rex size?

[shazza]

i'm not even sure if this is in the right place, i'm sorry!

i bought a standard rex doe in march from a pet breeder (at the time i wasn't planning on showing, and i just wanted rex for fur/meat,) which means she should be nearing the six month mark about now. however she is...tiny. i weighed her just now and she only weighs about 3lbs 10oz (give or take, i didn't have a good stable area to put the scale on and she is in a bad mood today.) compared to my other standard rex doe from show lines who is three months old and weighs 3lbs 5oz. i am about 98% certain that my little doe is not a mini rex as i did see her parents at the breeder's and they were both big rabbits (and there were no mini rex in the barn so i don't think mom had a midnight fling, haha.) at first i suspected that maybe she just wasn't 6 weeks as i was told when i bought her, but considering that my show doe is rapidly overtaking her in weight, i am figuring she is just ...small. if she's already almost six months she likely will not get much bigger than she is now - definitely not the full 8-10lbs that i expect from a standard rex.

not a great photo but the small doe is the hemi and the show doe is the rew...you can clearly see how close in size they are

the question i guess is would she still be viable to breed? i don't think i'll be able to use her to breed show rabbits for various reasons, but even if i just use her to breed meat/fur, i wouldn't want her small size passing down and making me wait longer to dress them out.

 

[3mina]

Unfortunately, what you breed is what you get. If she was mine, she'd be in the cull pen

 

[SableSteel]

Most likely her small size will pass down.

That white does look very, very mini rex-y to me too.

 

[Prisma]

Pet breeders often mistake MR for Rex...some don't even know they are 2 different breeds.

The REW looks to be about on for weight. Mine are a little bigger, but usually they max out and go over ugh. Top placing Rex have become more MR like in overall shape I've seen (or least around here). I'm not sure how I feel about that...I don't want a super sized MR but some of the Rex I've seen I wouldn't have either as they were lacking good lions and very pinched. It seems around here, you get one or the other not the in between ugh.


The "himi" is not though unless picture is way off, himi colors have red eyes...looks very much like a sable point or blue point though. Chances are, I'd say they heard the word rex and not the rest or don't know there is a difference and since you weren't wanting her for show didn't figure it mattered.

 

[shazza]

^ oh i know, i just don't know what to call that colour, haha.

i still am not so sure about her being a mini, simply because i saw both of her parents and they were big rabbits. easily 8lbs at the lightest. i guess she just turned out small. which is disappointing, but i guess you can't always know what the cards deal when they're little fuzzballs the size of your hand.

the rew and castor are both almost twice her size now (and turning into rather nice rabbits, actually. the rew's fur is fantastic,) it's just kind of funny to see them all together because everyone thinks she's a baby and she's actually read to breed as soon as it cools down. people react the same when i tell them my pet lionhead (black hairball in the photo btw) is four years old and he's outsized by his 4 month old mini lop roommate ;P

 

[BlueHaven]

The thing with rex breeders are there are two mindsets that I see. One, is size matters first and they only pick the two or three largest kits to breed up the size and speed of growth. Others are more show breeders and don't care if they take nine months to grow up as they don't particularly need them to since they don't grow for meat and fast turnover. IT all depend on what you can buy to improve your herd, what you have to work with , and what you want to do with them. If I can't afford or find a huge perfectly formed, leg holding winner to build my herd on, then its going to depend on what you want. Its way faster just to buy the best rabbits out there to give you those 5 pound kits at two months old, but honestly, around here, buying those is very hard to do. Most breeders have to decide if they want fur and type first, or size first, or fast growth rate first. If your breeding for meat you need good producers and milkers, that grow fast. If you show, you may rather want to focus on what you don't have, as opposed to what you do have. I need size and type, perfect fur is great, but since you don't always know what that's going to be till about four months old any how, that has to come in later for me.

 

[Zass]

Most breeders have to decide if they want fur and type first, or size first, or fast growth rate first. If your breeding for meat you need good producers and milkers, that grow fast. If you show, you may rather want to focus on what you don't have, as opposed to what you do have. I need size and type, perfect fur is great, but since you don't always know what that's going to be till about four months old any how, that has to come in later for me.

The best advice I could give, would be to buy from someone with similar breeding goals.

 

[shazza]

yeah, at the time i bought the little one i was really just interested in fur for tanning and meat (though again the parents were large so expected a large rabbit,) and wasn't picky about show quality the rew and castor are from a show breeder with a better fur quality as i'm now interested in showing as well as meat/fur/etc. there really does not seem to be a lot of standard rex breeders near me though - i had to travel quite a bit for my "show" rexes. a recent show i was at (four hours away,) i only saw ONE standard rex breeder. so i feel like i'm a bit limited in my choices...but my primary purpose in having rabbits is food, so show quality is not all-important to me. i mostly would like good fur for hides and a decent growth rate - the rexes aren't my primary meat breed though so i can wait a bit longer on them if it means a nicer overall product. i'm kinda playing it by ear right now as these are my first rexes so far and i'm still getting a feel for what i'm wanting and what to look for in a breeding prospect.