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.

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 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.

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 October 2009 the stud had a slight shift in priorities, the smoke pearls are now my main breeding project, with the other traditional british fur breeds featuring mainly in my plans (sables, squirrels and beige), i will also be retaining a very small stud of mini lops.

The smoke pearls program is comming together with the production of some very promising sable-bred babies.

At the moment I'm continuing my work on my butterfly lines, I'm still dreaming of producing that perfect show buck.

I am starting to work on recreating and working with the normal squirrel and beige breeds.