Carol Vasko from Bryan, OH |
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How may years have you raised Dutch? |
Over 15 years |
What recognized varieties do you raise? |
Black, Gray, Steel, Tortoise |
What non-recognized varieties do you own? |
Blue Steel, Gold, Harlequin |
When using other breeds of rabbits in the development of these new colors, it will take many years to get animals that consistently show a good Dutch type. What about the colors we could have just crossing the varieties we already have? Lilac Dutch for example were very popular back in the days of the AOV class. |
I love blue steels. I'll get them in steel litters and they are always the best marked with the greatest type. |
If we start adding new colors of Dutch to the Standard will we get carried away with the entire thing? for example, the Netherland Dwarfs and Mini-Rex. Will this benefit our club or the Dutch breed? |
In the years that I have raised Dutch the club has maintained the six core varieties without adding anything new, I don't think we are going to get too carried away any time soon. |
Will the Chinchilla Dutch complement the Gray and/or Steel varieties? This would still need to be proven. |
No, I see real problems that could evolve from adding in chinchilla, especially with steel. Breeding gray and steel can cause problems. Breeding a blue steel to a black steel improves ticking a lot of times, and helps prevent a lot of the rusty color that can come from too much gray being bred in. |
Would the Red Dutch complement any other colors? |
No, I see a big mess if red gets mixed into the torts. Years ago too much black was bred into the torts trying to improve the type. We were seeing torts with black heads being shown. |
Instead of adding more classes of Dutch to be judged, would it be better to have an agouti class in place of the Gray? |
I don't know, chinchillas might take a while before they can seriously give any competition to the grays in an agouti class. I don't know if that would be discouraging to the breeders or not. I do know that the breeder that does start to consistently win with a chinchilla in an agouti class will have people beating down their door to buy rabbits from their line. |
At many shows the number of Steels shown is not very good. Will more colors hurt the Steel numbers even more? Plus will it add to having more varieties with poor showings? |
The numbers on steels may not be very large at the shows, but the quality of the animals are good. People that raise steels will raise steels. For as much as I love torts, when I get a nice steel, I get pretty excited. I guess I have to look at what's a poor showing. Bad quality is a poor showing, not low numbers. You may only show against one other person in steels, but you can turn around and take the whole thing at the end. Most varieties, except for black, will ebb and flow in showing numbers. |
Having more colors of Dutch may just add interest from people who haven't raised Dutch before. |
When I first starting raising Dutch I was drawn to them because of their markings, not their color. Once I started showing I stayed due to the people I met in the Dutch club. I think having too many colors could become confusing and discouraging to the new Dutch breeder at the show table. |
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