I hang with the Silver Fox people, have had my hands on a lot of them, perhaps its my area but not seeing that many 'Nilver Fealands' the last two years, in fact the quality has improved, coat quality in particular. I have seen a good number that are too heavily silvered, but since I know how silvering works I put that down to genetic variation, perfect silvering does not occur across the board. And thats the rub, genetic variation in the rare breeds, you can't have a Mini Rex mentality with the rare breeds, they are not cookie cutter, and only tight inbreeding will make them cookie cutter. My original fawn Silvers were from generations of sibling and parent crosses, they were very cookie cutter body wise(not silvering though) until I bred in browns to improve size and add new blood. Now they vary. When I had Cremes, they were all over the board in type in just one litter, some had pinched hips, some had low shoulders, some were flat, some broke too soon, some had pronounced pin bones, these were purebreds from good lines, drove me nuts, they were so different from each other. Good rabbits and really crappy rabbits in the same litter, was very eye opening. There is more variation in the rare breeds because less people are working on them, more breeders means more rabbits on the show table, people striving for better quality, not less. You don't have to kill yourself to improve your lines when the competition is low, but once others start showing better rabbits then you thats motivation to produce better. I did get out to Convention for one day, thought the Silver Foxes I saw were pretty darn good breed type and was pleased with the quality I saw, even the Blues that didn't pass because of inconsistency weren't too shabby. Will say that I've seen that where you live plays a large part in what the quality or availibility is, case in point Standard Rex can be very hard to locate in certain parts of the US. One year my friend went to Convention, I wanted a new Fawn Silver doe. All the Fawns at Convention that year shared a fault that mine did not have, so no new Silver for me. Blanc De Hotots from the West Coast look different from East Coast ones. Rare breeds simply are different, you can't measure them with a New Zealand yard stick, just not going to work, they have their own special problems and rules, and their not for everyone. If someone gets into a rare breed expecting consistency and perfection their going to be very disapointed. Every rare breed has its achilles heel, whether its immune system problems, REW popping up, ingrained type faults etc. It is going to take a long time to work it all out as the breed becomes more popular, but it will improve with time.
I just can't equate rabbits with dogs, its comparing apples and oranges, one is a short lived very genetically plastic food animal, the other is an intelligent companion and work partner that shares our lives and steals our hearts. Just no comparison in my book.
I just can't equate rabbits with dogs, its comparing apples and oranges, one is a short lived very genetically plastic food animal, the other is an intelligent companion and work partner that shares our lives and steals our hearts. Just no comparison in my book.
