person is a good guy everyone looks for them at the show and expects to see them there.  This person raises all their rabbits, seldom if ever do they buy one, and if they do, they are always looking for a bargain.  I talked to a fellow breeder, and ask in his opinion why a certain individual seldom came up with a winner, and his reply was, he works hard trying to develop his blood line but falls short due to the lack of basic material to work with.  If a person has three rabbits for sale, and one is outstanding, (they  want $100.00 for this one) and the other two are just average (they want $50.00 each for these or $75.00 for the pair of them), they will jump at the two for $75.00 , forgetting that these rabbits  will not help them.  The funny part of it is, they will boast about making such a great deal. As a matter of fact I have given several rabbits to these people in hopes that this will help them, it seldom does.

 

There are raiser that have been around for years that seem to never make their mark, these people fail for many reasons and a few are, poor record keeping, another is poor feeding habits, or poor housing, a lack of true dedication or maybe they experiment,

always trying to develop something new and different or maybe just a better rabbit, this seldom is accomplished by these people and it’s a shame they waste their time, they might just develop into a true breeder if they would change direction just a few degrees. Another failure of these people is impatience, they can’t understand why they are not winning in a big way after all they have been raising this breed for a whole year.  Even with good stock, you must learn your rabbits, you can’t be switching blood lines every chance you get or even worse, switching breeds.  I showed with one person for many years, they averaged a least one new breed each year and this is always a weak breed, as soon as he gets competition he changes to another breed.  There are also those raisers that just have too many different breeds, they can’t do any one of them justice, they are a    

“JACK OF ALL TRADES BUT A MASTER OF NONE.”  

 

I learn something every day about my bloodline and this is what makes it interesting.  Can you imagine what it would be like if you perfected a breed, it would be great for a while but than would you continue to be interested, I doubt it.

 

Here are some basic rules to go with if you want to raise champions:

 

1. Stick to your bloodline if it is from a good basic one.  If you must bring in outside blood, bring in a doe.  If you bring in a buck, bring two does from that same bloodline in with him. Always purchase first class stock.

   

2. Learn to breed features such as good depth, full hard bodies, good color and fur, etc.

 

3. Learn to feed properly, go to that successful breeder, ask him how to feed, he will tell you, that is the nature of the successful breeder.

 

4. Don’t be switching breeds all the time, pick out one or maybe two and stick with them, give them a chance to do you proud.

 

5. Don’t experiment, leave that to the expert, or the person that has the room in his rabbit house to do it.

 

6. Don’t raise more rabbits than you can’t afford to feed or house properly, or more then you have time to properly care for.

 

7. Most of all be patient, and if you are, and if you are truly dedicated, you may become a breeder.

 

 

                                                          

 

 

 

 

                                                          PART III             

 

 

                            TIP OF THE ICEBURG  -  MAKERS OF CHAMPIONS

 

 

The breeder is the third individual I want to talk about.  I have met very few of these type of people in comparison.  This is the person we hate to see show up at the shows but we always love to beat them. All in all we all respect this person, are proud to know them and without them we would have no champions ourselves.

 

What makes this person a breeder?  Do they have secrets?  Do they feed something special? Do they put something on the rabbits fur? What on earth do they do to get so many winners?  If this breeder doesn’t win, one from their bloodline will. This person sells good stock, that many times comes back to haunt him, but when it’s all said and done they are the ones that continues to show up with the top rabbits. What are their secrets?  Lets face it this person has no secrets, they will tell you everything they do to get these beautiful rabbits, but we don’t really listen, we just don’t believe they are telling us everything, why would he tell us anyway?  The person tells us his “secrets” because he is hoping that someone will listen and become a breeder, they want competition, they want to beat somebody too.

 

Just what do these breeders tell us when we ask them?  Listed below are some of the basic rules all breeders abide by.

 

1.      They spend a lot of time with their rabbits.

 

2.      They are very knowledgeable on what they feed, the amounts they feed and when they feed.

 

3.      They do not jump from one breed to another.  (These individuals will never be true breeders)

 

4.      They either start with or develop a top bloodline and stick with it. This person knows each and everyone of their breeders, they know they must if they are going to continue to produce top-notch rabbits.

 

5.      When and if they go outside their bloodline, they will bring in a doe 90% of the time as they can control this side of the breeding program easier. If in the event they bring in a buck, it will be for a specific feature that will match with or compliment a doe or does they already have in their bloodline. You will note that I said doe as must top breeders will put out a lot of cash for a top-notch match up.

 

6.      They will maintain excellent records, for without them they know they will not produce winners consistently. They must know the background of each rabbit they produce.

 

7.      They keep the size of the rabbitry down to where they can properly manage and maintain it.  Most top breeder are not large breeders.

 

8.      They listen to everyone, no matter how much experience the person may have,  and they read nearly everything they can concerning rabbits, after all they may learn something or it may cause them to remember something they had forgot.

 

9.      Some breeders will have a fellow breeder, one they respects, look over their stock to get their opinion. They know even they can be hutch-blind.

 

10.   They will never let a doe keep more kits than she can take care of, six to eight are     ideal.

 

11.   They never breed rabbits that are in a heavy molt, or that are not in excellent condition.

 

12.    They try to correct one fault at a time.

 

13.    They breed out undesirable traits, such as buck teeth, pinched hindquarters, low shoulders, poor coats, rabbits that molt often, and rabbits that are prone to poor health and other weaknesses in general.

 

14.    They keep in mind that the start of a champion is prior to it’s kindling and they know it is conditioned form the day it is kindled.

 

15.    In culling, they look for substance of body, good depth through out, fullness in saddle and loin as well as in the upper and lower hindquarter.

 

I once read that a truly great baseball player was always good about helping the rookies, they didn’t fear the competition.

 

Always remember what you see on that table is the “TIP OF THE ICEBERG”.

 

 

                                                                BY:

 

AL ROLAND