All Beautiful bunnies...sorry for your loss, LocoYokel...we have only bred one litter, yrs ago...we now only have three buns - a f. Silver Dwarf - 'Arrietty' and two British Giants, though they had a Chinchilla mum and a NZ Giant dad, lol...one is a red-eyed white - 'Albina' and the other is apricot - 'Daku' - both Aboriginal in different dialects, for 'sandhill'...I have no-idea why the breeder said they were BGs - as they don't come in an apricot shade...when they came home they were already the size of Arrietty and had huge, gorgeous ears...love all the poop fertiliser for the garden and they love their cuddles, which is good...we had a large NZ white and he loathed being held - his breeder held him by his ears. He lived his life mainly wandering the back garden, which used to get the occasional chuckle from the back neighbour and would put himself to bed each night...it was a pity he was so ill-treated, as a youngster.
LoL, @Susannah, the farmer I got my NZ Brokens from swears they are Checkered Giants. I managed to get him to take me to the breeders where he got them from and talk to him. He does raise Checkered Giants for show and pets as well as the NZBs but if the two I have have CG blood in them it is 1/4 or less, which could account for their larger size. That's what he raises for meat rabbits, he couldn't remember the exact rabbits but thought they probably came from his meat stock.
And yes, holding by the ears is a huge NO NO!
When I was a small boy my father caught me pulling the cat's tail. Because i didn't have a tail he picked me up off the ground by my ears. I never abused a animal again .
Good life lesson learned...
How we obtained the large NZW rabbit was, we were at our local monthly markets and were walking past these white, baby bunnies - the guy selling them sung out to us, while holding one of them up by it's ears - (I feel I could have cheerfully jumped the table and picked him up by the ears and shook him)...but, instead I informed him of the pain he was causing the wee mite and asked him to 'change his ways', all while restraining myself. I doubt he took anything on board, but I tried...we felt sorry for the bun and bought him - wished we could bought them all.