Flemish Giant????

[nvstickbow]

When I bought my rabbits the seller told me that this guy is a Flemish Giant. I'm sort of wondering if that is correct since he is no bigger than the New Zealand doe that I bought. He is supposed to be around two years old. I weighed him today on my bathroom scale and he only weighs around 8-9 pounds. I weighed him by stepping on the scale and checking the weight and then having one of my kids hand him to me and checking the difference in weight. Perhaps not the most accurate way to weigh a rabbit but it's all I have for now. I attached a picture of him and also a picture of his fur type in case that helps. Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

[Dood]

He could be a cross and as he came from a shelter this is most likely.

He looks a bit big boned to be a purebred American Chinchilla or other meat breed such as a chinchilla coloured New Zealand or Californian.

A small Giant Chinchilla is another possibility but they are quite rare and his ring colour is not quite right so I think he is likely just a chinchilla coloured Flemish crossbred.

 

[dayna]

He sure is handsome!

 

[Secuono]

I can't find any FG that are actually giants, people are just flooding the market with culls...Seems like the only people who do have real FG want $100 or more per rabbit.

He looks like a thin amchin or thin giant chin. But to be a FG and only 9# at 2yrs...that's the size of a regular chin or a crappy amchin... =/

He's pretty either way.

 

[phillinley]

Agreed with Dood. Either a GC or a FG in the ancestry because the mandolin and blocky head is there, but other than that it's a crap shoot. Just because he's 9 pounds doesn't necessarily rule out flemish, he could have been underfed growing up. Our first FG was like that. He had parents all the way down the pedigree at 14-16 pounds but he only ended up at 10 because the people we got him fed him much less than he needed and kept him in a mini rex sized cage his first five months of life.



As far as $100 flemish. I've sold a bunch of purebred pedigreed Flemish in the past month or so for about $20-$25 (and 3 for free). I am not the norm, but there are people out there who do have reasonable prices on these guys.

 

[nvstickbow]

I was wondering about the possibility of him possibly being a chin or Flemish cross. Not sure though. He is one of my first two rabbits and I just bred him to my NZ doe. Should make pretty babies. I don't have any real experience with rabbits other than the rabbit kids bunnies when I was in 4H growing up.

 

[ckcs]

Maybe it's a dwarf flemish giant lol. My vote would be a cross. Around here FG crosses are very common. So common that I'm leary of anyone selling a full flemish giant.

 

[Sinnfox]

I have a flemish giant that is that small...I know she is full blooded and out of rather large stock so she should at least twice her size (her parents and all the breeder's other flemish were all approaching 20lbs since the breeder bred for size for years), but she is only a bit over a year old. I know why she is small though..I bought feed at a store and turned out it was bad...killed several of my rabbits and made several others sick. She was one of the survivors...but it happened while she was still growing so stunted her growth badly. :/...other then illness like my poor girl went through I can't think of any other valid reason why a full flemish would be that small. If it had gone through something like that you'd think they would have told you though :/

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I have a flemish giant that is that small...I know she is full blooded and out of rather large stock so she should at least twice her size (her parents and all the breeder's other flemish were all approaching 20lbs since the breeder bred for size for years), but she is only a bit over a year old. I know why she is small though..I bought feed at a store and turned out it was bad...killed several of my rabbits and made several others sick. She was one of the survivors...but it happened while she was still growing so stunted her growth badly. :/...other then illness like my poor girl went through I can't think of any other valid reason why a full flemish would be that small. If it had gone through something like that you'd think they would have told you though :/

If it was the runt of the litter it could be that small...actual runts don't usually achieve full growth.

 

[JDWest]

I've been seeing alot of small pure Flemish. The last couple of years there has been a glut of Flemish, all different qualities. If you don't continually and actively select for size they can retract alot in that department. They also need to be fed well or they won't achieve their full potential.

Your boy looks good... nice colour! The babies should be real pretty! And you can select for the meat traits as you go.

 

[phillinley]

If you don't continually and actively select for size they can retract alot in that department. They also need to be fed well or they won't achieve their full potential.

We've been dealing with this with our blues and blacks. We can get them to show minimums, but we need to add another 3-4 pounds to get them competitive with the other varieties.

 

[bobqdevon]

Flemish Giant / New Zealand cross...

 

[Sinnfox]

I have a flemish giant that is that small...I know she is full blooded and out of rather large stock so she should at least twice her size (her parents and all the breeder's other flemish were all approaching 20lbs since the breeder bred for size for years), but she is only a bit over a year old. I know why she is small though..I bought feed at a store and turned out it was bad...killed several of my rabbits and made several others sick. She was one of the survivors...but it happened while she was still growing so stunted her growth badly. :/...other then illness like my poor girl went through I can't think of any other valid reason why a full flemish would be that small. If it had gone through something like that you'd think they would have told you though :/

If it was the runt of the litter it could be that small...actual runts don't usually achieve full growth.

i had forgotten about that since most of my runts tend to catch up to thier siblings after a while...but yeah some don't actually get as big as thier siblings

With my rabbit the breeder had two or three dozen available when I got them...I got three of the larger ones...the other two actually died thanks to how ill the awful feed made them, and I lose a few other rabbits of other breeds as well thanks to it. she was sick for a while before I could get her to recover and she hasn't really grown much since...that's why I believe her growth was stunted. Needless to say I don't ever by food from that place now...or even the same brand at other places.(it wasn't moldy and didn't smell bad/abnormal at all, from what happened with the rabbits you'd think it had been poisoned but that would be crazy) I actually have a male runt out of stock that was fairly small from another breeder and he is nearly twice my poor doe's size..I got him after the feed incidence so I'm sure it had to have been that. It's why I couldn't imaging it not being mentioned if it had happened to the rabbit in question here.

 

[nvstickbow]

Thanks for all the input. Maybe he is purebred Flemish. I don't have any papers and my kids would never allow me to sell him either way. He is a neat guy and very friendly with my kids. I separated him from the doe for a day and when I re-introduced her into his cage he didn't waste any time getting her bred.

My kids are just getting into 4H and we are going to be getting purebred rabbits for that purpose. He should provide our family with lots of good meat mutt babies.