So I culled everyone, Akemi for his attitude and Yori for his messed up type, to gamble on Hitoshi, that odd marked broken from Amako. At a little over 4 months he's turning out fairly nice. Better body, lots more depth than I was getting, but the really really narrow shoulders of his dam. I have learned a lot playing with rabbits with conformation faults. For christmas next year I want a pair of mccabe MR which only run $100-$250 each to truly start my MR rabbitry.

He may have narrow shoulders, but he's sure a handsome buck! Beautiful pattern!

Very pretty!love that pattern.i want that on my Netherlands.

he's not prefect, but you know what??? that's how you build your herd. You work your way up with what you have, and then buy in as you need it. You don't need the $200 rabbit, you can work with the $30-50 rabbits as well.

I was just joking to my husband's family that I wanted mccabe rabbits for christmas next year since they never know what to get me (I got $300 in cash for my birthday which was useful since I needed $124 for college payment and $90 for books) and even the worst quality rabbit from there would be a big improvement over my best right now so it wouldn't matter what they got me.

I'd have to get to some shows to pick out $30-$50 rabbits which I haven't been able to since there's like 2 that we wouldn't have to spend all day driving for. We don't have real fuel efficient vehicles either. The crv isn't bad but we still calculated about $200 in gas to get some $15 does and $50 buck mini rex I wanted on the other side of Iowa. I am still sad. They were pretty chocolates and a broken buck.


Hitoshi really is an improvement since I'm working off of this

and this

(ugly pinched, narrow head on that one too)

I'm not sure I have anything that can fix those shoulders though. I'll have to take a chance with Tsuya in the spring.

At the risk of sounding gross... I just wast to smoosh my face in his butt!! It just looks so plush hehe. I think he looks good.Breeding rabbits is like cooking you just have to keep tweeking the recipe till it comes out just right

sissy says the lastpicture with narrow head she doesnt like because his feet are to thin

Hate to say this but shoulders are one of the hardest things to fix. In your place I'd breed what I had now but when I was able to get better rabbits I would not cross them together. Or I would invest in the absolute best buck I could find, faults in does are acceptable, but your buck must be as close to perfect as your funds allow. Cross him on your does, keep does, breed them back to their sire, see what you get, and if it improves the shoulders. Only keep the absolute best. Always chose for good shoulders and short, wide well furred feet, will save you a lot of trouble in the future.

Here's some hints and tips for picking some good Mini Rex.

- Look for parallel hind legs. If they point together in the back, like a V, then they have pinched hindquarters.
- Also on the back legs, you want them short and thick. That, plus a big thick head, will help you find ones with good bone. If they have good bone, chances are that they are nice and wide too.
- To tell if the ears are too long - pose up and balance a pencil across the back. Ears should be shorter then where the pencil hits.

Shoulders are AWFUL to try to fix.

My current mini rex are only for fun and most get turned in to dog food that don't sell for pets so a few times I've kept color over type and other things you should not do but bad shoulders do just seem to come with the area. All the commercial and compact breeds lack good shoulders around here except a few lines. One of my 2 founding bucks and the founding buck of 3 other rabbitries with several BOB, BOS, and I forget his legs since she doesn't record that stuff on her pedigrees but had it on her site had bad shoulders and still won all over. He was out of some older McCabe stock. I actually liked his granddaughter she sold me a lot better and probably should have kept her but she was a poor mother with litters that didn't top 3 and poorly fed. The completely unrelated line I got from Wisconsin also had narrow shoulders which led to that lilac when long body got thrown in.


That blue had some feet issues as well and developped sores easy but absolutely beautiful coat. Haven't seen such a dense coat on a rex and his sire was one of the smallest mini rex. That's the buck I kept the black doe, Tsuya , out of to try to pass her coat on and the lilac buck which I culled. I don't have a good adult pic of Tsuya but much rounder from the top with less shoulder issues and better feet but some excess length of body and lack of depth. She's out of that doe I said I shouldn't have sold.

Even other breeds like the champagnes and cremes have shoulder problems which led to cremes being bred to NZ here. Part of the reason I quit breeding purebred champagne's was even with one of the main breeders in wisconsin selling out of his stock and giving me some of his better rabbits I still couldn't sell except in a small area because of the bad shoulders on every kit. The doe I kept is pretty good but it's not worth hunting down a good champagne or creme buck for the 1 doe of each breed that I kept when I don't show. They get bred to a meat mutt who somehow ended up not only a nice color (really rich red chestnut) but better shoulders than both parents and big and blocky from feet to head. I guess we chalk it up to hybrid vigor.