Falling Pine Rabbitry

Babies are getting their colours in It looks like We have Blue, Lilac, Chocolate and Black Japanese and one beautiful little Lilac Magpie

New hutches in progress!

All of our Harlequin does have kindled! Firstly was our Magpie doe, Domino had a sweet little Singleton on May 5th that I am fairly sure is a doe. And Today (05/15) Our Japanese does, Pepsi has 7 and Echo has 9! Both litter's and mom's are doing good and healthy. Babies are looking to have a good patterns! Only a few of Echoes have face splits while Pepsi's babies are lacking the split's but show to have good pattern Picture of Domino's kit

Hijack's Big Slick

Pudgy the #EnglishLop and Hijack the #CheckeredGiant

What to Look for When Finding Your First Show Rabbit - - Looking for your first show rabbit is exciting and overwhelming all at once. It is best to go into ...it with at least a little bit of knowledge on what you are looking for and what will best suit your lifestyle? Don’t have time to deal with wool? Best to avoid breeds like American Fuzzy Lops, Jersey Woolies, as well as Satin Angoras, French Angoras, English Angoras, and Giant Angoras. I decided I would go over some things that you want to look for and not look for when finding your first show rabbit. Go to shows and see what breeders are doing well on the tables and have really nice examples of the breed, talk with them and try to build a friendship. It is always good to have several people you can go to for advice and it’s a good idea to try and get your hands on some quality animals so you can feel and see with your own eyes what to look for after reading the standard for the breed. Shows are also a great opportunity for you to see breeds in person and get an up close look at breeds you may be interested and you will be able to talk to breeders of those about care and other things about certain breeds. Actually some of my closest rabbit friends I go to for advice don’t even raise the same breeds as I do, but they have great advice that applies to more than just the breeds they raise. A good step is to join the national breed club for your breed, with that membership you will get a bi monthly magazine full of information specifically about your breed and you will also receive the guidebook or in better words the bible for your breed. The guidebook is full of breed specific information and breaks down the standard showing you what to look for and what not to look for as well as color information on what to cross together and what to not cross together. In that bi monthly magazine you will also see breeders who are doing well nationally which brings me to the topic of getting a mentor. You should find someone whether local or a days drive away that you are able to trust and is willing to help answer any questions you have. This person should have a good breeding program that not only is successful on the show tables locally or nationally but that is also full of rabbits that meet the breed standard and are good examples of the breed. This person should also have a firm understanding of the breed standard and be able to help guide you as you begin the journey. This will be a person that can help you get into the show rabbit world and even get involved in breeding if you decide to do so. This person also will be someone who will not just push their rabbits on to you but will help you in finding the best rabbits to get you started, remember to get as much advice as possible and not just jump in head first and buy a rabbit(s) immediately. Although it takes lots of years to really grasp an understanding for a breed, it’s important to go into the process with at least a small grasp of what the breed standard says and what to look for. The American Rabbit Breeders Association sells both a digital and hard copy version of the Standard of Perfection, which includes the standards for all recognized breeds and varieties of rabbits and cavies. While it would be great to be able to put full trust into the person you are purchasing from, not all people are trying to truly help you, some just see and opportunity to make money and will unfortunately try to screw you over if they know you are new. Luckily there are lots of awesome breeders out there that far outweigh the bad but it’s still important for you to do some research yourself on the breed or breeds of your choosing. Educate yourself on the difference between showable and show quality. There is a big difference in the two that most people starting out do not realize. Showable means the rabbit is free of any sort of disqualifications. That means the rabbit is healthy and also doesn’t have anything that is listed in the standard as a disqualification so wouldn’t be kicked off the show table. So know that just because the rabbit is showable doesn’t mean you should buy it and show or breed it. Show quality is the term used for rabbits that are free of any disqualifications but also closely adhere to the guidelines and points listed in the Standard of Perfection that would make them fairly competitive if placed on the show table. Many people do not realize the differentiation between the two and ultimately fall victim to breeders who only want to make some money and know that the buyer doesn’t know better. The more educated you are before looking to buy your first show rabbit(s) the better off you will be because you will know who to purchase from and who not to purchase from. Also