Aurora Rex Rabbit Ranch

Aurora Rex Rabbit Ranch is a hobby-sized rabbitry that has provided owner and manager, Karen, with over 30 years of rabbit-raising savvy learned on the job.

I began my career in rabbits with three small pet rabbits when I was sixteen years old.  These beautiful and healthy rabbits were among others in a pet store display window. I was ecstatic to find them.

At the time, I couldn't think of any way I'd rather spend the few bucks in my pocket than on those beautiful rabbits.  I brought home a black Dutch rabbit, a blue Polish, and a black English Spot since I couldn't decide which I liked more, and I never looked back. 

Back in the day, educational resources about rabbits were hard to come by. A website just like Raising-Rabbits would have been incredibly helpful, if there had been such a thing when I was sixteen!

At the point at which I decided I wanted more from rabbits than just pets, I discovered the incomparable REX rabbit with its amazingly plush fur.  Since then I have raised Rex rabbits exclusively.

Here I am - chief barn mucker,
and also owner and webmaster at Raising-Rabbits.com.

Here are a few more details about me:

• I've been married to a Swiss yodeler for over 40 years and have raised four kids and countless rabbits.
• I am a believer in Jesus (Isa, Yeshua ha Mashiach).
  "God is love; I love HIM because HE first loved me"
  (1 John 4:16, 19).
  
• Easter might be my favorite holiday. Here's the truth about Easter and the Easter Bunny!
  
• I could tell you lots more, but this is a rabbit website.
  
  

Aurora Rex Rabbit Ranch

The Aurora Rex Rabbit Ranch in Springtime

One of several 'barns' barely visible behind all the rhody blooms.

Take a peak inside...

The Aurora Rex Rabbit Ranch houses over 40 very nice rex rabbits, not counting the young stuff.  Aurora rabbits actually do a bit of winning at rabbit shows, including some Best of Breeds and one Best in Show.  Nevertheless our rabbits are not by any means numbered among the best, or the national breeders.  Our rabbits are, however, cared for meticulously using current best practices.

The Ranch focused on raising the brokens (spotted) and solids of the following varieties of standard Rex rabbits:

• Castor
• Opal
• Chinchilla
• Otter

Pictured: Jornada, our Best-In-Show castor rex doe, hastily posed....

Our rabbits do not carry a chocolate gene.  However, we sometimes discover a red, fawn, black, blue or white (REW, or albino) bunny in a nest box.

As of mid-2016, Aurora Rex Rabbit Ranch no longer has rabbits for sale. This decision was due to heart health challenges in my hub.  Because I enjoyed my rabbits so much, I left some photos up on our rabbitry page, Aurora Rex Rabbits. And if in the future we begin breeding rabbits once again, you'll find the notice there on the Aurora Rex Rabbits page!

Please contact us if you need additional information about Aurora Rex Rabbit Ranch.

About Raising-Rabbits.com

Raising-Rabbits.com has arisen from Karen's years of experience raising rabbits at Aurora Rex Rabbit Ranch. Karen Patry founded the website eleven years ago, on November 17, 2009.

I used Solo Build It! to build this website (see the bottom link in this page's footer). Here is Karen's SBI Review about Solo Build It!.

Raising-Rabbits is informational in nature, and has a two-fold mission:

1. First, to provide comprehensive rabbit information, instructions and pictures for every facet of raising and breeding rabbits as pets, or for meat, show and fur. Raising rabbits is not difficult, and it is especially not difficult when you know what to expect and how to achieve excellent outcomes.
   
   
2. Second, to shine the light of truth on the abundance of rabbit-raising disinformation cluttering the web. As one who is extremely familiar with rabbits and with rabbit research, I quickly discovered that the information that rabbit research turns up can be heavily biased toward a particular philosophy, and not based on facts at all. And if this quasi-information is published and re-published on many like-minded or affiliated websites, well, you might just think they know a thing or two. 

For example: Is it okay to feed just pellets to rabbits? A vast number of affiliated animal rights activist websites state absolutely not, recommending that rabbits should eat mostly grass hay. So, a novice rabbit breeder begins to feed his rabbits as directed, and then can't understand why the rabbits lose weight, sicken and die. Yes, this has happened. Go to Feeding Rabbits for a better way.

For nearly all services on Raising-Rabbits, there is absolutely no charge.

There are over 1,500 pages of free free information on Raising-Rabbits. But additionally:

• If you'd like to drill down deeper, I prepared various in-depth rabbit care e-books, which are priced very reasonably.
• Storey Publications, the same publisher that brought us Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits, loved my idea of a problem-solving companion book, and so published it as Rabbit Raising Problem Solver. This book came to life in May 2014, and has quickly been accepted as an important tool in every rabbit raiser's arsenal of rabbit care info.

Measures of Success!

As of our eleventh anniversary (11/17/2020):

• The number of daily visitors averages between 6,000 (slow season) and more than 7,700 (busy season)
• The number of daily visits averages between 3,000 and 4,400
• The number of daily pageviews averages between 9,800 and more than 12,900

We're happy about that! But, there IS one downside to every successful website: it takes $$$ to keep it humming along. Since we give so much info away completely free of charge, we resorted to the unsightly advertising that can be found on nearly every page of the website. It's a bummer. But although a lot of the details are out of my control, we still strive to find and maintain a reasonable balance between all our useful content and the number of ads per page.

Meghan, Karen's gifted assistant at Raising-Rabbits.com.

Meet Assistant Meghan Stinard

Because of the increasing workload, I brought on board a wonderful assistant, Meghan Stinard. You'll find more details about her on our 11th Anniversary edition of our Rabbit Rhythms Newsletter, Rabbit Rhythms November 2020.

No Criticism from Raising-Rabbits.com

I hope you will never find criticism or condemnation regarding yours or anyone's rabbit care on this website. We're not here to accuse, condemn, or call you cruel, but to provide you with the information and the needed tools you came searching for, so that you'll be able to give great care to your rabbits. 

Raising-Rabbits provides you with the facts so that you can provide sound animal welfare practices for your rabbits.

I sincerely hope you'll find Raising-Rabbits.com very helpful!