Question about Breeder Rules

[lavendertealatte]

I noticed on at least more than one breeder's website that they have a rule that if you buy a show rabbit from them you have to keep the name from the original rabbitry.
I also read that if you buy a pet rabbit you are not allowed to breed them.

Out of pure interest (since I am not a breeder myself but am interested in the genetics, the whole process of breeding, and the entire history of how this all came about),
what is the purpose for these kinds of rules?

 

[Preitler]

I'm no show breeder so I might be wrong there, I guess those are more conventions and customs than rules.

Any breeder striving to better the breed and petting out culls sure would prefer that those, regarding to the breed standards, subpar rabbits are not bred. There is no point in flooding the market with "purebreds" from bad breeding material, it damages the efforts to keep standards high - also in aspects like health and character- and ruins prices.

If you work for years to produce show quality rabbits you sure would like to see your rabbitry mentioned when one of those rabbits is shown, it's also a valuable information connected wth the rabbit, like when another breeder looks for traits this rabbit has.
Anyone can buy a rabbit, and slap his name on. It's not his merit that this rabbit is that good, someone else did the work. And he can't supply rabbits from the same stock.

 

[Apollo’s Slave]

I noticed on at least more than one breeder's website that they have a rule that if you buy a show rabbit from them you have to keep the name from the original rabbitry.
I also read that if you buy a pet rabbit you are not allowed to breed them.

Out of pure interest (since I am not a breeder myself but am interested in the genetics, the whole process of breeding, and the entire history of how this all came about),
what is the purpose for these kinds of rules?

I’m also not a breeder so this could be wrong. But I think the reason you can’t breed a pet rabbit is because they’re not breed standard! And good breeders usually want to better the breed and have the best ‘quality’ of that breed! I think lol

 

[majorv]

As a breeder, we basically had the same rule as most other breeders. The reasons given above are correct. A rabbit sold as a pet is just that and for whatever reason wasn’t show quality. Someone breeding a rabbit petted out contributes to overpopulation and can reflect poorly on that breeder’s reputation. As far as keeping the rabbitry name with the name of the bunny, it’s common courtesy and good etiquette. I always kept a ‘bought’ rabbit’s original pedigree, and for any offspring from that rabbit I used the whole name on the kits pedigree. Ex: If I bought DJ’s Dana and bred her, that name shows as the dam on all her offspring. If I sold Owen’s Malibu then I’d expect to see him as the sire on any offspring he produced. You can change the name informally of a bought rabbit but the pedigree should show the original name. Ex: we bought Byrd-Flynn’s Sinatra but we ended up calling him Monster. On all pedigrees with him as a parent we used his real name...we could’ve added Monster in quotes after, but we didn’t.

 

[Happy Hollands]

I agree with everything said above - being a breeder, you have to set some rules to credit your hard work.

The first thing you referred to, pedigree names, is a big one! While I personally focus more on blue-eyed non-showable dwarf bunnies, I do definitely breed a few litters for show as well. especially blue eyed white, as there's not many great typed ones out there. Even though many of my bunnies carry the Vienna gene, they are show quality (structure wise) as I'm still trying to better the breed. Put simply, having your rabbitry name on pedigrees gives you credit for the hard work you put into producing high quality rabbits. It is extremely offensive and disrespectful to change it... Don't get me wrong, you can definitely change the actual name of the bunny, it's just the part that comes before the rabbit's name (title of rabbitry that produced the bunny) that matters. Some breeders, like myself will even offer to include your new name for the bun in the pedigree so it is less confusing! This is seriously a part of my sales policy because some people find nothing wrong with altering pedigrees.

The second point you touched on, pet rabbits being pets only, is also a big topic! There are two different reasons breeders do this, one being to keep the breed standard up, and the other because (unless you have a specific goal) there are plenty of rabbits out there already and breeding should not be something you do spontaneously / randomly for fun. This is why if somebody wants to buy a breeder bunny or a pet that they will occasionally breed, the price does go up at least for my herd because I know you will be profiting from that specific bun. pets are usually priced cheaper, for many obvious reasons - one being that they may not always have the best quality but can still be loved on just as much.

Hopefully this clears any confusion up!