it’s important to realize that yes while you should have to fork out a good bit of money on a quality start, not all high priced rabbits are good quality. The same can be said for low priced rabbits, while you should be expecting to pay a good bit of money when starting pay more attention to the rabbits in front of you than the price tag. I would even recommend finding another breeder or perhaps a judge and sending the rabbits you are looking at to them to get their opinion. If the breeder with the rabbits truly wants to help you get the best start they will have no problem with you getting others opinions on the rabbits. Know that the best rabbits you can start with probably won’t be near you so you may have to plan a road trip or even look into transportation services for getting the rabbits to you. Find a breeder that knows their breed standard and can get you a rabbit that is actually show quality. I see so many people offer up their rabbits with the claims of parents showed really well or dad won at the county fair, but those same people cannot properly pose the rabbits they are offering and cannot tell you the strong suits of the rabbit as well as the weaknesses. Those are the kind of people you should avoid and for several good reasons. A big selling point I see is people claiming how many legs the parents have or how many legs a grandparent has, legs are an award given to the first place animal of a class, variety, group, or breed that has at least 3 exhibitors entered as well as 5 rabbits. Legs are not something a rabbits quality should be based on because you never know the quality of the competition the rabbit was competing against. Two grand champion rabbits (a rabbit must be registered and have 3 legs, one of which they must obtain as a senior) can be paired together and not genetically or phenotypically compliment eachother and produce pet quality babies. Sometimes the best show rabbit you can get comes out of a doe or buck who has never seen the show table but the breeder knew how to correctly use that animal in a breeding program and the cross went well. A breeder can do a certain cross several times and not always yield the same results. So it’s important to not focus on what the parents or grandparents have won and focus on the rabbit in front of you as well as finding a breeder who is knowledgeable about their breed and can tell you the good and bad of the rabbit they are offering and why they feel it is show quality. If you decide to get into breeding, it is best to purchase at least one trio (one buck, two does) from the same breeder or from breeders who have the same lines and have rabbits available that will compliment each other. I highly recommend not purchasing from a bunch of different breeders creating a breeding program for yourself with a hodge lodge of lines, it is best to stick with similar lines or the same lines that way you will get better, more consistent results in quality of offspring than you would if you just bred a mixture of different lines together. Line breeding equals consistency and gives you the opportunity to learn how a certain line develops. Be prepared to drop several hundred dollars on foundation stock when starting out if you try to get the best start in rabbits you can. Most top breeders rabbits are highly sought after therefore their rabbits won’t be cheap and you may even have to wait awhile to get rabbits from the breeder you are looking at purchasing from. Also remember to build your barn before you paint it. An old saying I was taught years ago when I first started, in simple terms it means to start off with colors that are really well developed and get yourself a good program going before introducing new colors that aren’t as developed into your herd. All in all rabbit showing and breeding is a great, family friendly hobby. We are all one big family and we love having new people interested in our hobby. Just remember to educate yourself as much as possible, make friends and find mentors with quality examples of their breeds, take the saying of quality over quantity to heart, and most of all have fun. *Also if you happen to do well with your rabbits on the show table that you purchased from a breeder always remember to credit that breeder!*

Our first litter of the year, beautiful litter of eight, otters and broken. They're apart of our (F2) Giant Rex project :)

We're having a temporary sell out on our rabbitry. We will have two pedigreed rex and two Harlequin pair's available, get them before I change my mind.

I figured, I should probably update the page after so long.. Happy New Year's Everybunny!. Well as most know, this Rabbitry started with Lionhead's..our very first litter, Roughly six years ago was Lionhead's and we kept back a buck at the time, Gerry. Our 2020 started off rough with multiple goodbyes but one was saying goodbye to our sweet senior bun, Gerry after his health went down hill. After his passing, We came to a conclusion, to start downsizing and manage a more smal...ler Rabbitry for the time being to focus more on our showable rabbit's. Grey Flemish's and Magpie & Japanese Harlequin's.. We officially got out of Lionhead's. We hope to get back into them next summer, but we'll be going about much differently and hope to start with good quality and showable Lionhead's when we do. We also held back a pair of rex and Giant rex to continue our Giant Rex project on the side for meat. See more