Photos of Churro's Litter

So far so good with Churro's tiny litter of 3. She is a good momma and doing very well, her babies are cute little bits, very active and wiggly.

Here are their first photos:

The whole litter, all 3 babies. 3 is a very small litter size for Rhinelanders.

Marked baby #1 face shot, the lighter areas will fill in with orange as the baby's fur grows in.

Marked baby #1 good tapering of the spine marking, clean face, one side has nice spots the other is lightly marked making the baby off balance on the side markings.

Marked baby # 2 heavier marked with stray spots on its head, side markings are well balanced.

Unshowable harlequin sport baby, note the already apparent brindling of the orange with the black.

Churro's first litter!

Churro kindled this afternoon around 1ish to 3 healthy baby kits. There are 2 marked babies, one is heavily marked with black but the spots are mostly seperated, wether or not it is showable will depend on how its orange comes in, the other marked baby has one gorgeous side of nicely seperated black spots the other side has one large black marking.. so balance is off already but hopefully the orange that comes in will help offset that. The third baby is a sport, in Rhinelanders sports are harlequin colored but they tend to be more brindled than having any real seperation of pattern the way true harlequins are. I'll try and get a photo of the new litter early this week when they have more fur...

Some Old Faces...

If you've followed my blog from the begining, all the way back to my blog at Suburban Bunnies you probably know that the wonderful world of rabbits began for me with pet bunnies just like most other rabbit breeders.

2010 will mark my 8th year of living with rabbits and what an experience the last 8 years of keeping rabbits has been, full of incredible ups and quite a few downs. My first rabbit Ezra passed away over a year ago now, he is still sorely missed but I can look back on many fond memories when I think about him. I am fortunate to still have quite a few of my "original" pet bunnies, at one time my largest group of pet bunnies included 6 spayed and neutered bunnies living harmoniously together.

Avery the "glue," and peacemaker of my pet bunny group was put to sleep earlier this year and since his passing things in the group never have been quite the same. Shelby my oldest bunny (8 yrs+) and my 2nd rabbit ever was picked on, and essentially cast out from the group. (Rabbits have very complex social hierarchy when living in groups.) She spent some time living alone, rather depressed at my house, then she was joined by and pretty much raised my solo Rhinelander kit baby Uno, but once he was placed in a new home she was alone again. After much thought she moved into a new home, she is now living with a family friend as an only spoiled house rabbit. She is enjoying the one on one attention she deserves and is no longer being picked on by the 4 remaining "bullies," of the pet group. I get regular updates on her, and apart from chewing on a lamp cord she has been very well behaved and made herself quite at home. I hope she continues to do well in her new home, she couldn't have a better place to live out her twilight years.

The rest of the pet group has been stabilized at 4 rabbits since Shelby was pulled out. They were living at my mom's house while I got their barn in order. Unfortunately the barn never got worked out to be exactly as I wanted it for them but its in good enough shape for them to live in until spring when some renovations will need to be made. The group moved down yesterday and after a night of getting adjusted they seem quite comfortable in their new home. They live in a large run inside their barn where they romp together freely. The group consists of Jules and Melody 6 year old spayed Mini Lops, Elmo a 2 year old neutered French Lop and Cinder a 2 year old neutered Flemish Giant.

Today all 4 got a much needed grooming, nail trims, and a romp in the goat paddock. Jules who has had a chronic ear infection since I adopted her is being treated with some new medications in the hopes that she will finally be ear infection free. She is a very good patient! Cinder still is quite flighty even after having him a year, he is extremely active when he runs about the paddock and makes the most enormous giant rabbit binkies.. Elmo is a relaxed, quiet rabbit who came from Lynn at Spanish Oak Rabbitry, he spends much of his time napping, or just watching things go by, nothing phases French Lops. Melody is the brains of the group, and though she is the smallest she is the leader, today she seemed content to stay at Elmo's side and watch Jules and Cinder dance about.

Its nice to have the last batch of my bunnies home, a very special thanks to my mom for looking after them for the last 5 months!

Rabbit & Cavy Breeders Directory News: The goal is to have the entire website launched and ready to go this coming week of November, just a few more details left to finalize, the launch date is tentatively set for Friday the 13th!

Photos:

My two pit bulls, Pepper and Reuben. Reuben celebrates his 1 year birthday today! Happy Birthday big boy!

A very angry but still pretty Jules after having her right ear flushed, medication poured in and a pen g sub-q injection..

Melody the leader with her beloved Elmo.


Melody blinded by the sun, she's a feisty gal.

Elmo, he's very molty at the moment.

Cinder posing like a real Flemish Giant

Cinder, a very handsome bunny.

More photos!

The days of nearly daily blog posts will be ending soon.. I'm returning to work part time at a local emegency vet clinic this weekend. I've gotten alot in order on the farm front during my time off from work and am looking forward to tending to sick and injured animals again. Here are some new photos to enjoy since there isn't much to report.

Pepper and Griffyn about to "tango."

Pepper and her growing flock.

Pretty GC Imagination's Maeve

The goats like their new deck

Emmer, Maeve's sister, very pretty too!

