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weissangst

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Ihave white does, one White buck and one California buck

I am being offered a very very good looking Red NZ buck and since my California boy is a littleon the shy side, and this Red is really good looking, was curious.

Is there any real difference between the reds and the whites? I read somewhere, the NZ reds grew out slower than the whites?
 
weissangst":39vkfz6n said:
I read somewhere, the NZ reds grew out slower than the whites?
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So I've heard, but some NZW lines grow out WAY too slow for my taste.

Depends on the lines, and if the if the breeder sells everything they produce, or only sell their best.
 
I'll be getting a NZ pair from a friend of mine, and if I can get my mom and sister to at least try it, I might have another friend butcher a few for me. He's going to probably bring me something with rabbit next week. I want to see if I can talk her into trying it lol
 
Not sure where you are but all the NZReds I've seen in Ontario are in the 5 to 9 pound range :(

Crossing reds to whites often produces chestnuts ;) which are not a showable colour but if you're just breeding for meat the fur colour doesn't really matter
 
weissangst":2zh6m3nv said:
this buck is 12 pounds, and I saw the pictures also, so he looks pretty good.
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What are you breeding your rabbits for? If chestnut offspring are going to be eaten - and that color makes a lovely hide, by the way - then you have no reason not to try him but if you are selling to type then it might be worth it to get a couple of does to match him...................

No wait, I MEANT to say no reason to get him if his color is not going to advance your goals, rather than get more rabbits! ;)

When I am tempted by a good buck I will give him three or four test breedings with does who's grow out rate is known to me. That way I know really fast if he is a keeper or a pelt and dog food. We eat every rabbit except mature breeding bucks. They are just too strong for us but the dog loves em!
 
5 lbs for a NZ would be dismal Dood. :(

Silver fox are supposed to be docile and good mothers...right? Never one I've seen. And they never weaned as many kits as I would have liked. Not just one poor line, I've tried different lines and unrelated rabbits. The furthest being from rabbitrys in Michigan and Georgia. I really didn't care for any does of that breed I bought, or produced.

Lilacs are supposed to have smaller litter sizes and growout slower? My Lilacs usually threw 9 kits, weaned them all, and when crossed to a larger buck I could get 5 lbs by 9 weeks. They were sisters. Must have been a good line.

Sometimes I see weights on NZW fryers and I wonder...why do people even keep these poor producers?

Individual rabbits just don't behave like their breed is supposed to, and there are a lot of factors that effect growth rate in kits. You will eventually get a feel for which rabbits do best in your setup.

You can always try whatever seems interesting.
Keep the best, eat the rest, right?
 
I raise NZ Whites, Reds, and Blacks. Have for years. Reds do grow slower than whites. They also have smaller litters. However, you can find individual animals or lines that grow to what would be considered full-size NZ. Just slower.

Reds were the original NZ color. The whites came along when a doe had some albino kits. Once the whites became established, focus was placed on developing them into a meat breed. Rapid growth, high dress-out percentage, high survival rate, consistently good-sized litters, and so on. Blacks were developed out of whites and thus carry most if not all of the positive meat characteristics of the whites. Reds faded into the background as more of a show or specialty breed. ARBA recognizes red, white, black, and broken colors. Folks are working on getting a blue color accepted as well.

If your focus is on developing a meat herd, I'd stick with the whites and California. If you want to "play" a little, get the red and breed him to some of your whites and see what you get...just watch their growth rates. Color-wise, you'll get your best results breeding a red buck to a red doe. I say get the red buck and then look around for red doe somewhere. And then get some blacks....... and some more pens....... and some brokens.......

Good luck to you!
 
appreciate all the feed back

I took a 6 month old white instead, who has a great looking daddy. Decided to leave the red as she wanted triple the price for him, and I cant see a difference between the two to be honest.

The real star of the day was my wife and I...lol

Said breeder was suppose to bring a 4 hole cage set for me. She forgot it, and lived rather far. So, my wife and I were 2 holes short for the 2 new NZws....

I did a quick inventory in my head, and realized I had everything at the house, except the 1/2 x 1 floor steel.

We got home at 345 Began rolling, measuring, bending, cutting. J clips, all while these 2 new bunnies waited in milk crates patiently for a place to go.

By 730 its dark here in East Tennessee, out came the spot lights, Finished the entire thing by 805, except we only cut 2 holes of the 4, but we are quite proud of our 8 foot long cage we built in 4 hours, some of by artificial light.

We put two 18x30s on each end for bucks and grow outs, and two 30x30s in the middle for does with litters. It really looked amazing, will grab some fotos, and now instead of being two holes down, and 100 dollars down, we are only 20 dollars down, and 2 holes are laying empty.
 
my wife is proud as a peacock tonight.

Photos will be coming tomorrow of both the two young NZWs and the wonderful cage.
 
I started out in Feb 08 with a smaller blue buck and a red doe of good size. They produced Fred who is a steele buck, stocky and big. Long story short, I have had Fred with Morgan, who is a 3/4 NZ black, for a few years now and many litters later, I am getting black, blue, steele and just recently, a red doe who grew into a pretty big rabbit. I now have a smaller blue doe, a big black doe and a big red doe to chose from as my does moving forward. The blue actually has beige fur in addition to the blue which is nice and she's throwing a couple different shades of steele, black and a couple different shades of blue so she's a keeper and I"ll keep the big red doe so it looks like Morgan and the black doe will go to camp. I"m breeding for meat and not really paying attention to growth rates too much but my impression is that colour doesn't seem to have anything to do with rabbit size. I think it matters more about the lineage.

Just my personal observation.
 
NZRed are a newly resurrected breed and instead of "keeping the best and eating the rest" people are "keeping the REDS and eating the rest" :mrgreen:

Coupled with the problem of getting non-showable colours when bred to NZWhites, NZBlacks and NZBlue it takes longer to get good production traits into the breed :D
 
Pictures will have to wait.

I drew plans for a cage frame to hold the cages, but I ddrew it with 24 inch deep cages in the plan, because that was the size I had, and the size I as getting

However, when I made the new cages, they wre 30 deep (only dimensions I could do with what I had on hand)

wELL, tHE CAGES CAME OUT PERFECT, AND I WORKED ON THE FRAME FOR THE CAGES ALL DAY EYSTERDAY, BUT I NEVER ADJUSTED MY DRAWINGS FOR 30 DEEP CAGES, STILL HAD THEM DRAWN FOR 24.


Well, just As I finished and was fixing to put the new cages up there, and run the rebars thru the top, I realized my error.

So, until I extend that frame out to the proper length, I need to hold of on the fotos, because I was mad as a hornet yesterday.

I will probably do the extension on Tuesday evening after work,

I refuse to show photos of my mistake although nobody would be able to see it, I would feel horrible showing anyone.

Also, y plans for the manure slide will have to be adusted also, because that simply didn't work the way I wanted it to due to the mistake.
 
Zass":3rl1jx9q said:
Truckinguy":3rl1jx9q said:
The blue actually has beige fur in addition to the blue
Click to expand...

She sounds like a blue steel to me. :)
Click to expand...

It's a very very light blue with a mixture of very light beige, you have to look close to see the different colors. One of her kits has a similar coloring with a little white tinge added around the edges. The coloring is so soft, kind of like pastel colors and the kit looks as soft as a cotton ball! This is a new color to me and one of the reasons I like the multicolor rabbits as opposed to all white.
 

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