Hello from South Africa

[CunelliRabbits]

Hi everyone! I’m from South Africa and relatively new to breeding rabbits. I have some great mentors this side but always love learning more!

I currently breed standard Rexes and a proudly South African meat breed called the SA Phendula. Mainly started to provide meat for my family, subsequently fell in love with the Rexes. SA Rexes are smaller than overseas so they are primarily a pet breed although we are working towards increasing their size. We’ve had a ban on importing fresh bloodlines for decades so have to work with what we have.

I’m specifically really keen to learn more around genetics.

I’ve attached a couple of pictures of our Phendulas

 

[tambayo]

I raise dwarf rex (adult weight about 1.8 kg) for meat. Pets are more selected for friendlyness, makes for more joy with care. And human fallacy it may be, animals that are likeable get better care and do better as a result.
Size is mainly relevant for animals in the context of what makes them thrive best. I had a small for the breed buck that was soso with vague tummy upsets, his daughters are/were good size and no problems. I suspect there was some issue with a bit of dwarfism poking through. Even without me wanting them on the big side of the breedstandard for meat i would want them on the big side for being healthier.

In your case breeding for bigger should not improve their wellbeing and therefore may cost you health and run up costs (along with eating more needing more room, cleaning and so on). Bigger is not always better, pick healthiest over just biggest or fastest growers. Same for littersize, loosing some because the doe has more kits then teats is pointless and may result in development problems in the others (not enough vit/min/essential aminoacids i.e. protein). Rabbits in standard size tend to have 8 teats pretty standard, so that should pretty much tell you how many kits will have full amount of time/chance at nursing from the doe per feeding time (usually around dawn and dusk or even just one of those times).

 

[CunelliRabbits]

I raise dwarf rex (adult weight about 1.8 kg) for meat. Pets are more selected for friendlyness, makes for more joy with care. And human fallacy it may be, animals that are likeable get better care and do better as a result.
Size is mainly relevant for animals in the context of what makes them thrive best. I had a small for the breed buck that was soso with vague tummy upsets, his daughters are/were good size and no problems. I suspect there was some issue with a bit of dwarfism poking through. Even without me wanting them on the big side of the breedstandard for meat i would want them on the big side for being healthier.

In your case breeding for bigger should not improve their wellbeing and therefore may cost you health and run up costs (along with eating more needing more room, cleaning and so on). Bigger is not always better, pick healthiest over just biggest or fastest growers. Same for littersize, loosing some because the doe has more kits then teats is pointless and may result in development problems in the others (not enough vit/min/essential aminoacids i.e. protein). Rabbits in standard size tend to have 8 teats pretty standard, so that should pretty much tell you how many kits will have full amount of time/chance at nursing from the doe per feeding time (usually around dawn and dusk or even just one of those times).

The priority is definitely breeding for health and good temperament, but it would be fantastic to have a rex's sweet personaliy on a chunkier meat rabbit to make for easier handling! At the moment our standard rexes sit at an average of 6,5lbs , which isn't entirely terrible from a meat production point of view but comparing it to the 9-11lb average of the Phendulas and NZ's it's not great.

 

[Nibbles]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Sunshine Rabbits]

Hi everyone! I’m from South Africa and relatively new to breeding rabbits. I have some great mentors this side but always love learning more!

I currently breed standard Rexes and a proudly South African meat breed called the SA Phendula. Mainly started to provide meat for my family, subsequently fell in love with the Rexes. SA Rexes are smaller than overseas so they are primarily a pet breed although we are working towards increasing their size. We’ve had a ban on importing fresh bloodlines for decades so have to work with what we have.

I’m specifically really keen to learn more around genetics.

I’ve attached a couple of pictures of our Phendulas

Welcome!

 

[RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN]

Hi everyone! I’m from South Africa and relatively new to breeding rabbits. I have some great mentors this side but always love learning more!

I currently breed standard Rexes and a proudly South African meat breed called the SA Phendula. Mainly started to provide meat for my family, subsequently fell in love with the Rexes. SA Rexes are smaller than overseas so they are primarily a pet breed although we are working towards increasing their size. We’ve had a ban on importing fresh bloodlines for decades so have to work with what we have.

I’m specifically really keen to learn more around genetics.

I’ve attached a couple of pictures of our Phendulas

Welcome to Rabbit Talk. Everyone here is so kind and helpful I have learned so much more about rabbits. I raise Silver Foxs (and sometimes New Zealand SF mix) for showing and meat also because rabbits are awesome!
Ps. those bunnies are so cute🥰