All in all, it was a good resource. It was not right for my situation and did not offer any real solid information on anything other than meat rabbits. Mr. Bennet does give a lot of useful information that would be of help had I been setting up an outdoor rabbitry or planning a large number of holes. He also did have lots of great information on Tans, Californians and other breeds that can be used for meat. But as I said, the focus was almost 100% meat and a large (small scale) rabbitry. The author, for example, has a detached garage he has outfitted as a rabbitry. He included plans for this and various other large outdoor structures, which would be great for people planning on having 30 breeding rabbits and various litters awaiting slaughter at all times. For myself, with only one breeding pair and having to house them indoors, not much for me there. There is a section with good information on showing rabbits and making sure that you start with a good pedigree pair of rabbits so that if you do decide to show them or sell them to someone wanting to show them, you can. There is also a cookbook section, which would be helpful if you were doing this for meat production. I may end up utilizing any unsold kits as freezer fodder, but I hope to sell them all off. And there is a nice little section on ailments and breeding as well, since these tend to be the same in all breeds this was also a helpful section.
I do think that this book has it's place on any rabbit breeders shelf, but it did not have a lot of the information I was looking for as a woman getting into the Angora breeding scene. It has a lot of good general information and if I am ever able to move my rabbits outdoors, there will be great use for this book. So if I were new to Angoras and looking for only one book to buy, this would not be it. But if you are looking to set up a good reference library for your rabbitry, this book will fit in nicely.
I totally agree! The book focuses on the "meat" aspect of raising rabbits too much. There just isn't enough about actually RAISING rabbits. I bought it looking for info on breeding, newborn rabbits, weaning, and other baby rabbit stuff. Some of the housing recommendations he makes are expensive and a little unrealistic for a hobby rabbitry.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you are keeping your fluffies inside :) I had an angora and he died during his first year in my outdoor rabbitry. I hope you end letting them out to play in the house, but I must warn you: they eat EVERY CORD THEY FIND. When we had indoor rabbits they frustrated the daylights out of our cable guy until he found out about the rabbits :)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to meet them in person and hear about their personalities and exploits!