Hello

Hello. My name is Dave and i live in Amberley, North Caterbury, New Zealand.
At one stage I had about 100 rabbits but recently my rabbitry was struck by RCD (also known as VHD, RHD, or RHDV) and I lost over 60 rabbits. Was a very devastating time for me, and I've just begun to start rebuilding.
I have many breeds here: mini lops (equivalent to holland lops in the USA), dwarf lops, satin, standard chinchilla, silver fox (silver martens in the USA), giant chinchilla, New Zealand whites, mini rex, dutch and Enderby Island ( a rare breed primarily found in NZ, with a few in the USA)...plus a few cross breeds.
The virus wiped out all my tans, flemish giants and netherland dwarves, as well as most of my dutch, mini rex and giant chinchillas.
I look forward to reading over all the posts here.

:wave: Hello.
Sorry to hear about all your losses. Is New Zealand the same as Australia where you can't get rabbits vaccinated?

Hello and welcome, sorry about your loss.

Are you a rabbit collector? As you had so many breeds? Such a shame that you lost so many what an awful waste of life.

Hello :wave: hope you are well!

Thanks for your welcome.
In New Zealand, you can get your rabbits vaccinated. I was living in the city so the risk was minimal. But then I moved to the country and I just hadn't gotten around to getting them all done. Of the 30 odd survivers two thirds were NOT vaccinated, so the disease was just random as to who it affected, luckily some of my real favorites wern't affected. I'm now slowly rebuilding my numbers. Two of my vaccinated rabbits also died, so the vaccine isn't 100% effective.
I spose you could say I collect rabbits, as there are a few that aren't pure breeds, but I have them anyway...some are purely pets and some are used for my experimental breeding programs....like introducing a certain colour to a breed, for instance introducing the steel gene to my satins or rexes.

We have a real problem over here (UK) with lots of rabbits in rescues needing homes. What's the situation in NZ ?

How do you cope with so many rabbits, cleaning out, exercising etc, do you have people to help you? I have 4 pairs and the general care takes about 2 hours a day!

Rabswood