| Fool's Gold sure is pretty. |
In a nutshell (or in a concise statement), it means not everything that looks precious is precious. To put it in even plainer terms as they apply to rabbits- not every animal you produce is gold, nor is every animal you buy.
Some people put a lot of store in what a pedigree says. Who is the breeder? How many legs to the parents have? How many total legs are on all the rabbits on the pedigree? Even the top breeders produce pet quality. It happens, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes two rabbits don't mesh, no matter how beautiful they are individually. Sometimes in using "parts" animals, you don't get any of the parts you were trying for.
Not everything you produce is gold either. When you get some nice animals, it's tempting to assume that everything they produce is perfect. Ok, well maybe not perfect, but at least a very nice brood animal- right? No. Not right. Even the best buck, no matter how many legs, throws crap. It's super, super, incredibly, super, super (super super?) super rare that you will get animals that will throw you near perfect animals in every litter. By super rare I mean- that never happens. It doesn't. Oh, the really valuable bucks and the really valuable does will throw you great litters, I'm not saying they won't, but I don't know of a single doe or buck that has ever produced nothing but grand champions.
This means not everything you produce is worthy of being sold to a working herd. Not every animal is "brood" or "show" quality just because it's your name on the pedigree or because of who the sire to the litter is.
While we're on the subject, a brood is not an animal "with long ears, a narrow head, narrow body, long in type, flat over the HQ and undercut". Folks, that's a pet quality animal. Stop right there- I don't care who it's daddy is. I don't care who it's GGrandsire was, or how many legs are on the total pedigree. It's a pet. Sell it as a pet.
Don't sell animals you aren't proud of just because "well it's better than what they have" or "they are lucky to get something with my name on it". Hey, sometimes animals don't develop like we expect. It happens. However, to knowingly label something brood quality and sell it for a higher price when you know in your heart it's a pet quality animal? That's just wrong.
We all want to "make our money back" in our hobby. Some folks do it through pet sales, some do it through show or brood sales. Lots of us just don't ever make the money back. Just remember- not all that glitters is gold. Don't let the glitter and glamor of a beautifully printed pedigree fool you, whether you are buying or selling.
-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry
1 comment:
I would almost say the same thing with a GC rabbit. Just because the rabbit is GC, doesn't always mean the rabbit deserved it.
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