Newbie to forum/ Silver Fox question

[lemonthyme]

Hello! I am a newbie to this forum but have been lurking for awhile soaking up all the information and learning. My name is Karen and my husband and I have just recently gotten into breeding rabbits for meat. We have NZ/California crosses and have a batch of 7 and a batch of 6 slated for the freezer in the next few weeks. I have a lovely batch of 9 popples that are 2 1/2 weeks old. And 2 more females due to give birth in the next few weeks. I am very happy with the progress we are having.

On to my question - has anyone here every raised Silver Foxes? I have been looking on the critical breeds list at the American Livestock Breed Conservancy and am interested in raising them. Since they are a meat rabbit I can butcher any that I can't sell to other growers (as breeding stock). I wouldn't want to grow anything that would not be useful in the event I had more then I could get rid of. On the other hand I am interested in growing a breed that needs help making a recovery. Any input would be gratefully accepted as most (if not all) of you have more experience then me!

 

[DevonW]

I haven't raised them, but a few years back we picked up a pair for a breeder up north, and they were just big sweet rabbits. Very docile, easy to handle, and very very pretty. I nearly kept them for myself. I also heard from the breeder that they later had a huge litter and the doe was a fantastic mother

Here is an informative link on them http://riverwindrabbitry.webs.com/aboutsilverfoxrabbits.htm

 

[lemonthyme]

Thanks so much for the first hand experience and the great web site! The Silver Fox link from the ALBC no longer works and the site you had has lots of great info on it. I probably won't go ahead with getting any until we get our new rabbit shed built this summer but I wanted to do some research on them.

 

[MaggieJ]

Hello Karen and welcome to RabbitTalk. :hi:

Silver foxes should be a good choice for you. They'd certainly be on my short list of breeds if I ever decide to "graduate" from mutts to purebreds.