Thoughts on future breeds I plan to get

After tons of research on what breeds are popular and uses for the said breeds, I think I have found a few I would be very happy with, but I want your opinions on having dealt with them and what you think of them.
German/French Angora's: I want to get a breeding pair of German Angora's as well as a trio of French in black, chocolate, and lilac.
Rex- Not mini's but the full size, these would be show standard rabbits, although I don't know how much I'll actually show but I'd like to go to a few. I wanna get a trio that's unrelated, I'll get more if they do well.
Dutch- I've seen quite a bit of interest for them in the area so I figured I'd get just two and if they do well I'll go from there.
Lops- I'm kinda on the fence with these, I think they are cute but I kinda miss the ear expressions of the buns...Are they worth it? I might get two and if they sell well then just keep breeding them till they are too old then keep them as pets.

We only have experience with the lops. We have Hollands and for our area they are pretty sought out. We never have too much trouble getting them sold. I am not exactly sure what you mean about the ears. There ears really aren't any different to care for IMHO than our calis or giant chins. A friend of ours loves the dutch, and they seem to make great pets. Friendlier and about the same size as our Hollands get. I know the standard rex work great for shows, but are also popular and there is usually a lot of competition. We are hobby showers, and we are only able to attend the show that stay within a 100 mi radius or so. Its fun even though we aren't as competitive as our friends who go all over the place.

I've tried a few different lop breeds, and I can't say I am big fan. Lops generally have more health problems than other breeds (not because of their ears, but everything else - HL have thick fur and get diarrhea that mats in it easily, plus problems with the dwarf gene and malocclusion, same with AFL, EL just aren't super hardy, and they can have almost every structural problem in the book, from pigeon breast to hooked spine, VL are the same thing but also prone to sore hocks, FL have eye problems. ML are the healthiest, but even then I wouldn't consider them a generally healthy breed). Mostly, I didn't like their temperament and appearance though - it seems to be that every lop buck sprays.

I really liked my dutch, but if you plan on breeding them, you have to be prepared to cull...With their markings, a good portion of the kits are born with DQs, even out of two show quality parents. Lovely temperaments, and beautiful, hardy rabbits though. It is probably best to have more than two so you have a better chance for show quality kits (if only 1/10 has good markings - idk what that percentage is for dutch, that's about what it was for harlequins, which were my main marked breed - then if you have double the kits, you have double the show marked kits).

Rex are nice, pretty good temperaments on them (not as good as the dutch, but then again, the only things as good as the dutch in temperament are Himalayans and Flemish giants). If you're only getting a trio, you might have to avoid some of the more "interesting" colors though, because color breeding matters in them. (again not as much as in dutch - dutch breeders are really strict about crossing colors). The main things to worry about in rex is finding ones that meet the minimum weight and don't get sore hocks. In general, dilutes don't have as good of density, so I'd start with non dilutes if you were planning on showing.

German & French angora are nice, if you are planning on spinning the wool. You can't show german angoras, however. With the French you might have a hard time finding those specific colors, chocolate is more common in satin (from what Ive seen) and lilac is pretty rare in all the angora breeds. They're pretty friendly too (up there with dutch), but also expensive.

What are your specific goals?

I have no experience with Dutch, but I do know from what others have said that Sable is right. You have to cull heavily for properly marked Dutch. If your not willing to eat your culls you have to find them all homes, and I know my rabbit market around here no one would pay what the rabbit is worth to ensure a good home.

As far as angoras, as much as I love the wool breeds, I highly discourage anyone who isn't spinning or already has a market in place for their fiber from getting any. They are very high maintenance, with not only special grooming needs, but also special feed and care needs beyond what the other rabbits need. You constantly have to stay on top of potential mats, poo dangling from the cage, all the spare wool all over the cage, potential hairball, be twice as vigilant about makiing sure there's no chance of heat stroke, make sure the kits don't get strangled by the longer fur in the nest...the list goes on and on. Again, I love the angora breeds, but they are a massive commitment if youre not planning on using the wool. I suppose someone might deal with that just to show, but I can't see why anyone would take that on just to have a few woolies. I spent 2 hours grooming just 8 rabbits last night because all eight of my angoras with enough coat to warrant grooming are in various stages of molt. And I have five babies that will be putting on a coat in the next two weeks too, soo... To sum it up, it's a lot of work if you're not getting something out of the bargain.

