When looking for New Zealand show stock.

[Bunnie]

What should I look for in kits and adults? So far I have seen prices between 50 and 100 all for kits. Is.this normal? I have never owned this breed. I am looking for a meat breed to.show and put meat in the freezer.

Thanks in.advance, excuse my typos I am on my.cell

 

[Secuono]

If it was me, I'd skip "show stock" and go for meat NZs that are bred properly.

 

[Bunnie]

Oh, I just figured I would have a better chance of doing well at a show if they had been bred for showing as well?

Most of the NZs I find around here are 7$ and advertised as "fryers" and quite frankly look a hot mess. Like they haven't been taken care of and are often dirty and scruffy looking from fighting with other rabbits. I understand that their purpose is to be eaten, but that turns me away.

 

[3mina]

If you're looking for show stock that's where you look, at shows from show breeders. Ideally from breeders who do both meat and show. What you pay is going to depend on how much winning the breeder does.
Questions to ask include litter sizes, growth rate, mothering ability, ease of handling/temperament, whether or not the breeder medicates routinely. Pedigrees and tattoos are important as well.
I can agree that nasty looking scruffy rabbits are a turnoff, healthy looking is usually healthy, period.

 

[Dood]

The price seems a bit high, but I am in Canada. I paid $50 for a 6 month American Chinchilla who had already won at s show and whose sire had 3 ARBA legs and her dam had 4.

You should find a local rabbit club and ask about prices for breeds in your area. If showing New Zealand's is popular in your district, then $100 maybe appropriate, but there will also be more competion, against seasoned breeders, and your chances of winning may not be as good so maybe look into other meat breeds.

 

[Miss M]

3mina is right about the questions you need to ask. I saw some amazing Champagnes at a show last year. Champagnes are a meat breed, but this guy breeds strictly for show. He breeds for litters of only 2 - 4 kits, so they will grow larger faster.

That litter size is useless to a meat breeder, so his grand champion show stock would be the last stock I would want!

 

[grumpy]

3mina is right about the questions you need to ask. I saw some amazing Champagnes at a show last year. Champagnes are a meat breed, but this guy breeds strictly for show. He breeds for litters of only 2 - 4 kits, so they will grow larger faster.
That litter size is useless to a meat breeder, so his grand champion show stock would be the last stock I would want!

Does he "breed-for" or "cull-to" that number of kits? I would think it would be extremely difficult to breed against such a natural inherited trait of does having 6-8 kits as a normal litter. Think of the extreme strain having 2-4 extra large kits a doe would experience.

If he does breed for extremely small litter numbers....one should definately avoid that family line of rabbits.
grumpy.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

yes there is.... there is a strain for show and a strain for meat... had them.... the show ones ,the litters are very small and some dont get pregnant at all... them meat have larger litters ... but are more stragley looking animals compare to show.. I myself like the looks of the show ones better.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

If you're looking for show stock that's where you look, at shows from show breeders. Ideally from breeders who do both meat and show. What you pay is going to depend on how much winning the breeder does.
Questions to ask include litter sizes, growth rate, mothering ability, ease of handling/temperament, whether or not the breeder medicates routinely. Pedigrees and tattoos are important as well.
I can agree that nasty looking scruffy rabbits are a turnoff, healthy looking is usually healthy, period.

3Mina gives some excellent advice! I have two different lines of NZW in my barn. One line is a commercial meat production line from TAMUK, the other is a show line from Basgil/Borden Rabbitry in Crosby, Texas. They look like night and day from each other. The TAMUK rabbits are long and lean with longer, fluffy hair. They tolerate heat exceptionally well and have large litters and produce lots of milk. The other line is round like a basketball with short, smooth, flyback fur. I have only had one litter but so far, so good. The doe was a first timer and had 7 kits in the nest box, cleaned, fed and covered with fur. They are two weeks old now and sooo precious. It *is* possible to find show lines that have good kindling, nursing, raising skills, so just keep asking questions and looking for exactly what you want. Oh, and my show rabbits? $125 EACH...so $250 for both, but she came bred for free, so I really paid $250 for 9 rabbits....which is not so bad.

 

[Miss M]

Does he "breed-for" or "cull-to" that number of kits?

He was very specific and very proud of his accomplishments. He breeds for that. He has developed his line to the point that his does birth only 2 - 4 kits in a litter.

His rabbits were definitely amazing, and he knew it. I had trouble extricating myself from the conversation. He couldn't stop telling me about them. :? After hearing they were grand champions, I wasn't interested (I knew that would mean big $$$, and besides, I don't want the best of the best, because I will not be using the rabbit to its potential). After hearing they weren't for sale at any price, I really wasn't interested. I kept trying to get away, but I was still trapped. Finally, he went into great detail about how he had bred them for small litter sizes. My ears were about to fall off at this point, but that caught my attention. They weren't even meat rabbits anymore! As far as I was concerned, he had ruined them. :roll:

 

[Bunnie]

Wow. Ok, I am going to talk to some people at the next show then Thank you so much for this advice, very helpful!

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

Imagine culling a good show doe because she had 8 kits?? Sorry but you probably found the only breeder in the show rabbit world that does that... thats basically and totally unheard of. I do know of breeders who CULL newborns to a certain litter size. Some Flemmie breeders for instance do this with their best stock simply because there are usually 12-18 kits in a litter and that many can hurt the chances of proper growth and survival of the whole litter.They remove all the runts and misformed or smaller ones. After a while the best kits stand out even at the newborn stage..but the number of kits a Champagne has is a moot point..its how well they produce milk thats the question. Most Champs have a range of 4-8 or so. A litter of 6 or 8 can grow just as well as a litter 3 or 4 if the doe is a good milk producer. Most show breeders of meat rabbits ALSO breed for meat so having a larger litter is never a problem, the extras go to FC. This person sounds totally misinformed. It makes me wonder exactly how well his rabbits would stack up against other breeders at convention in Nov. Also there are a lot of people looking to get into this breed and he obviously isn't selling any, because he would not have any extras to sell at that rate :? There are so many issues in type that concentrating on litter size is just plain weird.

 

[Bunnie]

Wow, with 12-18 kits you would have to cull some if you wanted them all to be good and healthy I would imagine, that is alot of baby buns.

So I got 2 does about a week ago I guess. They will be good for me as meet breeders, but with this show coming up I am going to take them along (at least one) and just see what the judge says for fun

I do know the sires came from show stock since the breeder only uses 2 or 3 bucks on all of her does they are of top quality, and the moms to my babies (they are not related) produce good sized litters and are good mommas.