Ethical breeding isn’t about aesthetics or marketing. It’s about purpose, honesty, and selection over time. Whether you’re buying rabbits for meat, breeding, show, or a working homestead, these standards protect both animals and buyers. First — an important reality check You cannot assess breeding quality in newborn rabbits. Period. At birth, you cannot evaluate: 🐇Type or structure 🐇Growth trajectory 🐇Shoulder set, width, or balance 🐇Depth, bone, or long-term efficiency Most of the groups I am in even have a ban on pre-selling or even listing newborns for sale for these exact reasons . Those traits do not become meaningfully visible until weeks later: 🐰Growth trends: minimum 6 weeks 🐰Overall type: 8+ weeks 🐰Shoulder set, width, balance: 12–14 weeks At the newborn stage, the only honest assessment is that kits are alive, nursing, and healthy. Advertising newborns as “breeding stock,” “fast-growing,” or “proven efficient producers” is misleading. Responsible breeders wait to evaluate before making claims. Marketing animals before they can be assessed isn’t professionalism — it’s salesmanship, and it sets buyers up for false expectations. If kits are being sold as meat grow-outs, say that. If they’re being held back for evaluation, say that. Presenting newborns as evaluated breeding animals crosses an ethical line. Good breeding programs are built on selection, not assumptions — and selection requires time. What Actually Makes a Reputable Breeder A responsible breeder: • posts pictures of the animals in a proper show pose with at least 3 angles for evaluation, and lists parents weights, even if you are selling meat stock a commercial pose allows the assessment of Hips, Loin, Shoulders, and Balance. A correct pose will be able to see faults like lack of depth, width, pinched, narrow or undercut. • Breeds with a clear purpose (meat, hide, show, working lines, or breed development), not to flood the pet market. • Culls animals appropriately rather than prolonging suffering or selling subpar stock.

Would love to see your stories , photos, wins, new rabbits 🐰🐰🐰!!!

Who is showing? What breed and where? And how long? I am showing Rex in the PNW (mostly western Washington and a little in Oregon). Lynx and tri are my main show varieties, but I have a little bit of almost every rex variety 😅 I've been showing ARBA for just over a year. Just recently started having homebred (first generation but hey its a start) rabbits to show. I'm extremely proud of my lynx and tri buns and very thankful to the amazing breeders around here that have shared stock with me.

I strongly dislike this illustration. It isn’t based on actual rabbit anatomy or skeletal alignment—it reflects a narrow aesthetic preference that became popular, not a structurally sound model. When this outline is selected for, it produces a “chopped” hindquarter, forces the pelvis to tuck under, and narrows the pelvic outlet. That combination predictably leads to reproductive and structural problems, including a pinched birth canal and compromised locomotion. The placement of the high point is the core issue. In this illustration it’s pushed too far back, effectively over the pelvic joint. In a correctly aligned skeleton, the high point falls just behind the knee, not over the pelvis. You can see this clearly when you overlay a naturally positioned skeleton. In the X-ray example below, the feet are slightly overposed, but once you visualize the alignment, the topline matches correctly—and the high point lands where anatomy dictates, not where a few people say it should be. This illustration has been overused, unchallenged, and repeated long past the point where it should have been corrected. When layered over real skeletal structure, it simply doesn’t hold up.

I have a few questions about Tans, they are my first breed that isn't a commercial breed and I want to make sure I am doing them justice. I have a trio, mom, dad, and one of their daughters. I have bred mom twice now, both times she had babies, the first it was a high of 15F and she didn't pull hair and they were gone. I lost 5 other litters that day as well sadly, only one of my Harlequins made a beautiful nest. So I rebred her. About a week before her due date I moved her to a larger pen with a nesting box full of straw and she was running around with straw and hay in her mouth for days. I came in around 9am to find her birthing the babies, came back around 11am to her eating a screaming baby thinking maybe something was wrong with it that I couldn't see, there were 3 warm in the nest. Came back around 1pm to the babies scattered in the nest cold. I was able to bring one back and a Harley is fostering that baby now. She continued to build the nest all day still. Are Tans more finicky? She didn't pull much fur at all but she's so little and doesn't have a lot of fur so is that normal? Will it be okay to have a commercial breed raising a running and smaller breed? Her daughter is almost 6 mths, when is it acceptable to breed Tans? Still working to get them a good place to run since I don't want them jumping off the table I have and being able to run away, no place outside is rabbit proof with escaping. Have had the daughter get loose a few times due to her feeder coming off and she'd come running back when her name was called and food can shook. Just feel like these guys are way different from my other breeds I feel like I'm not doing them any justice. Originally was just going to get one but found a good deal and decided on the trio.