For my first actual blog post, I want to touch base on breeding programs in general, this is for all breeding programs regardless of breed. Each program has an ideal perspective of what animal most resembles the Standard of Perfection based on what is written. Due to comprehensions being up to the reader, this can lead to different thoughts but at the end of the day, there will always be a similar animal sitting in front of the breeder that they think best resembles the SOP. A breeder also has an ideal picture in their head of an animal that they really like, for me personally, I like bulldog type Holland Lops and Netherland Dwarfs where as some breeders do like the more slender or smaller animals. Whatever the case may be, a breeder should always be striving towards producing the best animals that correctly fits the SOP and bettering the breed overall; you want to be producing quality, not quantity.
Breeding programs should be kept on a strict schedule in order to obtain their goals, producing better animals. Often people will hear breeders say, “Breed hard, Cull harder” and this is absolutely true. Don't keep every animal unless you know for a fact they are going to better your program, you simply want to keep the best and move on the rest. I am not saying that the animals that you cull from your own program won't be helpful to another breeder, unless that animal is absolutely pet quality. A lot of breeders, myself included, will purchase multiple “parts animals” to help correct the issues we may have in our own breeding program and that's okay. Remember, there is no such thing as a perfect animal, every animal has a flaw, we just want to reduce the number of flaws to bare minimum but always try to strive to produce perfection. In each breeding program, you will see that the breeder has both show animals and brood animals. There is a numerous amount of reasons for this which from my experience, includes that you often get your best animals from your brood animals. Some people, like myself, are very tough on their brood animals and although we don't consider them being show quality, they can also hold their own on the show tables, they may just not win the class. Again, you want to keep animals back that has only a few flaws to help your program. For brood animals, I will disregard size (weight) as larger does often produce more kits per litter. You want to look at their overall type and make sure they balance. Now let's discuss compatible bloodlines and consistency. Throughout your breeding program, you will find that some bloodlines just do not cross well together and that's okay, it happens. Before most breeders will cull a certain bloodline, we will try taking the 2nd generation and breeding it back to the 1st generation to see if it will produce a nice animal. There is also some bloodlines that should be culled from your breeding program immediately for example, BEWs in a chocolate or shaded program, constantly producing white spots, bad teeth and other genetic disqualifications. If you cull these animals out hard, you will find that you are saving yourself from headaches and heartaches in your program later. With any program, consistency is key. If your animals are constantly producing inconstant animals, I would personally remove those animals from my breeding program. What is consistency? In my opinion, consistency is when you can breed two animals together expecting a certain result and achieving that result, time after time, your animals will continuously get better. Inconsistency is when you breed two animals multiple times and the results are all over the spectrum. With any great breeding program, you will find that breeders continuously try to better their lines and build a solid foundation. When starting out, we often hear, "build your barn before you paint it", now that doesn't mean to disregard color all together. With some breeds, like Netherland Dwarfs, there is certain "dos" and "do nots" that must be followed when breeding them or you risk destroying your program with a bunch of unshowable colors. Most breeders will only bring in new bloodlines into their programs after their foundation is already set, this is key. You want to target a breeder who's line is consistent and a genetic powerhouse and not to mention, animals that are going to help correct the flaws. Often I will take an entire year to focus on correcting two flaws. If I manage to correct those flaws rather quickly, I will start working on my next project. For example, this year the goal was to correct ear position and fur. In order to accomplish this goal, I brought in 5 Netherland Dwarfs from an outside breeder who is well known for both of these being amazing on his dwarfs. With my Holland Lop breeding program, I focused on breeding my animals and will continue to do so until I need to bring in a new line. The whole idea to fix in the HL Program was bone and shortness of limb; the next flaw for me to fix is crown. One thing you never want to do with your breeding program is go backwards. If your current litters are not achieving the goal you had in mind, sometimes it is best to sit back and rethink the situation as something is not working. This may include culling animals from your program and don't be afraid to cull entire litters if they are not better than their sire/dams. Breeding rabbits is all about the journey and sometimes that includes learning things the hard way and trial and errors. Always remember, even the best breeders out there started somewhere too. I want to wish all my fellow breeders and rabbit addicts good luck with their breeding programs! Remember, never give up! Everyone hits a bump in the road every once in awhile.
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Welcome to our new BUNNY BLOG! I am so excited to start this blog for all our fellow rabbit addicts to follow what's going on in our breeding and show programs! I will be sure to touch up on several subjects in this blog, hopefully add some videos and answer questions based off of my experiences. I want to remind everyone now though that the blog is based off of my opinion and therefore others may agree or disagree. At some point, I may even just move this completely over to a YouTube channel and do video blogs, that's in the future though, not anytime soon. For now, everyone will have to deal with the written blogs. The blogs are going to touch base strictly on rabbit or cavy related subjects. Stay tuned to see our next blog post!
Be sure to leave your comments below including any questions you may have that I can touch base with on the next blog! |
AuthorBrittany is an Open A.R.B.A. exhibitor that raises and shows Pedigreed Holland Lops and Netherland Dwarfs. She started breeding rabbits in 2002 and American Cavies in 2005. Archives
June 2022
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