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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A What is a rabbit show like? Are they open to the public?

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    • hummingbird
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        Hi!

        I’m wondering if anyone has ever been to an ARBA rabbit show?  I am new to the world of bunnies and am already obsessed.  I have a pet bunny and have been searching for the perfect companion for him.  I am just a pet bunny owner, not a breeder or shower.  I heard that rabbit shows have many bunnies for sale and are free and open to the public.  However, I can’t seem to find any information online on details about rabbit shows at all, aside from the basic logistics and info on how to show your rabbit.  It sounds fun to be surrounded by hundreds of bunnies and go “bunny shopping” for the perfect companion for my bunny.  Has anyone ever been to a show, and is it true that they welcome anyone?  The closest show to me is 3 hours away so I want to know what to expect before going. 

        Thanks! 


      • Sarita
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          Have you considered a rescued rabbit where he can have the chance to chose his own friend?


        • MeketatenBun
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            I’ve been to a show only once before, when I went with my friend to buy her bunny. Yep, they let you in for free.

            I would however echo Sarita and suggest rescuing a rabbit. My friend bought from a show because she was in the local 4-H project and needed to have a purebred rabbit to show. Unless you have plans to show this bunny, an adopted bunny from a shelter is closer, cheaper, and more rewarding for a bunny to find it’s forever home. Also as Sarita said, most, if not all, shelters allow you to bring in your current bunny to make sure they would get along. You can’t have playtime at a rabbit show!


          • hummingbird
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              Thanks! Yes, I have been checking at the local shelter also, though haven’t found the right bunny there yet. I’m not for sure I will find a pet bunny at the show either – I just wanted to go mostly because it sounded fun, and I also wanted to meet rabbit lovers and experts and learn more about bunnies. I also wanted to get a sense of all the possibilities of bunnies out there to try to find the right fit for me and my bunny. I am sort of new to the world of bunnies and want to meet a lot of bunnies before I buy one.

              I also was wondering what there is to do at the shows if you’re not showing a rabbit there? Will I even be able to meet the rabbits or are they busy with showing? Also, where can I find more information about the shows? I want to go to the Greenville, NC show, and I have found almost no information about it online, aside from the date and location.

              Thanks!!


            • hummingbird
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                Also, I live in Asheville, NC and the only rabbit shelter I can find online is Brother Wolf, and they only have a few bunnies. Maybe there is another one I don’t know about? Any good websites for finding rescue shelters by location?


              • tobyluv
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                  You can go to http://www.petfinder.com or http://www.petharbor.com to see rabbits available in area rescues and shelters. You should also call your local shelters/humane societies. Some of them do not list rabbits on their websites, so they would not be listed on Petfinder. The rescue in the southeast with the most rabbits is the Georgia chapter of the House Rabbit Society.

                  I have never been to a rabbit show and I would never go to one. I do know someone who went years ago and she regretted it. The rabbits were just thought of as commodities to make money off of, plus the fact that many rabbits are bred and overbred, some in terrible places, just like puppy mills, while other rabbits sit in shelters or rescues just waiting for a home or are euthanized. Almost all rabbits in rescues will be spayed or neutered, so besides giving a former unwanted rabbit a home, you will be saving money. Some shelters/humane societies do spay and neuter also.

                  I volunteer at a Sanctuary in SC, where we give the rabbits a home for life. We are asked to take hundreds of rabbits every year, but can unfortunately only take a small percentage. Many of the other rescues I know of in NC and SC are also full.


                • MeketatenBun
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                    Posted By hummingbird on 9/03/2014 12:46 AM

                    I also was wondering what there is to do at the shows if you’re not showing a rabbit there? Will I even be able to meet the rabbits or are they busy with showing? Also, where can I find more information about the shows? I want to go to the Greenville, NC show, and I have found almost no information about it online, aside from the date and location.

                    Generally you can just walk around and look at the rabbits. A lot are just sitting in the cages waiting for their competition to come up. But the Breeders are usually around, sometimes near their rabbits, sometimes in a different area. You can ask questions about the breed, how long they’ve been breeders, etc. While it can be shady how some of these breeders may function, they are at least there to ask questions and you can decide how legitimate you feel they are. 


                  • Eepster
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                      When I was a teen (over 20 years ago {yikes}) I was in 4H and went to lots of shows. My bunny was a pet quality, so I didn’t show him, but I would show my sisters rabbits for her if she couldn’t make a particular show, and I showed my hamsters.

                      I suspect that some of my information won’t apply. First b/c i’m talking about 20 years ago. Second b/c I live in an NYC suburb not a rural farming area.

                      Many shows combined rabbit breed competition with other types of competition. There was cavy (guinea pig) showing, and hamster showing. There were knowledge bees for youths.

                      There was often a vendor section selling things like hutches, hay, and nail clippers.

                      Generally the breeders sit with their animals, till one of their bunnies is called for competition. If they happen to have a litter available they may bring them along, but if they don’t they will probably happily take a phone number. They are generally happy to answer questions about their breed. Of course information from the breeder isn’t exactly unbiased, obviously they love their breed the best.

                      While the shows are open to the public, the bunny cages aren’t. You can’t pet or handle the bunnies. You will get told off if you stick your fingers in cages. People don’t want their bunnies stressed out by being petted by dozens of strangers. Occasionally a breeder might make an exception for a serious buyer, but that is at their discretion. So don’t think of it as a bunny meet and greet.

                      Basically, if you want to see the full range of bunnyness from tiny round netherland dwarfs to giant stretched out english lops with ears that you could hide the netherland dwarf under, then a rabbit show is a great place to experience it.


                    • hummingbird
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                        Thanks everyone! And thanks for the different perspectives. I do know that rescuing a rabbit is a better option, though I also do understand why breeders want to breed rabbits, and I don’t want to judge them for it and want to be open to it too. Also, most of the breeders I’ve read about or met in my area seem great, like real bunny lovers who got into breeding because they loved bunnies and wanted to be around them all the time, and they take very good care of their bunnies and are very careful about the home they go to. It seems like most of them aren’t making money off of it, it’s just a hobby. Maybe I’m just lucky to have breeders like that in my town. I am completely against animal ag practices that abuse their animals.

                        I am just really obsessed with bunnies and want to learn more about them and also get to see different rabbits and their personalities.

                        I do occasionally visit Georgia – maybe I’ll have to check out their rabbit shelter when I’m there!


                      • tobyluv
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                          Here is the partial list of the rabbits available at the Georgia HRS: http://www.houserabbitga.com/?page_id=163.  They show around 30 rabbits, mostly singles, but also bonded pairs.

                          The Charlotte Mecklenburg Animal Control often has several bunnies for adoption. I adopted a rabbit from there several years ago. They have 5 rabbits right now: http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/CMPD/organization/Support/AnimalControl/Adoption/Pages/Search%20for%20adoptable%20pet.aspx. Click on others.


                        • hummingbird
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                            So I ended up going to a bunny show – not to buy a pet but just to see all the bunnies. It was nice to see so many bunnies, and I have to say most of the breeders I met there were super nice people who loved bunnies and were proud of their bunnies and wanted to show them off. But it didn’t seem fun for the bunnies – in small cages, on a hot day, being picked up and examined, plus being criticized by the judges (good thing they can’t understand what they’re saying or they’d have serious self esteem issues). Definitely showing bunnies isn’t for me. Though I also get the heebie jeebies when going to zoos or aquariums or anything where animals are confined in cages, though they do education people and hopefully inspire people to care about animals.

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                        Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A What is a rabbit show like? Are they open to the public?