Culling...What Does This Mean?

When I first began to show and breed netherland dwarf rabbits, I heard this term a lot and was confused by the meaning. I would like to explain that "culling" refers to the decision of a breeder to keep or not keep a bunny as part of their breeding program. To cull is the process where a breeder looks over each new bunny to decide if it has the traits necessary to compete in a show or continue a line in a breeding program.

All breeders have different processes of culling their new bunnies. Once the kits are old enough to really look over, such obvious traits as malocclusion, wrong fur color or wrong eye color are obvious reasons to cull. Beyond these more obvious traits, each breeder uses their own method of deciding which kits will stay in the rabbit hutch and which rabbits will be sold.

I am still in the process of developing the skills to look a baby kit over and decide whether it will be a good asset to my breeding program or not. This seems to be a learned process that becomes easier with time once you are able to develop an "eye" for a promising baby bunny. If a bunny is a color I am not interested in continuing or has obvious "faults" or disqualifications for showing, then it is easy to determine these bunnies should be culled. Beyond this I like to keep the bunnies until they are older if they show promise as kits. I also like to ask another breeder her opinion of the bunny to get another person's experienced "eye".

However you choose to cull, good luck and I hope you pick the winners!!