Who raises them? Not sure how I'll find some where I am but I have seen them on Craigslist before. I really am hesitant to buy off CL at this point. That's where I found the rabbits (Tamuk's) I have now and it's not been a very good experience. I am looking to get rid of the Tamuk's I have. I saw in a rabbit book that they are good meat rabbits. Finer bone and higher yield. We are in Northern CA so heat is a concern. Is there anyone here that sells them in Nor cal? Any breed information would be appreciated. I'd like to have some better feedback before jumping into a new breed.
Thanks in advance!
I've had Champagne D'Argents for a few years and have found them to be very good meat rabbits, though not any better than Satins, Californians, or New Zealands. I have bred high-quality stock in all four breeds, and in my experience, none of them had remarkably better yield or meat-to-bone ratio than the others - they were all good. Champagnes' adult size puts them in the weight range of the NZ, both of those breeds being a bit heavier than Cals or Satins (which are slightly smaller adults, and eat slightly less as well). The Cals and Satins also have finer bone than the Champagnes and NZs, which makes sense since the former two don't have quite as much mass to support with their skeletons.
I can't really speak to heat tolerance; while we usually get at least a bit of summer weather, a "hot" day where we live is in the 80's.
No meat rabbit will have a finished, prime coat at typical fryer age of 8-10 weeks, but IMO the Satins, Cals and NZs still have skins worth keeping for light uses like trim or mitten liners.
The Champagnes, however, generally take longer than that to develop their beautiful silvered pelt, and at 8 weeks you'll typically get fur looking more like this (individual patterns vary tremendously, but you get the idea). Still okay for mitten liners, I guess, but not what most people want in a rabbit pelt:
My Champagne stock came from friend who brought them up from a breeder in Washington. The rabbits were beautiful, and they breed well and so far are very good mothers. However, I have since found that they have numerous health and reproductive faults that I never had or long ago eliminated in my Satins. These include a tendency toward sore hocks, malocclusion, wildly varying litter sizes, and fryer weights showing more than a pound difference between the smallest and largest bunny in a litter. That being said, I
have found that the Champagne growth rates are usually quite good. Another negative is that the Champagne's temperaments also vary wildly, with some rabbits being sweet as pie, and others so nasty they ended up
in a pie (pot pie, to be exact).
Note that my Champagnes all came from the one breeder, so it's not necessarily true that all Champagne D'Argents have these (or this many) problems. If you don't want to repeat your Tamuk experience, my advice would be, no matter which breed you choose, to get to know some breeders and find out what hurdles they face with their stock. There are no perfect rabbits - you just have to pick the ones with faults and challenges you can live with. Finding a few rabbit shows you can visit can be a good way to meet and talk with breeders. You may end up choosing a breed because of the people who raise that breed!
There is a national breed club, the Champagne d'Argent Rabbit Federation, that may be able to help you find stock nearby, and where you might find other breeders to share their own experiences with the breed. Their website is
https://www.cdarf.us/