Emmer with her friend Fiddle having a conversation.

The 4 Dominique hens, runty is on the far right.

Does are Nesting, Rabbit thoughts

Photos first today!

3 weeks pregnant Churro looking for a spot to nest

I think I have enough hay to build my nest?

Trixie gathering hay to nest with

Trixie is 2 weeks pregnant

Oh and those goats of mine with Pepper up front.. :)

I'm horrible at palpating.. even on my hares which have little to no fat covering their abdomens. I also don't breed often and am on no specific time table for litters from my rabbits. While I'd like to have juniors to show next year if my does don't take for one reason or another its no big deal really. Right now I'm doing my planning for the shows next year and am preparing for a bunch of litters, more litters than I've ever had at the same time before...

In regards to the shows for next year, I've mentioned this before but I thought I'd mention it again, I will be cutting back significantly on rabbit shows. I don't show often to begin with but I will be continuing my trend of attending one show a month during the spring and fall seasons. I have alot of other commitments outside of rabbits and while rabbits are my hobby on the farm, my other commitments are much more important, especially returning to college part time which will be taking up much of my free time.

In addition to the reduction in show numbers I will also be selling a good number of proven senior Rhinelanders at PaSRBA Convention in February, most will be showable in theory but they are mainly brood stock.. I will wait to see how my litters turn out before I make my final decision on who is going.

I have 3 litters due in the next 2 weeks, Fajita and Trixie are both due on the 13th of November and Churro is due next weekend the 7th. I am quite sure Churro is pregnant due to her behavior changes and weight gain, I also am pretty sure Trixie is pregnant too. Fajita I am doubtful of.. she is currently on a major diet to reduce her weight which I think may be contributing to her conception problems. She is also living in one of my spare hare hutches which provides her with more space, the goal of which is to make her move around and exercise more, she has gone really broody... too broody! Her fur pads on her feet have worn down due to her weight, she weighs almost 13 lbs, that is not acceptable, and no matter how much she might stomp her feet or throw her empty food cup around the cage, she is having her pellets reduced.

I have plans for a hare litter from Gem to be born in December and I will also be breeding Sage and Burrito although I have not decided on who to breed them to. Kristen of Keep's Rabbitry was kind enough to pick up a Rhinelander buck for me from the Knoxville Zoo in TN. I will be picking him up at the Taylorsville show in NC on the 14th and am really looking forward to adding him to the herd, he's got great lines and is a beautifully marked Rhinelander buck. I am contemplating crossing him with Burrito..

That's about it at the moment, just have to make some decisions once the baby bunnies arrive. My fingers and toes are crossed for healthy, beautiful babies in the next few weeks.

A Few Photos

Here are a few photos from around the farm lately.

Only other news to report is that my electronic dog door has been installed.. now the hard part begins, training the dogs to use the door, first step? Trying to the get to dogs to not be afraid of it.. LOL this may take a while.

This is Duke my only senior Belgian Hare buck and my keeper of the boys from my last litter. It was a hard pick, all of the boys were SO nice in type and color. I like Duke alot, he isn't as fine in bone as his brothers but he's got great type and when he finishes molting he should be in great condition. He is a big boy for sure!

A non posed but cute pic of Duke, he has alot of length but its hard to see in photos like this one, he's got super strong front legs, look at those ankles, not a kink!

Pepper and Reuben have a HUGE puddle to play in from all the rain of late. The stream at the rear of the property has swelled a bunch too.

The goats got a deck to their barn, here's hoping they use their deck instead of mine from now on.. that may be wishful thinking.

Griffyn is a tree climbing extrordinaire. I couldn't snag one of him at the top, but here he is going up, he just loves to climb.

Have I mentioned that I just love fall?? <3

Lost a Chicken

Today I lost my first hen of the new batch of chickens. At some point today one of the
Dominique girls escaped from her pen that she spends the day in and was killed by what I suspect was my cat Griffyn as that I found her only feet from the pen where her sisters were resting and her neck had been broken but otherwise she had not been touched. I didn't leave Pepper or Reuben outside with them, I'm quite sure had they been out there Griffyn would not have dared killed the chicken as they are very protective of their flock..

It was a sad day for the chickens, I am going to be extra careful with the remaining 11 hens and will be keeping Griffyn very far from their pen from now on until they are a little bigger and make sure the dogs are on patrol when I can't supervise them.

Not much else to report on the farm, the fall colors are beautiful down here and I'm enjoying the beautiful weather. The bunnies are doing well, they all seem quite molty at the moment.. I'm blaming the odd weather which keeps going from the 40s up to the 70s every other day!

The Breeder Directory is well underway, I am in need of breed descriptions as well as photos for the various breeds of rabbits and cavies. Any submissions are appreciated and given full credit.

The domain for the directory has been registered and will be www.rabbitandcavybreeders.com

And onto photos of the chickens and the fall colors:

Reuben and his chickens

Pepper and Runty

Resting 6 week old hens

My little blue house

My sister's old car surrounded by fall colors

The driveway's view changes with the seasons

Fall on the farm...