Moorcroft Stud was founded in May 2005 when I decided to go from breeding pet quality dwarf lops (under the name becki's burrow) to show quality miniature lops, and I've never looked back. I now specialise in the miniature lop alongside the rarer smoke pearl. I am always drawn to the rarer and more unusal breeds and varieties, and enjoy working on tricky projects. I do not breed many litters a year, but youngsters are occasionally available to loving homes.

My name is Rebecca Brewster (Becky), I live in the north east of england. I have owned rabbits my whole life, have been breeding since 2000 and exhibiting since 2005, and enjoying every minute of it. As anyone who knows me will vouch, I am passionate about the varieties I keep, and deeply attached to my animals.

I have set goals and aims in my breeding programs, and specific improvements to look for in each generation. I have many generations of breeding mapped out, and every litter is carefully planned to improve my lines, something which is a long hard path, especially with the rarer and harder varieties I have chosen.

Above is a picture of myself judging the darlington members stock show in 2008, which I thoroughly enjoyed and recieved some very positive feedback from. I am currently completing my BRC judging papers to start on the road of becomming a judge, I'm not in any rush, and am enjoying the learning curve, under the guidance of some established judges, breeders and friends.

I keep rabbits for the pleasure and enjoyment i get out of watching them interact, play, and just be rabbits. All my rabbits are individuals and I treat them with due care and respect.

I also keep a range of animals simply for the pleasure they give me, however i hope to enter into the world of show mice over the next year.

My rabbits are housed mainly in a 10X8 shed which is fitted out with indoor hutches (of different sizes) i also have a selection of outdoor hutches.

I hope to fence in the patio area outside my shed around the new pagola to create a permament run, as well as grow some rabbit friendly climbers over the top to create a shaded cover.

I have 4 small movable runs that can be positioned around the garden on the patio or grass areas, and our whole garden is bunny proof, so the larger (and obedient) rabbits can have free run of the garden.

My mice are kept in a selection of cages of varying sizes (depending on number of occupants and age), mainly from the ferplast range, these are also kept in the shed, although my syrian is brought inside during the winter.

I got my first rabbit when I was three, my parents took me to choose a 'cute spotty bunny' i.e. an english... I picked out a self yellow buck... the only non spotty one in the litter. Alpacca was my first rabbit and lived to a ripe old age. Even then I liked the more unusual and different colours.

After Alpaca I got my first lop, a chocolate butterfly dwarf lop, he was not the most amazing pet, a little nippy and had health issues... he came from a poor commercial breeder, but I was hooked on lops and learnt an important lesson about careful breeding.

My second lop came from a local family who bred their pets occasionally. He was a very friendly seal point buck named rocky, and he is the rabbit that truely got me interested in the hobby.

I spent years researching breeding, showing and genetics before finally purchasing my first doe (unfortunatly I couldnt convince my parents to let me get show rabbits, but they did suggest I try breeding pets first to make sure I enjoyed it).

I kept a small 'stud' of around 6 dwarf lops, specialising in rare and unusual colours not often seen as pets : beige, brokens, harlequins, magpies, bews and frostys were a few of the colours I kept and produced.

In may 2005 all my pet lops were wiped out by a particulary nasty strain of pasturella, it was a heartbreaking experience, but didnt put me off continuing to breed rabbits, if anything it just made me stonger and more determined... and it cleared the way for me to acquire my first show rabbits, having now proved myself to my parents.

So in may 2005 Moorcroft Stud was founded, and I bought my foundation stock... chocolate miniature lops and castor miniature rex.

After winning my first CC in november 2005 I was completely hooked, I now cannot imagine spending my spare time doing anything else, or my weekends anywhere but at a show.

Over the years different varieties have come and gone, but we are very happy with the current projects here at moorcroft.

In December 2008 my mum joined in the stud and decided to bring back her favourite breed the mini rex, but this time in black.

In October 2009 the stud had a slight shift in priorities, the smoke pearls are now my main breeding project while the mini lops and mini rex will stay here as small 'side line' studs.

At the moment I'm continuing my work on my butterfly lines, I'm still dreaming of producing that perfect show buck. The smoke pearls program is comming together with the production of some very promising sable carriers.

In the more distant future when space allows I would love to expand into keeping smoke pearl rex.

I am also interested in expanding the colours of show mice i keep to include siamese seal points, blue points, himalayans, burmese and possibly black tans.