Heads!

[Bryana]

I just got a jr Rex buck who has the strangest head to me but he is so thick and meaty, I forgive him . In retrospect I also got a 6 week old doe with size and body mass that's a little iffy... but I had to have her because she had the cutest, most feminine expression. I don't plan on showing or selling any of what I produce, just breeding for meat for myself.

So, How important is head type to you and in your rabbitry? Do you make a lot of decisions around head type or is it way less important to you than body structure? I'm especially curious about people with meat breeds.

I came from the dog show world where a lot of people found a style of head and expression they liked and stuck to that through their breeding program (rather than following the standard even...) so it just makes me curious to see how important heads are to everyone in the rabbit community (on RabbitTalk anyways!).

 

[akane]

On a meat rabbit who cares. In a few months it will lose it's head anyway. I only care about size, muscling, color, and somewhat personality since I do get tired of being torn up every time I'm sorting meat rabbits or having the creme d'argent and her offspring go ballistic when I do something as simple as fly spraying a horse with a squeaky bottle. On my mini rex I do tend to keep rabbits with nicer heads. My pet doe has a narrower head that probably wouldn't be considered good according to standard but it's a cute little triangle that makes everyone love her kits. She makes me think of a deer. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/ ... CN0327.jpg My mini rex from show lines have big blocky heads. Ashige is one of the best examples http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/ ... NY2272.jpg . The insane doe who's line got culled had heads that were narrow across the front and wide down the sides with a bit of what we call in horses a roman nose which looked soooo ugly. I could identify all her offspring even if they were born in colony with other litters by their ugly heads. If I were showing I would ignore which heads I thought looked ugly and go by which matched standard and just not get any breeds who's standard led to me disliking how they looked.

 

[5dognightfarm]

On a show rabbit it would be very important, but since you're eating them, well, it doesn't matter.

Although...typically you can tell if a rabbit has good, thick bone from the head. Since you're eating them yourself, a narrow head would mean lighter boned which would mean more meat compared to bone on body mass.