Picking your Keepers at Birth

I've got some friends that say they can pick their keeper kits in a litter a birth. BIRTH.

I'm skeptical. They KNOW I'm skeptical- and a few laugh at me for it. That's how I am though, I've got to try it/see it to believe it.

My first question was- how do you know it's the same kit, especially if you've got several of the same colors in a litter? My friend Amber responded by telling me that through looking at her kits daily, she can still differentiate between them as they grow- wide head as a baby is a wide head as a junior.

Hmmm...

She and several other folks who can pick quickly have told me things to look for in newborns. I'm thinking of giving it a shot- based on their ideas and descriptions, I may run out to the rabbitry and pick my favorite in each litter, then compare them overall to each other and pick an ultimate favorite. I'll mark it if it's in a same-color litter and then grow them out to my normal growing out stage and see how it went.

I've also considered doing monitoring of each kit. What they look like at each stage and how that translates in to faults as a 3 week old, 4 week old, 6 week old- you get the picture.

I am determined to find out if it can be done and how accurately- I have been told by these same friends that they don't throw the babies out with the bathwater- that is, they sure aren't selling kits at 6 weeks old because they know their keeper.

This will be an interesting project I think. I've seen the shining star babies that scream LOOK AT ME at 3-4 weeks old. Now let's see if I can see them at 3-4 hours old!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry