Young mother and her 3 week old kits Breeding Doe
Breed Disqualifications
Breed Judging
Since our first breeding in 2006 Sliver Pond has grown to a large sized rabbitry and now houses over 200 show quality breeding does serviced by 40 very nice show quality bucks. Animal quality is important to us so we strive to improve the rabbitry with every breeding. Breeders are evaluated for health, quality and quantity of offspring and replaced when failing these criteria.
A rabbit friend and ARBA judge, Howard Keller, provided some good advice along the way and helped me understand the quality traits of a Californian rabbit. Offspring are screened from each breeding and only the very best are retained as future breeding stock. All potential breeders are screened based on Californian breed standard and are typically of show quality. We do only keep the best and process the rest.
Breeding rabbits are available throughout the year but quantities can be limited as we only retain those animals with traits that will enhance our breeding. Two markets exist for breeding animals. One market is for production, proven does that have maintained litters and for bucks proven capable of providing these litters. In a working rabbitry like Sliver Pond, proven animals are money makers with a considerable amount of time, money and patience invested to get the rabbit to this stage. Rabbits in this category typically will not be available. The second market is for Show animals. The best show animals will almost always be younger animals bred specifically for the time interval of the show. It has been our experience that younger “Junior” rabbits 5-6 months old that have reached “Senior” weight classification at 9 -10 pounds still have nice coats and perform very well at shows.
Breeder pricing is $60 each buck or doe regardless of age, without pedigree. Breeders with pedigree are $75.
We do not sell bred does or does and litters so do plan your project well if in a "breed your own" county.
We do breed most does at 5 months of age while waiting until 6 months on the bucks. Bucks occasionally are intimidated by doe size at younger ages and will not perform.
We do not take reservations for breeding animals as we maintain an inventory that is eventually purged into our breeding program. Breeders are first come, first selection.
