5 years ago, when I started with rabbits, it was easier to find decent rabbits. Now that we are starting our rabbitry again I am having the hardest time finding quality, pedigreed stock. I insist on pedigreed stock because my goal is to produce the best rabbits I can, not just any ol' rabbits. I do not have facebook and will not go back to facebook. Other than this forum I am not a part of any social media so I have been looking on the ARBA breeder's directory, specific breed registries, google searches, and even stooped down to Craigslist.
My sweet, awesome husband has also been looking and found a Rex breeder in Texas, on Craigslist. The ad said they were pedigreed, and he called the lady. I was also on the phone with them so I could ask questions. I don't even remember what color this particular rabbit was but she sent me his pedigree. Not a single weight, the only info on it was the names of his parents, grandparents, etc and their color and just about every variety of Rex was on that pedigree. Hubby still thought it would be a good addition to our rabbitry but I firmly told him no.
Looking for quality Flemish is also looking like an impossible task. People on craigslist and other ads post a rabbit, we'll say Flemish, that are supposed to be purebred and the dang rabbit isn't even a recognized Flemish color.
And these people are supposedly breeders. I think my husband thinks I'm a rabbit snob, but I told him the whole point of breeding pedigreed stock is to keep to the breed's standard and that pedigree should act as a road map of sorts. You should be able to look at the pedigree and the colors behind a rabbit and know pretty well what it will produce when bred to another color. If the rabbit isn't bred color-correct, there's no predictability and you can get babies with wonky coloring, which is fine for meat and pets, but that's not our primary goal.
And the price has gone up, which is understandable since everything else has gone up. In a couple weeks we are taking a road trip to Texas to get a beautiful junior Rex buck and we are paying more for him than I paid for my pedigreed junior Flemish buck a few years ago.
I have emailed about a dozen people I found on rabbitbreeders.us and ARBA and most of the time I never get a reply back or the email address is no longer valid lol.
