Wilted Rose Rabbitry

01/14/2025

Hello! We are a family in Southwest Washington currently working on revamping our backyard into a more sustainable and self-sufficient space. We've been raising quail for a little while now and are eager to learn more from others who have experience using quail as a protein source. Our focus is on creating a balanced, sustainable system that includes quail, rabbits, and vegetable gardening.

We’re particularly interested in hearing about others’ experiences with raising quail in the Pacific Northwest, including tips on housing, feeding, and managing their care year-round. We also raise rabbits and are using their manure to enrich our garden soil, and we’re always looking for new ways to integrate everything more effectively into a holistic, backyard farm.

If you have experience with any of these areas—quail, rabbits, or sustainable gardening—we would love to connect, share insights, and learn from one another. We’re looking forward to exchanging knowledge and building a supportive community of homesteaders in the area!

01/11/2025

I had a lot of people asking the best breed of rabbit!! The most popular rabbit breeds for meat are the New Zealand White and Californian, both known for their high meat yield and fast growth rates; with the New Zealand White being the most widely recognized choice in the US for meat production.
Other good meat rabbit breeds include:
Rex Rabbit: Offers good meat quality with the added benefit of a valuable fur coat.
Silver Fox Rabbit: A good meat producer with a distinct color pattern.
Flemish Giant: A large breed with a substantial amount of meat, but requires more food to reach maturity.
American Chinchilla: Another option with good meat quality and fur.

Key factors to consider when choosing a meat rabbit breed:
Growth rate: How quickly the rabbit reaches a butcherable weight.
Meat to bone ratio: The proportion of edible meat compared to bone.
Litter size: The number of offspring a doe produces per litter.
Temperament: How easy the rabbit is to handle and manage

01/10/2025

If you are UNDER 1k followers drop your page in the comments. Those of us OVER 1k let’s give them a boost!

01/10/2025

A difficult aspect of rabbit breeding is finding kits on the wire, kindled too early with no survivors.

01/09/2025

My good friend Roxanne has a new page for her rabbits. Go over a give her a follow or like.

BDA IS THE NEW PAGE SINCE I LOST MY OTHER ONE!
OUR BARN HAS NEW BLOODLINES AND HOUSES, GIANTS!

12/31/2024

Wilted Rose Rabbitry wishes all a joyous and prosperous New Year

12/26/2024

A poignant reminder of animal rescue is losing one. We acquired these bunnies from a local auction, and regrettably, one did not survive. He succumbed to the neglect he had suffered, after we did everything possible to save him. Losing one is always difficult. Yet, this morning, his companions are huddled around him, manifesting clear grief, a powerful testament to the bonds of love and resilience.

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas 🎁🎄

12/25/2024

Warmest wishes this holiday season from Wilted Rose Rabbitry.

12/23/2024

12/21/2024

Celebrate Yule (Winter Solstice)
December 21 and 22nd
Yule is one of the oldest known solstice festivals, celebrating the rebirth of the sun. It involves lighting candles or bonfires to symbolize the return of light, and many of the practices have influenced modern Christmas traditions, such as the Yule log and decorating with holly, mistletoe, and evergreens.

12/21/2024

I am working through these goals one by one. Developing a Micro Homestead is currently an ambition of mine, as I am located within city limits, but ultimately I aim to expand on a small plot of land that will be entirely self-sufficient.

12/20/2024

My granddaughter loves the bunnies. 🐰
If you're not already following my daughter's page, please check it out and give her a like or follow.

I am getting setup to be able to do stickers again here in the near future. 😁 I am going to be bringing a portfolio binder with me to shows from now on full of some original and some purchased designs if anyone is interested in stickers. 😊

Photo: Amber Rose holding Legendary LG5, my Dwarf Papillon Buck.

12/17/2024

How crucial is a pedigree in the decision-making process when buying a rabbit? Would a rabbit with an incomplete pedigree be a deal-breaker for you?

12/14/2024

Food for thought!

Some good advice.

