More Detailed, Advanced Evaluating Criteria

Length of body

  • Compactibility

    • This is like the flexibility of the rabbits spine

    • You can have a short length of body, but have a long shoulder which makes it harder to determine what the actual length of body is because the rabbit is being naturally elongated by the shoulder.

    • This trait is not related to height. I’ve had rabbits with long length of body and tons of height, and also the opposite, I’ve had a good length of body with only fair height

  • Height - Width - Depth Ratio

    • This is the proportions of the rabbits build that make it balanced

    • One trick that we personally use as a fast indicator is to use the ears as a gauge.We aspire to have a peak at, or above, the height of the ears.

    • People tend to fixate about the shape of the topline, but they forget that the best toplines are tall. Mathematically, there is a proper height to width balance that you have to have and most people are wider than they are tall. Start paying attention to length of body and height and youll be shocked what happens to your quality. Now there are a couple people that strive SO hard to achieve such a short length of body and so much height that they fall short in other important aspects and they forget the fundamentals of what commercial type really is.

Shoulder

  • Width of Shoulder

    • Having a super short shoulder can HIDE a narrow shoulder. People often mistake the rib spread width as the shoulder width when the shoulder is extremely short

    • From a top view, a wide shoulder will literally look like the rabbit has shoulder pads on. If the shoulder meets the head straight to the jaw then its narrow

    • forward rounded structures where the rabbit has a curved rise instead of a straight rise are often going to be the biggest culprits for hiding narrow shoulders

  • Length

    • You should aspire for the shoulders to be as short as possible, however, it is the other traits of the shoulders that will cause a rabbit to look ugly or awkward much more greatly than length alone.

    • I just want to say that having length in a shoulder is not the end of the world. Let me say that again. ITS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. I’m telling you like 90% of our rabbits have a shoulder. How do we combat that?  Depth of shoulder, width in the shoulder, good transitions into a wide rib spread and dramatic depth. Trust me you’ll forget all about the shoulder.

    • In the commercial type SOP, the list of priorities in commercial type starts in the back and moves forward on the rabbit. Meaning the hindquarter is worth more points than shoulders.

    • Many people seem to misidentify length of shoulders, from the top you’ll see the natural dip of the shoulder blades and from the topline you should see a gentle distinction where the rib/rise starts from behind the shoulder.

  • Structural Faults

    • These are very glaring, unattractive features and I would urge you to breed away from them ASAP. Often the culprit for making a rabbit difficult to pose

    • This includes hooked spine, deviated sternum, high head carriage, shoulder dip, and generally lack of shoulder compactibility.

    • The shoulder should not be stiff and jut out

    • The only way to breed away from these issues are to cull animals with the faults and keep animals with non-fussy shoulders.

  • Depth of Shoulder

    • Visible from a Side View

    • Often something people forget to appreciate but having a low shoulder will get you dinged pretty hard by judges

    • Some people also attribute having deep shoulders to having improved health because the heart and lungs have more space in the chest cavity.

  • Long shoulders are often the culprit for heavy rabbits. Shoulders weigh more but do not contribute to actual meat. Dont go brag about your 12lb doe when she has mile long shoulders.

Midsection

  • Rib Spread/ Flare

    • You should not be able to curl your fingers underneath the ribs. They should fill your hand and spread you fingers as wide as possible

    • Also when you do get a wide rib spread often times people fail in HQ width to balance, in this youll see a hollowness immediately where the ribs stop and then the top view will be a diamond shape rather than a trapezoid. Also see Weight Distribution.

    • Having a narrow rib is going to impair the rabbits ability to have width and a proper taper

    • This trait is just as structural as something like pinched feet. It can be felt and seen.

  • Gradual Rise

    • In commercial type, you want the rise to be straight.

    • Structurally speaking, animals with rounded spine structures are going to cause curved rises

    • This trait is a HUGE distinguishing feature between compact and commercial bodies. Hyper-compact builds often have very short, steep, curved rises.

Weight Distribution

  • This is the overall smooth transition from shoulder all the way down to the lower hindquarter. The shoulder should be wide and have a seamless transition into the rib. The ribs should flare and guide the loin up and over the hips. The rabbit should carry the weight from the peak down into the corners of the lower hindquarter. If you follow my Facebook page, this is often something I associate with “The Hunch”.

Depth

  • Peak Placement

    • Should be in the middle of the hip.

    • Peaks are STRUCTURAL on the spine. The peak is the point at which the rise stops and turns over the hip and changes directions.

