Florida Jeff new guy on the block (blog).

[Florida Jeff]

Ahoy fellow rabbit growers out there. I hail from North Florida and have started Deer Point Rabbitry last march with young New Zealand Whites had to wait out summer to start breading as temps in Florida last year were brutal. Wanting to start a line of TAMUKS for more heat tolerance. Looking forward to talking to everyone.
THANKS for the welcome aboard.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

Ahoy Florida Jeff,
We're new too. New to rabbits and new to this site. We have already found terrific support with our newbie questions. We are picking up our first TAMUKs this coming week. We're in TX and wanted a heat tolerant breed for meat rabbits. We'll see how it goes!
Cheers

 

[Florida Jeff]

Ahoy Love my Barnyard: I was wondering if the selective breeding of the TAMUKs for heat tolerance makes them less cold tolerant. Have you found out that to be true?
Thanks again.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

Ahoy Love my Barnyard: I was wondering if the selective breeding of the TAMUKs for heat tolerance makes them less cold tolerant. Have you found out that to be true?
Thanks again.

Well we have no personal experience to share yet, but my understanding is that the reason they are heat tolerant is because of their particularly long ears and their thin hair. I know that the ears have something to do with thermoregulation but I don't know how that works?? Anyway, I'm betting we will need to be a bit more careful with them in the winter. We get our first ones on Friday. If I find out more from our breeder I will pass it on!

 

[Captaincatholic]

Ahoy Love my Barnyard: I was wondering if the selective breeding of the TAMUKs for heat tolerance makes them less cold tolerant. Have you found out that to be true?
Thanks again.

I am picking up some TAMUK rabbits from a PA breeder next week. He says he has them in a building that got down to 14* and they did just fine. As long as they can get out of the wind, they will be fine.

 

[Florida Jeff]

Chaptianchatolic: Thanks for the heads up on the TAMUK cold tolerance. That is good to know. I am thinking about adding a pair to my herd of NZ Whites

 

[ladysown]

welcome to RT.

 

[Florida Jeff]

THANKS for the welcome aboard!

 

[HTAcres]

Ahoy Love my Barnyard: I was wondering if the selective breeding of the TAMUKs for heat tolerance makes them less cold tolerant. Have you found out that to be true?
Thanks again.

It gets below freezing at times where I raise Tamuk in Texas. They do fine.

 

[HTAcres]

Well we have no personal experience to share yet, but my understanding is that the reason they are heat tolerant is because of their particularly long ears and their thin hair. I know that the ears have something to do with thermoregulation but I don't know how that works?? Anyway, I'm betting we will need to be a bit more careful with them in the winter. We get our first ones on Friday. If I find out more from our breeder I will pass it on!

Heat is radiated from the ears so the thin fur covering and large upright shape helps to facilitate that.
One other factor is that they have more of a mandolin or semi arch shape versus the commercial "round" shape of something like New Zealands. You do give up just a little bit of meatiness but the trade off has been worth it to me.

 

[Dimplz]

Ahoy fellow rabbit growers out there. I hail from North Florida and have started Deer Point Rabbitry last march with young New Zealand Whites had to wait out summer to start breading as temps in Florida last year were brutal. Wanting to start a line of TAMUKS for more heat tolerance. Looking forward to talking to everyone.
THANKS for the welcome aboard.

Welcome! From Southern Colorado here. You have joined the best rabbit community available. Everyone is helpful, kind, understanding, and insightful. You will get answers from people who have experience.

Good Luck with the Tamuks. I wanted to do the same. So I went looking for them. No one in my area has any. The last I read, Texas A&M were not selling them any more. I read they were selling out the entire stock and ending the program. After reading that, I looked and looked and found something just as good, I hope. I have aquired a doe that is a purebred NZ White but looks like she is a Tamuk cross. She has a super long face, large body and huge ears. She is 1.5x bigger than the other NZs I have.

If you cannot get Tamuks, use other genetics that have bigger ears, and breed them in to your line. Select only breeders who have the traits you want, and keep selecting bigger and bugger ears until you get the size of a Tamuk's ear. You could use Giants, or look at the breeds Texas A&M used and try to see if you can breed your own line of giant eared rabbits.

Breeding rabbits is not like dogs and cats. It is okay to line breed, out cross, and even okay for limited inbreeding to get desired traits, or remove underdesired traits. From my NZ doe, I have two rabbits that have her large ears. I just bred her to my Blue Steel Tipped Chinchilla buck, and hoping for kits that have her larger traits, but the Chinchilla coloring. I plan to breed her son to my Chinchilla doe in a few months. She was just bred to my NZW buck for test breeding. So she will be with kits for the next 2 months, and get a month break before the pairing.

