Our first adventure into Hollands would soon become one of our biggest lessons to learn. We quickly learned never to buy from a breeder who is selling babies. I had wanted a couple of Hollands for our girls to be able to show. I wasn't as concerned about breeding, as I was mainly wanting them only as a hobby for my daughters. So I did what many of us do and look online for local breeders. I was thrilled to get that call saying something was available. I could not wait to surprise my girls. I purchased two show quality rabbits. One with the full knowledge that the doe may become a brood animal, meaning over weight. But the buck, I was told, should remain smaller and become a great "Herd Buck". I had read about the crazy Uglies. So I gathered that ours were just having a long go at them. Before our doe was even 4 mths old she already weighed over 4 pounds with the buck not far behind her. Besides weight, there were other very obvious problems. Our dear little show Hollands, actually didn't look like Hollands at all. One day while talking with the breeder, politely expressing my concerns they simply laughed. It was then that I obtained a full insight to the type of breeder this person was. A close friend of mine asked the other day about this situation and just for fun I took pictures for her. She instantly said, Wow, that doesn't even appear to be a Holland Lop. At almost 6 pounds you can easily see the facial structure is not similar to our cute little round headed Hollands. While researching different rabbit types, this facial structure is almost identical to a rex / lop mix. Due to his tremendous length he is unable to even attempt a cute Holland Pose. And it was never a matter of over feeding. All of our Hollands get 1/3 cup of food per day.
Prior to breeding I would have chalked this up to a mishap. But after breeding for almost two years now, with nice stock, not once have we produced anything that resembled this. Yes we have produced some big stock even out of tiny stock but they were still able to maintain type.
So in the end the fault lies on me. Had I read further I would have learned that responsible breeders do not sell babies at all. Responsible breeders may have sold this animal as a pet for pet prices but never as a show prospect or with pedigrees to promote breeding such terrible stock. So it's important to really do your research before obtaining your stock. If you are in the market for show stock, please read up on how important it is to wait until your rabbit is closer to 5 mths of age.
Since then I have purchased stock from multiple reputable breeders. Not one of them has sold me anything under 5 mths of age.
We have shown and done well at shows. However to this day I do not feel qualified to sell a rabbit as show quality as of yet. We are working towards it and the day will come. And when it does, we will likely have shown that rabbit hence validating it's show quality.
Prior to breeding I would have chalked this up to a mishap. But after breeding for almost two years now, with nice stock, not once have we produced anything that resembled this. Yes we have produced some big stock even out of tiny stock but they were still able to maintain type.
So in the end the fault lies on me. Had I read further I would have learned that responsible breeders do not sell babies at all. Responsible breeders may have sold this animal as a pet for pet prices but never as a show prospect or with pedigrees to promote breeding such terrible stock. So it's important to really do your research before obtaining your stock. If you are in the market for show stock, please read up on how important it is to wait until your rabbit is closer to 5 mths of age.
Since then I have purchased stock from multiple reputable breeders. Not one of them has sold me anything under 5 mths of age.
We have shown and done well at shows. However to this day I do not feel qualified to sell a rabbit as show quality as of yet. We are working towards it and the day will come. And when it does, we will likely have shown that rabbit hence validating it's show quality.
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