Tip of the Week from KEITH SINDERS:

Don’t rely too heavily on show placings.
This is one of those topics where I’ll get up on the pulpit and preach a little bit. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got for showing rabbits was to “go with what you like”.
I see people far too often relying too heavily on how their rabbits place at shows to determine which rabbits they keep and get rid of. That can sometimes be a recipe for confusion and disaster or at the very least culling or selling some rabbits that you never should have gotten rid of.
What tends to make the major difference between top breeders and people who aren’t top breeders is attention to detail. And that applies to most everything from evaluating the rabbits to how they get taken care of.
Hang around most any top breeder for a while and you’ll find that they have certain things that they are very picky about. Pay attention to what they are picky about because that’s part of the key to their success. Because being picky means paying close attention to small details.
Judges are giving a quick evaluation based upon how that rabbit looks to them at that exact moment in time. If that rabbit is a bit too young and small, it’s likely not going to place well. If the fur or condition isn’t finished, it likely won’t place well. If it didn’t pose well or the judge didn’t pose it properly, it likely won’t place well. If the competition is weak, it may place well and it still might not be all that good of a rabbit. If the competition is strong, it may place near last and still be a spectacular rabbit. And the size of the class isn’t always an indication of how strong the class is either. You might have a little local show where a few really strong breeders show up and the competition may be more fierce than even a national show. I’ve had a Florida White place in the 20s out of 40 some rabbits and the next day it calmed down and won Best 4 Class at the Ohio State Convention.
This is why show placement can be so confusing. A rabbit that is too small and places horribly at one show may grow a bit and dominate the competition a couple weeks later.
I’m not saying to disregard how your rabbits do at a show, but to put it in the proper perspective and to also trust your own personal opinion and judgement of your rabbits.
I see so many people watching closely how their rabbits place. What they tend not to pay attention to (comments and posing) is what they should probably be paying attention to the most.
When I’m showing my rabbits, I try situating myself in a position where I have a good view of the judge posing the rabbit and where I can hear the judge’s comments. It allows me to see if the judge posed the rabbit correctly or incorrectly, if the rabbit didn’t want to pose and if the pose affected the comments. The comments allow me to understand WHAT the judge does or doesn’t like about my rabbits. Placing tells you nothing about what the judge does or doesn’t like. It may not even tell you if the judge truly likes it better than some they put off the table earlier, because the judge may pull rabbits off the table randomly until they get down to a certain number of rabbits.
One thing I’m especially looking for are comments on things I might have missed or not caught that the judge may have. I often get the rabbit out later to see if I agree or disagree with the judge’s opinion. If I disagree, I’ll usually go with my own opinion. If I’m unsure, I may get the opinion of another breeder or kindly ask the judge to explain their opinion when they have a free moment.
Some top breeders enter what I call “game mode” when their rabbits are being judged. They pay intense attention to what the judge is doing and their comments. If a breeder is in “game mode”, don’t disturb them while they are in “game mode”. They don’t want to be distracted while their rabbits are being judged. Check in with them later when they have a free moment.
The biggest key to raising great show rabbits is to have a discerning eye. Learn what to look for. Don’t rush your judgements. Pick them out after looking at the rabbits multiple times. Build your evaluation of that rabbit from numerous times of looking at it over multiple days. Also notice trends of rabbits that have practically the same genetics.
Where are your best rabbits coming from? Which rabbits are the best for a certain trait? Most of the rabbits I like to keep are my very top rabbits, especially ones where there were multiple good rabbits in the litter. But sometimes a rabbit that I keep won’t be one of my best overall rabbits, but it may be one of my very best at a certain trait like fur, high point or massive hindquarters.
It’s also good to be patient when you can without hoarding rabbits. If you have a herd rabbit that almost always throws good rabbits, be a little more patient with that litter if they don’t look good. If it is a good litter and the rabbits are pretty close in quality, be careful about knit picking and getting rid of rabbits too soon. On litters that are close in quality, many times the best one doesn’t stay the best one in the litter. Let them develop a bit to see which ones become the best rabbits.
The biggest mistakes usually happen when a breeder rushes to judgment. I like to get rabbits out, think on it. Walk around the rabbit barn. Compare to other rabbits. Think about it a bit more. Look at the cage cards to see what they are out of. Pull up the pedigrees. Look for trends. Walk around the rabbit barn more and think. Then I repeat that process multiple different days until I feel that I have a solid feel for what each of those rabbits are and what I need to keep and get rid of.
Don’t let the judges tell you what to keep and get rid of. Still value their opinions and comments. Learn from them every opportunity that you can. But learn to become discerning, to trust your own judgement and to put the show results into proper perspective.

12/13/2024