all about economics.. hmmm sad and true.

The ethics of the breeder... coming into this new, I'm learning so much about these ethics. Where the novice "i think I'll get a pet rabbit for my kid to learn responsibility", has no clue that ethics are even involved, ykwim?

I believe this is what happened to my parents, when they bought my first rabbit I had as a teen. She fit completely in one hand. They were told she was a small breed (I don't know if they were told she was a dwarf or not). She grew to be 22 pounds... and she might have been a little overweight, but I'm not sure she was... she was not a fat rabbit.

She was sold to us so small, I doubt she was even four weeks.

Woweee Miss M!! 22 pounds??!! Sounds like a pure Flemmish lol, That would be a bit of a shock thinking you were getting an older rabbit that was supposed to be smallish! happened to my sister too she ended up with a monster after being told it was a dwarf, many moons ago...

It happens all the time. People want cute little dawrfs for pets, but big rabbits pop out more babies per litter so if you sold them young enough people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. You could make more money then you could off an actual dwarf who only has 2-3 babies a litter. Those people make me sick, they shouldn't be anywhere near a living breathing animal.

Yessirree... she was a big, big bunny rabbit. Our cat was scared to death of her. I wonder if she was Flemish... I have no memory of the shape of her body, just that she was a very big agouti. Good thing my parents had bought a large dog kennel for me to keep her in! She certainly grew into it!

idk why, maybe I'm naive... but that just seems awful to me. When I dove head first into this, i had no idea that such fraud even existed. I feel sometimes like i should shout it from the roof tops!

Our first litters are due pretty soon, and we have a co-owned doe who was due yesterday. I, personally, will not be selling kits until 8 weeks of age. I will be weaning at 6.

the law here is 8 weeks on chicks duck and rabbits if sold as a pet. that is why TSC has a sign out that says that the Easter bunnies and chicks are for AG, that way they can sell them younger.

I can't seem to find any law for my area that says anything about age although their are some townships that have banned rabbit sales due to people who release then when they no longer want to care for the animal.
I personally like 7-8 weeks of age before being sold as a pet, I was sold a baby rabbit once that later I grilled the seller about the actual age as I felt I was lied to. Was told the rabbit was 5-6 weeks when I found out its birth date it was 3 weeks, tiny thing she grew up fast and then turned into the meanest bunny I've before or since dealt with.
So I let them grow up with their mom due to that experience.

VA is 8 weeks for pretty much anything other than birds.
I've read that it is best for the puppy to be with mom and siblings until 12 weeks. The issue with that is no one wants an 'old' puppy. They sure complain about the mess, but they don't care, they want them young and as cute as possible. Same thing with everything else, it's all about how cute and cuddly it looks. Few people seem to care if it's not healthy for them and then loose their minds when it get sick or dies.
But that's people for you.

I don't sell until the very least 8 weeks of age or more as I don't sell until the rabbit is ready to thrive, my tiny lions and netherlands can be 14 or 15 weeks before I'm comfortable for example. I know some that could do very well at 6 weeks in all likelihood but my personal comfort is 8. WV has no state requirements for public sale per say and if people want to sell 2 week olds they can. I've seen it and spoke up, but was told it was the buyers problem if they died not the seller as the buyer takes over responsibility for their care and life. Don't like it for multiple reasons...rabbit is very likely to die and all but one other is when 1 person gets tagged in an area as a person that's selling bad rabbits then it that gets pasted onto every one being as bad and evil in the given area or by knowing that person even if they aren't bad and evil. Its not as bad as it used to be even though I know it is bad period to for those that are too young to be sold, but two years ago I can remember seeing kids with their eyes just open being sold for 15.00 to 25.00 each. I think the price of feed has pretty much made a quick buck on them impossible though which got rid of those sellers...feed's at about 15.00 to 20.00 per 50 lb bag by the time you get it with tax (not counting fuel or time to get it).

When I raised Harlequins I had a very strong pet market for them. A local pet store with knowledgable employees and managers bought nearly every rabbit that I didn't want to keep for myself. Keep in mind that this is the dream hook-up and not every pet store is as intelligent in educating their customers and employees.

The only problem was that, for whatever reason (corporates?) they were not allowed to buy rabbits over the age of five weeks. If you've ever met a Harlequin, you can tell a gangly eight week old from a little chubby five week old. I did sell babies at six weeks old because they still could pass for a baby, because they were, but they were eating solid food fine. If I didn't trust the employees with educating the customers, I never would have sold them babies that small.

I've been told that the legal age to sell a rabbit in Michigan is eight weeks. Whether that is true or not I'm not certain because I've never seen the actual law in print.

Technically PA is 8 weeks for dogs and cats, no real mention of rabbits buts thats the guidelines that I follow. Since I make the first cut(whose staying whose going) at 8 weeks it does work for me, and most Pet Shops follow the 8 weeks guideline. Which is what it really is with rabbits in PA, I used to think it was the law until I took the time to read the language, which doesn't really include rabbits, or cavies or any rodents. Or chickens for that matter, which by the way the USDA considers rabbits 'Poultry'. Haven't figured that one out yet. There are ways of telling their age, body appearance of course, but the biggest one is coat, particularly with a chinchilla colored rabbit. They start to change out of their baby coat, and you can tell by the emergence of the new coat roughly how old they are. Works well with fryers, and older juniors. If all they have is baby coat and a baby looking body you can hazard a guess on age as well. White is harder to do this with. I've sold rabbits as young as 6 weeks or so, PA used to be 7 weeks until the law changed 3 years ago. I don't do younger because I have a good working relationship with the places I sell to, and dead bunnies is bad for business. Better to hold them a bit and make certain their ready to go.

But what about selling to 4H kids for meat pens? Many 4H kids buy their meat pens at a young age and then raise them for the fair, wonder how these laws would influence that situation. Think their supposed to have the kits by 4-5 weeks and raise them to 10 weeks for competition. I'll have to check into that.