American Rabbit

Blue and White

(Pictured: Jacot's Blue Sr. Doe, Feb 2004; click on picture to go to the Breeders of Amer. Rabbits website.)

Mr. Lewis H. Salisbury was the inventor, and his secret genetic recipe died with him. But that doesn’t prevent American breeders from taking some excellent guesses as to where Mr. Salisbury got the genes to mix into his new breed. A glance at the mandolin shape, the size and the intense blue color lead experts to believe that Blue Flemish Giants, Blue Viennas (now extinct), Blue Beveren, and Blue Imperials (now extinct) went into the concoction.

When the ‘perfect specimen’ was finally obtained, Mr. Salisbury named it "Pasadena Major," and then built the standard of perfection to match all the qualities of this perfect American specimen.

Amazingly, American Rabbits today still look strikingly like Mr. Salisbury's perfect rabbit.

Continued breeding overcame early problems with white hairs and poor blue coloring. Furriers took notice, paying the big bucks in the early ‘20’s’ - $2 apiece - for prime Blue American pelts.

Every once in a while, breeders found a white bunny amidst the sea of blue in the nest boxes. Seemed like a waste to just throw these away. So they began cooking up a White American, tossing in a bit of Red-Eyed White Flemish Giant. In 1925, White Americans measured up to their Blue siblings and were recognized as a second variety of American.

The advent of New Zealand Whites and Californians nearly spelled the doom of the American Rabbit.

Breeders flocked to these new, bulky breeds and lost interest in Americans. Today NZWs and Californians are the mainstay of commercial rabbit production, while Americans stand on the brink of extinction but for a few dedicated breeders. In 2006, Americans were the rarest breed in America. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy listed them as Critically Endangered.

Then in September of 2006, providentially perhaps, a herd of 38 ‘New Zealand White Rabbits’ was advertised for sale outside of Edmonton Alberta, Canada. Turns out that a Christian community of Hutterites had been raising this herd of rabbits for meat ever since the 1920s! They looked exactly like Americans, despite the NZW label. (See picture below.)

The conclusion and likely scenario is that the rabbits are indeed Americans, since they were far more common a breed during the 1920s. As new generations of Hutterites replaced older ones, and as New Zealand Whites supplanted Americans as the most common white rabbit in Canada, the newer caretakers most likely made a logical but erroneous assumption as to the breed of these rabbits.

Ms. Gayle Gordon and Ms. Helga Vierich-Drever, both of Edmonton, purchased the entire colony, and are successfully showing, breeding and registering the rabbits as Americans.

Today, 2010, American Rabbits, both Blue and White, are still listed as critically endangered. However, they now rank fifth instead of first on the Rare Breed Rabbit List maintained by Franco Rios, the Rabbit Geek. It is uncertain how many American Blues or Whites exist across the USA and Canada today, however the number is certain to be under 500 animals.



The Standard of Perfection can be obtained from the ARBA or the Breeders of the American Rabbit (BAR).

Americans are a meat rabbit with a mandolin body type.

Varieties:
Red-Eyed White
Blue – a rich, clear, dark uniform slate blue, as deep as possible, uniformly covering the entire body.

Weights:
Senior Bucks – 9-11 lbs
Senior Does – 10-12 lbs

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