This spring we decided to narrow our rabbit breeding focus and stop raising Champagne d’Argent rabbits. We’ve had several people ask us why, and it seemed fair to respond publicly since they have been a stable in our rabbitry for six years.

The reason is multi-fold. First and foremost, our children are begging us for additional breeds. They like our big meat rabbits, but they also like breeds like Satin Angoras, Dwarf Hotot, and New Zealand! We are big believers in letting them experience as much as possible, so we have gradually said yes to bred (even cavies!!!) and that means eventually we have to say no to something else.

Sadly, our champagne d’argent herd buck Mister died this past winter. He was the first rabbit we had born here and he was a fabulous boy. Every single one of our champagne d’argent does was bred to him or had him in the background. Even as an old man he had a fabulous prime stripe and was just the sweetest you could imagine.

We knew he was getting older, and there was a comical text conversation between us when I tried to breed him this past summer and I thought he was going to have a heart attack! He did get the job done but it took him quite awhile to recover from his exertions!

So when he passed it wasn’t a surprise to us, but it did cause some grief. I kept looking around at the champagnes and nothing was the same.

So when the kids jumped through the hoops we asked them to to “earn” additional animals, and it became necessary to keep our numbers at a manageable total, and we were missing Mister… well, the champagne d’argents ended up on the chopping block.

We’re excited that the majority of our herd is only about two hours away and another trio is three hours away. We expect to see these beautiful rabbits again at upcoming shows and look forward to their updates!