Cattle Cait
Well-known member
I've been getting some flack lately from show breeders regarding me crossbreeding my rabbits. I used to show as well, I'm certainly not opposed to purebred breeding, and I do in fact raise pedigreed American Chinchillas (and Silvers, eventually, if I can locate a doe for poor Forrest). Some prospective buyers actually had the gall to ask if they were actually purebred, because they noticed I had a lot of crossbreds for sale, and they were concerned that my American Chins had something mixed in. I tell them that one of the does in my AmChin program is 1/4 New Zealand, that's it, because I'm honest about it. Just because I mix breeds doesn't make me any less responsible or trustworthy.
I crossbreed because it works for me. Do I throw these mutts on the show table? Not hardly. I've even been recommended to, because some of them turn out looking like AmChins because I use my AmChin buck in my meat herd a lot, but I never do. Sometimes breeders razzle me about that too, but seriously, what's the problem? So I "wasted" one of my buck's breedings on a meat doe. A whole thirty seconds of his life. Whoop-di-do.
I hear all the time, "Why do you need to crossbreed when you could be preserving a rare breed or promoting and bettering an existing breed?" The bottom line is simply that I don't wanna. I'm preserving and improving the American Chinchillas just fine but they don't fill my market need. They're more valuable as breeding stock then processed in the freezer. I'm even finding my worthless crossbreds to be healthier and have better meat quality. It's easier to "improve" when you can color outside the lines and not concentrate on other show-related factors such as ring color or depth of body (my meat rabbits are flat as pancakes), so on and so forth. It leaves me with much more space to work with more important qualities - rate of gain, mothering ability, etc.
Does anyone else have issues like this, getting crap from breeders for harboring "worthless, unpedigreed mutts"?
Rant over.
I crossbreed because it works for me. Do I throw these mutts on the show table? Not hardly. I've even been recommended to, because some of them turn out looking like AmChins because I use my AmChin buck in my meat herd a lot, but I never do. Sometimes breeders razzle me about that too, but seriously, what's the problem? So I "wasted" one of my buck's breedings on a meat doe. A whole thirty seconds of his life. Whoop-di-do.
I hear all the time, "Why do you need to crossbreed when you could be preserving a rare breed or promoting and bettering an existing breed?" The bottom line is simply that I don't wanna. I'm preserving and improving the American Chinchillas just fine but they don't fill my market need. They're more valuable as breeding stock then processed in the freezer. I'm even finding my worthless crossbreds to be healthier and have better meat quality. It's easier to "improve" when you can color outside the lines and not concentrate on other show-related factors such as ring color or depth of body (my meat rabbits are flat as pancakes), so on and so forth. It leaves me with much more space to work with more important qualities - rate of gain, mothering ability, etc.
Does anyone else have issues like this, getting crap from breeders for harboring "worthless, unpedigreed mutts"?
Rant over.