    • This can be tricky to gauge in photos. I often find this easiest to accurately place when posing the rabbit or in videos

    • Hyper-compact and flexible rabbits can be posed more tightly in order to make the “peak” look like its further back than it really is. This is likely why most people struggle to accurately place and breed for correct peaks

    • I like to gauge the peak based on how far behind the ribs it is

  • Peak Definition

    • This is how defined the turn over the hip is

    • “Pointy” toplines are NOT the goal. Do not mistake a “pointy” topline as a correct peak. These animals are often built more compact style, overly flexible, and lacking the correct depth over the hip i.e. they slide off.

    • Often rabbits who have a flat topline need to be bred to something with a more defined peak

  • Depth

    • Hip structure including the section from past the rib spread, over the hip and to the top of the lumbar structure

    • There are different definitions for what depth is based on what breeder you ask. Many use the word depth in exchange for the word height. My definition is the rounding over the hip between the peak and the top of the pelvis. In other words, its like the opposite structure from a rabbit that slides off.

  • Turn Over The Hip (Speed)

    • An animal that turns to fast over the hip can also be described as chopped, having a “late peak” (which is not actually possible, this is just a poor way of phrasing what is actually more accurately a chopped hindquarter), or slides off.

    • Never heard of a rabbit turning to slow, this would more likely be due to an early peak and the comments will more likely be about that peak placement in that case

  • Width Over The Hip

    • This is harder to explain, but you want the loin to ‘sit’ on top of the rabbit and not in-between the hips. Meaning, the width of the loin should carry full and straight over the hips and be firm, meaty, and well filled. The opposite of this is what many people will recognize which is called narrowing over the hip, where from a top view the rabbit has a V-shape at the hips, some times making them see hippy or hollow.

    • You don’t want to see the rabbits hip bone AT ALL. Like none, you guys. Not pinbones from the pelvis or even the leg curvature from a side view.

Loin

  • Loin Width

    • You guys a wide rabbit DOES NOT guarantee a wide loin. Ive seen and owned wide rabbits that had a narrow, disproportionate loin. Hence, why loin width is separate on this list than overall width. This is where the meat comes from, this should be as wide as possible.

  • Loin Depth

    • Also defined separately than Depth, this is the actual thickness of the loin vertically down into the cavity

    • Flat rabbits have less space for the organs and often end up with the belly becoming potbellied. Due to the lack of space these rabbits also end up lacking loin depth. This is why depth is so important in the commercial standard.

Hindquarter

  • How The Loin Carries From The Peak Down (mailbox or curvy?)

    • Rabbits with proper structure should look like a mailbox in a Back View. Rabbits with proper depth will give you that shape.

    • The loin should carry as straight as possible on the entire rabbit and should be straight and square to the table.

  • Lower Hindquarter/Feet

    • Pinched - A rabbit without straight feet. Flip the rabbit on its back and see if the feet sit straight

    • Cambered Feet - Go google what a car with positive camber wheels looks like. This is something weve seen on rabbits that have a wide hip structure but a footbase narrower than the hips.

    • You want the rabbit to have as wide a footbase as possible

  • Full To The Table or Undercut

    • This is one of the most misunderstood traits in Rex. There’s a infographic that people love to share that describes being undercut as being visible from a back view. This is WRONG.

    • Being undercut means the spine curves under the rabbit

    • When you’re posing an undercut rabbit, you will feel down to the table and you will feel the heels of the rabbit.

    • An animal thats full to the table will carry squarely down and not curve at the bottom. It will actually feel like the animals structure is pushing back against you while you’re posing it

    • Most visible from a Side View

Overall Balance

  • Body Condition

    • Fat, fleshy, chuffy, loose-skinned, thin-skinned, potbellied or excessively rolly rabbits are all negative traits

    • The animal should feel hard as a rock, firm in flesh, well muscled, thick and very attached skin

  • Bone

    • Medium to heavy bone is desired

    • Bone is often indicated by head size, ear thickness, leg thickness, skin thickness

    • Larger bone allows for more muscle to be bred onto the rabbit

    • Larger bone means BETTER HEALTH. Your immune system is created in your marrow. Thicker bone means more marrow, which means more robust animals.

    • Larger bone means better protection against sore hocks

    • Big rabbits do NOT equal more meat. You can have a wide rabbit with a narrow loin. You can have an 11lb doe with very little muscle. Ive had a small buck in size that barely made minimum weight but he was proportionately dense in muscle and bone for his size, so I bred him to a doe that was huge but very light boned with no muscle and I got big babies with proportionate muscle and bone (meaning they were huge and muscular). Size means nothing. Weight means nothing. Bone Bone Bone Bone Bone.