Preventable Disqualifications

Now, when choosing your rabbits, you want to eliminate these factors. If your rabbit displays any of these conditions, do not purchase them.

Buck Teeth

Buck teeth are a problem that can be identified when you select your litter. Look for buckteeth (or ‘malocclusion’) as soon as a litter is offered to you. You can identify this by pushing their lips back and examining their teeth. Does the top pair of teeth meet the bottom evenly or extend past the bottoms in a slight overbite? If yes, then the teeth are fine. Maloccluded rabbits start off with the top tucking behind the bottom, but if left alone, the teeth will splay out in random directions: into gums and up the nose, or worse. If not trimmed by hand, the teeth will hamper their eating and grooming and eventually poke holes in the skin around their face. It is a bad situation.

Avoid picking rabbits with this condition when you buy. This is a genetic flaw, so if you raise a litter with even one case of the deformity, cull the entire litter and do not couple that buck and doe again.

Don’t forget that rabbits with healthy teeth need care too. They don’t brush their teeth; they need things to chew on to maintain healthy growth. Make sure that they eat plenty of pellet-food and make sure that they always have pieces of clean, untreated wood in the cage.

Damaged Feet

Rabbits have the same number of toes as a cat: ten in front, eight in back. Count the toes on all your rabbits at purchase time, because sometimes the mother will nip them off, which means disqualification. Also, rabbit toes can break if you are not careful; such as when the rabbit is pulled from the cage and their toes catch on the wire. Make sure conditions are safe for your rabbits!

Also, make sure that their feet are kept clean and dry, and their feet show no signs of sore hocks. This is a condition where the fur on the bottom of their feet wears off and exposes the bare skin. If this happens, the skin can get abraded and sore.

Remember to trim their toenails. Trimmed toenails can tell a judge that you have spent some time working with your rabbits. Since fryers often have very short nails, I tend to just take the tiniest portion off, to blunt that fresh needle-edge. Most important rule: if you can't leave some room for the pink, don't do it! One gentleman I know trained his rabbits to sit still for toenail filings as opposed to trims. Be aware that some show consider trimmed nails to be broken nails, so once again, familiarity with your local show regulations will be to your advantage.

Missing or Malformed Tail

Make sure the rabbit's tail exists, first of all. Is it straight? Yes? Okay, you're good to go. This is rare, but occasionally mothers will nip off their kit’s tails when they are young. Sometimes the condition is not very noticeable, though a judge will certainly call attention to it. Also, a California rabbit can be disqualified if the bottom of the tail is completely white, so it needs to have some amount of coloration.

Ears

Rabbits are famous for those long and sensitive ears. Make sure they are clean and intact since torn or damaged ears will lower your score. Ensure that the cartilage inside is intact: rabbits with broken ears will fold over like a lop-eared bunny. For this reason, never pick your rabbit up by the ears! Doing so breaks that delicate cartilage. If damaged, their ears will not stand up straight.

Make sure your rabbits are not infected with ear mites. Not only are the effects unpleasant, consider what the judge will think of an obvious infection. Mites are communicable and can infect the other rabbits at home or at show.