RABBITRY ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY: PAUL RAMIREZ
This spring I was lucky enough to catch an Arizona State Rabbit and Cavy Club show in Casa Grande, AZ. Amongst the hustle and bustle of moving rabbit cages and excited exhibitors I ran in to Bill Estes, Shannon Estes, Jennifer Schultz and Kennedy Pautler who where nice enough to give me a tour of the show floor and introduce me to some of their prized rabbits. Q: Shannon and Bill, how did you get involve with rabbits? A: We purchased a pet store rabbit for Shannon when she was six or seven. She then started in the 4-H Rabbit project when she was nine and our hobby grew from there to our current barn housing almost 150 rabbits. Q: Webster defines a rabbitry as: a place where domestic rabbits are kept or a rabbit raising enterprise, tell me more about your operations? A: The 4 of us, who travel together to shows all over the country are very similar in that our rabbits each have their own individual cage with water and feeding. Since we have different breeds our cages do vary in size and configuration but our barns are air conditioned, insulated and ventilated to keep our rabbits in a stable environment to best promote growth, and breeding success. We all strive to improve our rabbits through selective breeding which we do to the Standard of Perfection that is published by the American Rabbit Breeders Association. PG. 48 :: SPRING 2019
Q: Looking around this show I see rabbits of all shapes and sizes, just how many breeds are there? A: Currently the ARBA recognizes 49 breeds ranging in size from 2 pound to over 20 pounds. Rabbits are used for meat production, wool production, fur production and for showing. Q: I’ve heard raising rabbits is a great place for younger kids to start learning valuable skills of animal husbandry. Do you have any tips for families interested in rabbits? A: Yes all four of us started attending local Open and 4-H shows. We recommend going to shows and seeing the different rabbits, talk to reputable breeders about their breed’s temperament and issues. Start with an appropriate size breed but know that rabbits can live up to 10 years or more so this is a commitment the whole family makes. We tell 4-H families that you can have one of two rabbits or go in the direction we did and build successful rabbitries of any size. As with any hobby we have fun together while we compete with our rabbits. Once the fun goes away so will the rabbits. 4-H is a youth development program of our nation’s Cooperative Extension System, which is comprised of land-grant universities and local county offices across the nation. For a list of local 4-H clubs, visit https://4-h.org/find/ or Check with you local Extension office by visiting https://nifa.usda.gov/extension
