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Breeding - How would you do it?

Tamsin

Administrator
Staff member
So, someone rubbed a lamp and all rabbits breeders vanished, within weeks the pet shops were empty, and people were lining up outside rescues fighting over who adopted first. Then the rescues were empty too!

RU members were clamouring for rabbits, they had lonely boys and girls needing partners and empty wendy houses without the patter on little paws and gnawing teeth.

It falls to you to provide the next generation, your last wish will obtain you any breeding rabbits you like (handy because all the pets are neutered) but after that you have to balance your books. How would you set up?
 
I wouldn't

I cant claim to be 'anti breeding' as that would make me a total hypocrite. But the imbalance of 'good' v 'bad' breeders makes it understandable that those involved in Rescue will feel passionately that Breeding more Rabbits is wrong whilst there are tens of thousands already here but with no home. Where healthy Rabbits are euthanised.

I personally think the Breeding of Rabbits should be far more actively monitored. Only licensed Breeders, a strict limit to numbers kept/bred. Strict rules re provision of appropriate housing, no Rabbits sold from Pet Shops.

But we all know that will never happen. It would be too costly to set up and police. There would always be people who dodge any Law, BYBs would still exist.

The only way I see that no Pet Rabbits suffer as a result of over-population is for there to be no Pet Rabbits. We would have to be content with seeing Rabbits in the wild, not in our homes.
 
Some quick thoughts...

I would do preorders. People would have to be home checked and put on a waiting list before the animals were even bred. Maybe even a 'probation' period and a high price to put off people from thinking of them as cheap, easy pets. I would also make myself available for any and all questions.

All animals would be neutered and spayed prior to going to their new home.

Does would have a maximum of two litters a year for two or three years then would become pets.

Extensive records would be kept of lineage and homes.

Every rabbit would have the minimum space requirements at least.

And I would do some THOROUGH research myself on breeding out health issues.

ETA. Plus what Jane said, I too would rather see no pet rabbits.
 
I wouldn't either. I would give any single bun loads of love and attention and when he was gone do gardening and take picnics to places where I might spot wild bunnies :)
 
most of the people you think would be " clamouring" for rabbits once the stocks had run right down..would actually not bother and move onto something else, hopefully not another pet as the same situation would apply to all animals..maybe the sales of realistic soft toy pets would rocket..much better outcome
 
I wouldn't.

I just posted this on the other thread

Seeing all the wildies in the field opposite racing around, binkying and expressing all their natural behaviours, and then coming home to my lot, who despite having acommodation which is bigger than the RSPCA standard, only being able to binky a couple of times before they hit a run panel, makes me hope that one day there will be no pet rabbits. It's not natural for them to be confined in any way.
 
I wouldn't, would be a much better world without and as for the argument about running out of rabbits.......well

As the world will never run out of pets because of unscrupulous people then maybe, just maybe everyone thinking of breeding and those supporting breeding should work in a rescue or a sanctuary for a week first and then see how they feel
 
Breeding is not for me at all.

I would not have the first clue how to go about it or do it. As with homing them i would never have a clue who I could trust. I would rather have the special memories of my current buns then muck around with something i do not have a clue about.
 
most of the people you think would be " clamouring" for rabbits once the stocks had run right down..would actually not bother and move onto something else, hopefully not another pet as the same situation would apply to all animals..maybe the sales of realistic soft toy pets would rocket..much better outcome

I agree with this - I think the fact that over 1m bunnies live on their own, and that they are the uk's most neglected pet means that most are probably bought without an awful lot of forethought or research, so if fewer were available, the vast majority of the buying public just wouldn't bother.

If balancing the books means that over two thirds of the pet rabbit population lives alone, and I would hate to hazard a guess as to what proportion live in 'undersized' accommodation, then for me, balancing the books =0 because I would rather there be no pet rabbits even for those who do look after them 'properly' than to have such large numbers being cared for unsuitably.
 
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I'm looking forward to this years PAW report. Last year, for example, neutered rabbits went from 37% to 47% and vaccination was up to. It's a slow change but things are getting better.
 
I'm looking forward to this years PAW report. Last year, for example, neutered rabbits went from 37% to 47% and vaccination was up to. It's a slow change but things are getting better.

That's really good. I was speaking to someone I went to school with who bought a rabbit on a whim for her 2yr old ( :roll: ), but she knew about hay and spaying and vaccinations, and someone else I recently met had adopted and was saving for boosters. I do think general knowledge is improving, albeit slowly.

As for the question, I'm not sure. What strikes me is that if everything was done to the highest standard, the price of the animal would shoot up but that doesn't corroborate to a higher standard of care from owners. Rich people aren't automatically really rabbit savvy :lol: I know a lot of people who would happily spend a couple hundred on a beautiful rabbit and it would still sit at the bottom of the garden in a 3ft hutch, only to come out to be shown off as a "look what I have!" kind of thing. It would become a status symbol, much like pedigree dogs, except they will still be "just" rabbits.
 
I'll be worried that they would become one of those expensive designer pets. Rabbits are rare and hard to get and cost loads. If the demand was high enough thefts would be rife on unneutered rabbits or catching wild rabbits and from breeding them. Though I tend to think the average person who would get a rabbit on a whim wouldn't want to go through all the hassle of going to a strict, licenced, expensive breeder and if the law was suddenly very strict on breeding rabbits, underground breeding wouldn't really be worth it.