He is just as big as his mom, with large ears and a nice stocky frame. He is black with white ticking, and half Silver Fox. My American Chinchilla doe is also half Silver fox. I love rabbits too much, I ramble about my plans. I could start a cult of rabbit worshipers. I bet most of the members would be in this community.

Rabbits are fun, and the Rabbit Talk community is a great place for information, friendships, and people who are like minded.

Have fun, and good luck with your rabbit adventure. Keep us updated on your journey!

 

[Florida Jeff]

THANKS to all , what a great site.

 

[Dimplz]

THANKS to all , what a great site.

Bandit Jr. says "Pet me! Now."

 

[Rabbit Warren Man]

Ahoy fellow rabbit growers out there. I hail from North Florida and have started Deer Point Rabbitry last march with young New Zealand Whites had to wait out summer to start breading as temps in Florida last year were brutal. Wanting to start a line of TAMUKS for more heat tolerance. Looking forward to talking to everyone.
THANKS for the welcome aboard.

Welcome to the forum Jeff. You have a beautiful state and an awesome Governor. I am in Manitoba Canada.

 

[HTAcres]

Welcome! From Southern Colorado here. You have joined the best rabbit community available. Everyone is helpful, kind, understanding, and insightful. You will get answers from people who have experience.

Good Luck with the Tamuks. I wanted to do the same. So I went looking for them. No one in my area has any. The last I read, Texas A&M were not selling them any more. I read they were selling out the entire stock and ending the program. After reading that, I looked and looked and found something just as good, I hope. I have aquired a doe that is a purebred NZ White but looks like she is a Tamuk cross. She has a super long face, large body and huge ears. She is 1.5x bigger than the other NZs I have.

If you cannot get Tamuks, use other genetics that have bigger ears, and breed them in to your line. Select only breeders who have the traits you want, and keep selecting bigger and bugger ears until you get the size of a Tamuk's ear. You could use Giants, or look at the breeds Texas A&M used and try to see if you can breed your own line of giant eared rabbits.

Breeding rabbits is not like dogs and cats. It is okay to line breed, out cross, and even okay for limited inbreeding to get desired traits, or remove underdesired traits. From my NZ doe, I have two rabbits that have her large ears. I just bred her to my Blue Steel Tipped Chinchilla buck, and hoping for kits that have her larger traits, but the Chinchilla coloring. I plan to breed her son to my Chinchilla doe in a few months. She was just bred to my NZW buck for test breeding. So she will be with kits for the next 2 months, and get a month break before the pairing.

He is just as big as his mom, with large ears and a nice stocky frame. He is black with white ticking, and half Silver Fox. My American Chinchilla doe is also half Silver fox. I love rabbits too much, I ramble about my plans. I could start a cult of rabbit worshipers. I bet most of the members would be in this community.

Rabbits are fun, and the Rabbit Talk community is a great place for information, friendships, and people who are like minded.

Have fun, and good luck with your rabbit adventure. Keep us updated on your journey!

Tamuk are slowly making their way out to CA. I had several scheduled to go from west Texas out there but the bad storm derailed that. It is a concern that the program has shut down but there are quite a few dedicated Tamuk breeders largely in Texas and OK but others spread around the country. Just FYI. I totally agree with your suggestions.
BTW, I keep a map that has a number of Tamuk breeders pinned (red pins are Tamuk).
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1nSBXu-oUOdNfU3yh0p1Umdo-8KHaZ3Oz&usp=sharing

 

[HTAcres]

Sorry Dimplz for accidentally displacing you to California.

 

[Florida Jeff]

Bandit Jr. says "Pet me! Now."

Here is a head rub Bandit

 

[Florida Jeff]

Well we have no personal experience to share yet, but my understanding is that the reason they are heat tolerant is because of their particularly long ears and their thin hair. I know that the ears have something to do with thermoregulation but I don't know how that works?? Anyway, I'm betting we will need to be a bit more careful with them in the winter. We get our first ones on Friday. If I find out more from our breeder I will pass it on!

Barnyard: Did you get your TAMUKS? how are they , any Pictures?

 

[Rabbit Warren Man]

Here is a head rub Bandit

The Tamuks sound like a good breed for hot places. I am from Manitoba Canada we get some really hot summers and really cold winters here. But your summers are extremely hot eh? I have only been to the southern states in the winter.
Post some pics when you get set up.

 

[Rabbit Warren Man]