And thats not even beginning to describe the struggle of trying to find the angora kits homes if you don't plan on eating them. You can't just sell them to anyone for a low price as they'll likely be stuck in the backyard and forgotten by some well meaning person who doesn't realize what they require if you don't take the time to sell them for what their worth and screen the homes. I've rescued too many rabbits who were sold under those circumstances and it's heartbreaking to see how matted and sick they are from lack of care. It's why I have a checklist of things I ask potential buyers and have turned down likely as many people as I've sold to.

I love Dutch but figured out I could not raise them. You have to have a lot of them to be competitive in shows and have to cull most of every litter. Angoras are high maintenance even more than my Belgians. I spin so I wanted some fiber rabbits. I have a pair of French and I love them. But made a deal with myself that I need to be able to cull my litters down to the best by 16 weeks old if I am going to breed. That is going to hard on me but I doubt I will have a good market for them in my area and I will not sell Angoras as pets.

macksmom98":3rd4sza1 said:

We only have experience with the lops. We have Hollands and for our area they are pretty sought out. We never have too much trouble getting them sold. I am not exactly sure what you mean about the ears. There ears really aren't any different to care for IMHO than our calis or giant chins. A friend of ours loves the dutch, and they seem to make great pets. Friendlier and about the same size as our Hollands get. I know the standard rex work great for shows, but are also popular and there is usually a lot of competition. We are hobby showers, and we are only able to attend the show that stay within a 100 mi radius or so. Its fun even though we aren't as competitive as our friends who go all over the place.

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My ear thing wasn't about caring for their ears. I was more talking about the lack of expression, like my bunnies ears are always moving everywhere turning side to side, and the such, always listening to everything, but the floppy ear buns lack that.

Harelady":3rd4sza1 said:

I love Dutch but figured out I could not raise them. You have to have a lot of them to be competitive in shows and have to cull most of every litter. Angoras are high maintenance even more than my Belgians. I spin so I wanted some fiber rabbits. I have a pair of French and I love them. But made a deal with myself that I need to be able to cull my litters down to the best by 16 weeks old if I am going to breed. That is going to hard on me but I doubt I will have a good market for them in my area and I will not sell Angoras as pets.

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Well I guess I'll drop the dutch idea, a girl at a local pet store offered me one, I might take her and keep her as a pet, she's too old to be bred, but I figured if I liked her I'd get a breeding pair, I don't want to get as deeply into and as many as I would need to be successful with them so I guess that cross' that option off the list.

PSFAngoras: I found a drop spindle and really wanna try it out, I do plan to use the fiber from my Angora's and crochet/knit with it. I'm very aware they are going to be a lot of work and maintenance which is why I don't have them yet. I have in mind a set-up with a fan blowing through the cages during summer, I know they need pineapple or mango juice pretty regularly to prevent wool block. I plan to get a k-9 fluffer before I get them as well, even though I don't want to show them, the sounds of piles of dandruff stuck to their skin sounds awful. I'm very aware of all the grooming and so on which is why I only want two or three French to start with and I'll add German's if I feel comfortable with it. I wanna try to get some of those solid metal stacked cages about 3 high and 3 wide that way I'll have 2 spare grow out cages if I decide to breed, I'm only going to breed if I decide to get into showing them.

SableSteel: My only past experience of a Lop was a Holland I believe and his name was Henry Hugglemonster (Many parents probably know the show) he was a tri-color and we called him Henry "hump'lmonster. He humped EVERYTHING, sprayed all over me, my siblings, my other rabbits, he was a nasty little thing. But him and my step-mom loved each other.

I like up ears but I've found every lop I've known to be really lay back. They don't mind being picked up and hugged. They would be great pets. They also have big wide hind feet so no sore hocks.