Though breeding wise I'd go with what Elena says. Though I don't think I could cope with being a breeder at all.
 
Some of the dog prices do seem ridiculous! But I'd have no objection to paying say £100 for a neutered/vaccinated rabbit that had grown up in luxury surroundings and had excellent genetics that made it less predisposed to health problems. Maybe £50 if I had to do the vet stuff myself.

Considering the gambol you take with just teeth problems which could be almost wiped out with proper breeding it would save you in the long run!
 
if I have unlimited space and funds

I would have wendy house and run set ups, full and up to date and excellent knowledge on breeding, I would breed a doe once then retire them as pets.

all rabbits will be vacced and neutered

Home checks will be carried out before homing

If I hear or see any neglect or poor care for the rabbit I will pass their details onto other breeders for them to be black listed.

Though I dont like the idea of forcing an animal to get pregnant and have babies.... imagine what that would be like....
 
Though I dont like the idea of forcing an animal to get pregnant and have babies.... imagine what that would be like....

Most animals are very happy to get themselves pregnant, else we wouldn't have rabbits breeding like rabbits. :lol:

And if you felt the female was unhappy she'll tell him off and you could (hypothetically) not breed from her or wait until she's happier with him.
 
Crazy how many people say they wouldn't breed :? to me that just shows that it's not just because there's thousands of rabbits needing homes that people are anti breeding. People are anti breeding because they're only thinking about the negative things i.e rabbits suffering.


My setup would be:

- Accommodation would be large chain link dog kennels with an attached shed. Naturalistic environment so as to provide enrichment and natural surrounding for the buns as much as possible.

- I'd be tempted to try colony breeding, I've seen a lot of success with it. I think it's most natural and good for the buns.

- Females would only be bred twice and then spayed and retired.

- Rabbits I sell would be home checked. No vaccinations - I'm in the US so no VHD and myxi here. I'd have a contract that said they must neuter/spay the rabbits when they're old enough and they must be returned to me if for any reason they can't keep them.

- Rabbits no longer used for breeding I would keep. They would be kept in similar accommodation and they would be neutered/spayed and paired up with other rabbits or kept in a retired colony.


This is something I've actually thought of maybe doing one day. I'm not sure, but improving the breeds (not sure which breeds yet) does interest me.

There's about 30,000 homeless rabbits in the US from what Ive heard, but being in the US everything is so spread out, there's not a rabbit rescue anywhere in the northeast area of Florida. A good amount of those 30,000 are probably near large cities. I've gotten my last bunnies from a bunny that was dumped at a pet shop's door (in Jack's case) and Ben and Timmy were off craigslist (they were Easter impulse buys at a pet shop, owners only had them 2 wks).

People won't go to rescues, even if they know about rabbit rescues, if there aren't any within a couple hundred miles of them. So they'll go to pet shops and backyard breeders instead. Surely it's much better for there to be good breeders so that people don't support backyard breeders and pet shops?
 
So, someone rubbed a lamp and all rabbits breeders vanished, within weeks the pet shops were empty, and people were lining up outside rescues fighting over who adopted first. Then the rescues were empty too!

RU members were clamouring for rabbits, they had lonely boys and girls needing partners and empty wendy houses without the patter on little paws and gnawing teeth.

It falls to you to provide the next generation, your last wish will obtain you any breeding rabbits you like (handy because all the pets are neutered) but after that you have to balance your books. How would you set up?

Wow folks! ya'll are so stuck in your rut of "millions of rabbits need homes" argument you completely bypassed the actual question...lol. That answer does not hold weight because she clearly states "Then the rescues were empty too" those millions of rabbits would no longer be there. In the given question all problem areas you usually argue are wiped away clean! The only answer therefore if you did not want to breed would be "I wouldn't breed, I want all rabbits to be wild" Just my two cents on that... and with that said I wouldn't exist so I wouldn't be able to "Set Up" lol
 
Wow folks! ya'll are so stuck in your rut of "millions of rabbits need homes" argument you completely bypassed the actual question...lol. That answer does not hold weight because she clearly states "Then the rescues were empty too" those millions of rabbits would no longer be there. In the given question all problem areas you usually argue are wiped away clean! The only answer therefore if you did not want to breed would be "I wouldn't breed, I want all rabbits to be wild"

Well I'm afraid that just shows you clearly haven't read what we said - which is exactly that! I said just a few posts above that because so many of the uk rabbit population is kept alone and not kept suitably for their needs and welfare, that I would not breed even if there were not millions of rabbits needing homes.

Read through our answers again and you'll perhaps see it ;)

I'm looking forward to this year's PAW report too - it's always good to see a positive improvement, although I must say I'm dubious about 47% of uk bunnies now being neutered. Apart from the people on this forum, every other bunny I know owned is not neutered, and I know that's not an accurate sample either but I can't help but think that the sample population isn't quite accurate.
 
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most of the people you think would be " clamouring" for rabbits once the stocks had run right down..would actually not bother and move onto something else, hopefully not another pet as the same situation would apply to all animals..maybe the sales of realistic soft toy pets would rocket..much better outcome

This.


Let the domestic rabbit die out. The species is not treated well as a whole, largely due to ignorance. I think it would be better for them not to exist.
 
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