Parts & Pieces

One thing you always hear breeders preach about is "You have to build the barn before you paint it" which means worry about type before colour and achieving a rabbit that meets the standard means you have to BUILD that barn, with parts and pieces.

Building your herd can be a daunting task and even experienced breeders can appreciate a good "parts" animal that helps to lock in that one little thing that needs perfecting. Breeding these animals to the standard means seeing the

whole animal as one big picture but each individual charateristic needs to be correct to achieve a steller example of the breed. Not every rabbit will be perfect and we all undestand that, just because it is weak in one area does not mean it is a total loss. If a rabbit has multiple other desirable traits it can become a parts rabbit, used in a program that is strong in the area it lacks but can add proper structure in the necessary places. 

Previously, we worked with the Harlequin breed which is maddening, to put it mildly; because the pattern does not breed true and for many judges type doesnt matter. In the standard of perfection for Harlequin rabbits body type only counts for 10 points of the entire 100 points alotted and while there are breeders out there working to improve the body type in available Harlequins the breed standard is still very pattern dependent. Since starting our Rex herd we have had to really work on making sure we are producing rabbits with correct body type and there has definetly been a learning curve. Body type for Rex is 45 points of 100 and this means you HAVE to get it right, and you must correct the weaknesses your rabbits have and work hard to make the next generation better than the last. You can absolutely buy rabbits with the desired body type, you can buy best of breed winners, you can buy rabbits who have been registered and granded by ARBA but none of these things means you will actually produce correct rabbits when you breed them.

The facts are... you can have rabbits from "champion lines" and they can produce the worst looking rabbits to ever grace the earth if these traits are not cemented in. Alternativly, you can obtain rabbits who have equal strengths and weaknesses who will far out produce themselves and those rabbits that are papered to the wall but really it is all about how the genes decide to line up and how you move forward to make sure they stick.

Working with parts rabbits isn't a dirty little secret and they can benefit ANY breeding program. It takes hard work to get to the top but it will feel amazing being able to look back and see where you've come from, trust me.