Rabbit help needed
Where are mini-lop breeders in Pennsylvania, do you have any tips for caring and breeding them? No rude comments please, I'll just be rude back.
Answers:Hi, I can't help with the breeders thing but no doubt if you find ANY rabbit breeder he will know of a mate who does Mini-lops.
Try the http://www.arba.net/ website which has loads of help; its for the AMERICAN RABBIT BREEDERS ASSOCIATION.
As for help in caring and breeding... these seem... in my experience to not always go together. To me a well cared for rabbit is one that has a lot of love, space, freedom etc. But it's very hard to do that with enough rabbits to make a living from. And if they are to go on to be LOVED pets then YOU will need to handle every rabbit every day!
I don't know what experience you have with keeping rabbits (As pets) but you will find the technical side of breeding appears easy. They do, afterall, breed like rabbits!!
But if you want to keep the mini lops GENUINELY mini, you will need to keep a good eye for the breeding stock you keep vs those you sell.
Find a market first or you'll be finding yourself the proud owner of a huge collection of bunnies and a VERY large neutering bill.
From what I can tell, certainly here in the UK, the house rabbit market seems to be growing fast and one of the most popular breeds is actually the Giant French Lop. Some of the smaller breeds can be a bit temperamental as house pets. Lionheads for example are cute but nippy... allegedly. And Rex's chew a lot, so I heard.
Also, you'll want to know your breed, and more generally rabbit care, inside out if you are planning to deal direct with customers who will, in many cases, not have a clue. Sell them the wrong pair of sisters and they will open up in direct competition with you and probably be GIVING their's away!
Check out that website. It'll give you loads of info and contacts for people, far more knowledgable than I, who will be happy to help I'm sure.
Cheers,
GB.
Please don't breed any animal. Leave it to the profesional show breeders already out there. There are enough homeless rabbits already.
Look on petfinder.com