We have been married for 3 years, and both have a great love of animals. Although, it did take some time to agree on what animals we want in our home! Rabbits has become a wonderful project for the two of us, and we are involving our 2 year old son Corbin in rabbit rearing as well. We want him to enjoy it as much as we do. Madilyn our baby was born on 1/18/08 and we also plan to involve her when the time comes. Having animals to care for as a young person helps to mold your character and gives you a sense of accomplisment when you do well, and teaches perserverence when you need to go back and work on things.. We live in Meridain, ID with our rabbits as well as our Chocolate Labrador Sadie, our three cats Mr. Kat, Minnie, and Bear-bear (polydactyl), and our 2 box turtles Nori and Dexter.
We had a rocky start with the first stock we purchased. Having no experience with the breed, we did not have any idea what to look for in a Netherland Dwarf. We purchased our starting stock in October 2007 from a local breeder who was getting out of the breed and moving out of the country at the time. Needless to say didn't get any subsequent questions answered. One of the does we purchased died soon after we brought her home. When we finally got to go to our first show in February, we were able to see our bucks next to much better stock. They had much bigger heads and bone structure. They also had thick, short looking ears.
When we attended our second show, in LaGrande, Oregon, we had the opportunity of meeting Lisa Monk of CM's Hippity Hops. She gave us a "second chance" by evaluating our stock and helping us in the culling process... we ended up culling all of our "show stock" from our breeding program. She let us feel some of her rabbits and they felt completely different from what we had. Lisa parted with some really excellent rabbits to help us out. She also puts up with our many emails and answers all of our questions. She is a very honest person and unselfish breeder. We can honestly say that all of our dealings with her have been pleasureable experiences. Not like other experiences we had with some breeders that we later regretted.
Lisa also talked to Amber Ross, of Lone Star Rabbitry, and told her our situation. Amber was also so nice, she parted with one of her very best kits, Lone Star's Genuine Article, to help us with our Blue-Eyed Whites. Lisa and Amber got our program on track and we are forever grateful to them.
We started breeding Netherland Dwarfs as a hobby and family project. It was so hard for us to break into the hobby. Some breeders are more worried about getting rid of there "junk", and really don't care to help newer breeders by selling some of their better stock. We learned from breeding "junk" we only got more "junk" and we wouldn't wish that on anyone. We can't wait to do the same thing Lisa and Amber have done for us and help others who are just getting started. |
