Our American Blue Rabbits
American Blue Rabbits are growing in popularity. Find out more about this heritage breed.
Since adding the American Blue Rabbits to our homestead, I have been contacted repeatedly by people inquiring about purchasing rabbits from us. I thought I would take a moment to address this question that we are often asked.
About American Blue Rabbits (Also called American Blue & Whites)
The American Blue breed is over 100 years old and was created in California by a man named Mr. Lewis H. Salisbury. To develop this breed, it is believed that some of what he used included Blue Flemish Giants, Blue Viennas (now extinct), Blue Beveren, and Blue Imperials (now extinct.)
When this breed was first developed, it was called the “German Blue,” but after World War II there was a general animosity against Germans. Many families changed their names (including my own) to sound less German. My father’s side of the family used to be “Diehl” and became “Dahl.” Likewise, the name of this rabbit breed was changed from German Blue to American Blue.
American Blue rabbits have a mandolin body shape. A mature male weighs in around 9-11 lbs and a mature female weighs in around 10-12 lbs.
The rabbits generally come in two colors: rich, deep blue or albino white with red eyes. Rabbits who are born with a different color are called “sports” and are not considered to be good for keeping breed standards. That said, even the sports are adorable. One of our does produces breed standard kits – blue/white. Another doe produces some of these color variant kits. They are fine for all purposes, meat, pets, etc., but we will not breed the “sports.”
The kits are officially weaned. They are all living together now in a bunny colony. Here you can see the color variations we have. Most of our baby rabbits are the standard blue like the one on the right (12 of the 16) We have one albino that you can see in the center, and from one doe we got three “sports.” The sandy blue color there on the left.
A post shared by Constance Smith ☕ (@cosmopolitancornbread) on Jun 10, 2017 at 8:20pm PDT
American Livestock Breed Conservancy lists the American Blue rabbit breed as “critical low.” The breed was nearly extinct, but is starting to gain popularity once again.
American Blue rabbits are an excellent heritage breed rabbit. They have beautiful soft fur, are a good sized rabbit and ideal for meat production. But besides that, American Blue rabbits also have very friendly, docile personalities. They would make great pets! Every time I go out to our rabbits, each of them greets me. The young kits will also pile up on one another to get closer to me as I feed and water them…and wait for me to scratch their ears and rub their backs. They are an all-around excellent rabbit.
Breeding & Sales
While we have bred these rabbits for some time, and sold quite a few of them, we no longer have plans to breed rabbits in the future. The rabbits that we have, will continue to live their best life here at Cosmopolitan Cornbread.
If you would like to find a breeder in your area, I recommend checking THIS SITE.
