Hi everyone! My husband and I are retired and we started raising meat rabbits, mostly for ourselves and our grow adult children. We have New Zealand and New Zealand crosses. Also our grandchildren love when we have bunnies to play with. I grew up raising rabbits for meat, so it is not all new to me.
New Member
- Thread starter Connie
- Start date
Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:
Welcome! I just started with New Zealands but I also raise Dutch and Flemish Giant. You are sure to find someone who can answer any questions you might have as this forum is full of very knowledgeable people who are always willing to help.
welcome. I hope you find rabbittalk a good home for bunny talk! 
Hi, welcome to the community! I raise New Zealand and Rex. Mostly NZ though. I continue to learn a lot here!
Welcome aboard you are sure to enjoy rabbit talk. There are hundreds of nice people and one old grouch. I have learned a lot from these friendly folks. There is always someone who has experienced your questions.
Yes we raise REW NZ also we raise REW TAMUKS,they are great meat rabbits.
Welcome to the forum!
Welcome! So glad you found us. There are a lot of people with tons of knowledge to help you along your journey. 
there's an old grouch? Where????
Sorry I just came on board a couple of days ago Haven't had time to review 1000 or so threads yet. But thanks for the heads up.
That was his comment about my very first post in RT. I thought that was a little sarcastic and labeled him a grouch. Never mentioned his name but now as you guys push to know here it is. Just Saying.
Welcome aboard Ccranch: you will like this forum, there are MANY NICE people here that are very knowledgeable. I have had Champagne D Argent before but never heard of a Argente d Brun . I now raise New Zeland REW's and TAMUK's.
MsTemeraire
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2022
- Messages
- 296
- Reaction score
- 394
They're lovely, but larger than those here in the UK! The Argentes are very popular here and we have seven (I think) varieties, varying in size. Smallest are Argente Creme at 2.26kg/5lb. Only slightly larger, 2.72kg/6lbs, are Argente Bleu, Brun, St. Hubert and Noir. Then we have Argente Champagne and Argente Grand St. Hubert which are the largest at 3.62kg/8lb.
I always found it intriguing that the breed name was changed in the US to D'Argent, while we kept the original French names.
The argentes are really catching on in the U.S. these days. The trend in names is moving back toward the original French construction, as well: the two newest argentes in the US are the Argente Brun and the Argente St Hubert (not fully recognized but one step shy). They're all firmly in the American meat rabbit weight range, so generally larger than most of yours, with a range from a minimum of 3.62kg/8 lb (Creme, Brun and St Hubert bucks) to maximum of 5.44kg/12lb (Champagne does). The U.S. breeds also have relatively less silvering than the European ones.
I doubt that the longer-recognized breeds in the ARBA SOP, Champagne D'Argent and Creme D'Argent, will ever adjust the names, although the OCD part of me wants them to be. But I have to admit that those little quirks serve to remind me of history, so in the end I am not a big proponent of standardization in that regard; now I want to find out why they changed the breed names in the first place.
It does kind of drive me crazy, though, to hear many Americans pronounce those names... "sham-pane dee ar-gent" and "creem dee ar-gent." Urck. (I'm American, but one of those relative few that studied languages other than just American English.)Regarding your Argente Noir and Argente Champagne, are they the same color and just different weights, or are there other differences?
Last edited:
MsTemeraire
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2022
- Messages
- 296
- Reaction score
- 394
Yes they are - both 'born black'. St Huberts are agouti (chestnut) and the others are pretty much self explanatory. We also like the very light body colour as well, almost white with all the silvering.
Here we pronounce them 'ar-jen-tee' although I have heard some call them 'ar-jent'. And the colour parts of the names are somewhat anglicised into 'creem' or 'shampayne'. And 'Hubert' rather than the French way which would be 'Sahnt Oo-bair'. Most people can manage 'nwah',
Yeah the type on ours is different, not the commercial type at all which doesn't exist here. Type on the newer ones such as Noir, Hubert and the Grands & Chams is just as they are in their country of origin, as they are relatively recent Continental imports. Many of our breeds which hail from Europe retain their original features with the breed standard the same as the European one. This allows them to be shown in Europe, or people from Europe to show here, although in truth that's pretty uncommon as it's a lot of work to manage that.
Welcome. Enjoy the forum. Lots of good people here.
