Halting my Flop program. :-(

[wendymac]

Right now we're feeding 50# of pellets every 3 days. That's a LOT of feed. French Lops are super hard to sell because they aren't very popular (at least around here) nor do many pet homes want a large bunny. They also eat a LOT, need huge cages, and turn my arms into a mangled mess of scratches and blood at every show. I'm to the point, right now, of sending 4 of Adeline's babies and 4 of Rosa's babies to the local livestock sale. I need to breed Max and will have 3 more juniors that will need bred in a few months. That's a lot of babies! I still haven't found "the" buck yet, either. Sonny just isn't cutting it as a herd sire, and Grump's hindquarters aren't even close to perfect. And Grump, at 8 months old (almost 9) is really tiny.

I'll keep Max forever, and the 3 juniors...but the rest are going to be sold. I'll keep Grump, for now, to see how he crosses with Max. I might even sell the 3 juniors and just keep Max to show. I'm just super frustrated, and hate to do it, but I really don't have much of a choice. I need ONE really good buck, and there's none around for sale.

On the up side, that will free up more cages for Kitty's Californian program.

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

YIKES!

And I thought 100# a month when I had Rex, MR and some Nethies was a lot! That's crazy!

I understand reducing your herd though. It can always be tough to do, but you do have to make cuts where you need to in order to make due.

Emily

 

[wendymac]

Well, the feed bill isn't the main reason for the halt..it's the frustration on finding a good quality buck. I don't mind sending the babies that don't sell to the livestock market. There's quite a few of her leftover Cal babies that will be riding along to.

I really thought I'd find one for sale at Convention, but I've posted EVERYWHERE that I'm looking for a buck and nobody has one.

 

[majorv]

I'm sorry it's not working out with the lops. If you're talking about convention in Wichita, some breeders are still working up their sales list in August. On the upside, maybe you could expand the Polish! Any that aren't good show stock make great pets, as you know.

Breeding for convention has really made cage space challenging for us now that our litters are getting a little bigger. We're going through 100#of feed about every 2-3weeks.Only two months 'til convention!

 

[ldoerr]

I am sorry that you have to sell your bunnies. I never was able to go to convention. It was always too far away and I never had any stock good enough to compete there. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. When I raised chickens for meat pen shows I would go through 100lbs of feed in a week the last few weeks before the show. That was for 25 chickens. That got expensive REALLY fast when the feed was $20 a bag.

 

[wendymac]

The babies are definitely heading to the sale. I'll wait to sell of the does until I see if there is anything right before Convention for sale. If not, they're done.

I do have a super nice Polish buck (okay, I love him a lot, but the judges all did too!) and a doe. And I'm getting another doe on the 16th. This is my joint venture with Kitty. I found someone selling a 12 hole stacker (just waiting on them to sell off their mini rexes and then I can pick it up). We'll be limited to those 12 holes for any babies or new stock we want to keep.

Judges are running together, but I think it was Paul Kyle that used to raise them? Anyway, he said to give Karmin more time to mature (I didn't like her HQ)...he said she was nice, too. He said they don't mature as fast as other breeds, and go through a very ugly stage. He said, "Give her time!" every time I doubted. LOL

I love my Flops...where, oh where, are all the nice bucks hiding?

 

[woahlookitsme]

You should contact some texas Flop breeders! Most of the people we know are in the top 10 down here in Flops! Theres Janet Lorenz Try her at [email protected]

Jan Wilson is at [email protected]

you can find their info here at http://www.bunnyrabbit.com/info/breeder_links2.htm#French Lop

The breeder I got Franklin from is Virginia and Karen Clark (Karen does the french)[email protected]
Heres where her info is http://www.freewebs.com/texasloprabbitspecialtyclub/memberlist.htm

 

[bunnychild]

Only breeder I know is Marion Kamm (owner of Kammalop) and I love my buck I got from her. I will be at convention and am thinking of buying another Flop (doe this time) but hope to see ya there.

 

[MyBabyHasPaws]

Thats crazy! I love your lops, i think they're all gorgeous.. but i dont have the show/breeder eye....

i'd take one in a heartbeat!

 

[luvthempigs]

I had a french lop named Christopher many many years ago when I still kept my bunnies outside. He was the first bunny I really grew attached to, I still think about him on occasion. He had so much personality and was pretty darn handsome too

I would have have another in my home if I came across one that needed a home (and IF I were looking to add another bunny to the family)

That's a lot of feed to go through in such a short time :shock: You feed your bunnies hay too, right?

 

[fuzz16]

I am buying some from eden at convention and RD and one from kamm at end of month...they sell decently to pet homes around here, but with good stock then breeders will buy from you. There are a lot of 4-h starting wiyh them

 

[wendymac]

Thanks everyone. Flops aren't popular here. I've been to every show in Pennsylvania and there's really not a lot of them. The only time we have more than a few in each class is when people from out of the state come in. That's why my search for a good buck isn't panning out, and why it's harder to sell them to other breeders. And people looking for pet bunnies usually want small ones, not ones as big as their dog.

I could lie and just call them "lop eared" for pets, but I don't want the people to ditch the pet when it gets bigger than they thought it would.

 

[RoyalLions18]

I used to breed E lops and Lionheads. But i was going threw so much feed it was crazy! And the scratches i would have! I also had a hard time selling them. So i sold them all. The smaller breeds are so much easier to raise. 1/4th of the scratches 1/4th the feed, and so much easier to handle! Also sooo much more cage space for my lovely lions.It was hard for me too sell them, but i felt i had too Maybe you should try Hollands! I have just started with them they have personaltys like a old lazy dog!

 

[wendymac]

The problem is, I really love the Flops. I do have a couple of new rabbit friends looking for a buck for me. Hopefully one of them will find something soon. For our small breed, we're going to do Polish. We have a buck (who is my baby, almost literally) and a junior doe. We pick a senior doe up on the 16th. I can't wait! I love the Flops, but the Polish are pretty hard to beat too, especially for inside cuddle buns.

 

[fuzz16]

I think flops popularity will grow as people begin to see rabbts as more of pets. I looove the giant breeds as house pets, their a lot more personable than smaller ones IMHO

Hopefully you can get a good buck at convention...talk to Eden, she will be going and Kamm too.

 

[wendymac]

I sent e-mails to Kamm, and never heard anything back. Eden's have a notice on their for sale page stating nothing until sometime in September.

 

[fuzz16]

Kamm has been bouncing around to shows. I'll PM her cell and you can call her, she has a JR Buck I was supposed to get but couldn't get to the show yesteday. IDK what else she has. She's lost a few to the heat

 

[wendymac]

Thanks, Brenda, but I think I found one. I'll know in another few weeks. I think a lot of people were unlucky with bucks this year. While I was at the show yesterday there were people asking me if I had a buck for sale. One breeder tried to sell me this really small buck. He not only was small, but not very good in the hindquarters. I about died laughing when he told me the sire/dam, because it was Max's full brother. And, other than the coloring, they had nothing in common. He said he's been looking since February for one and wasn't having luck. And they've been in the rabbit show thing for a few years.