Hoppin' Herd of Hares: It's a Beautiful Winter Day

It's a beautiful, albeit chilly, winter day today. The bunnies are all doing good. I had a head cold the end of last week and then got hit with the stomach flu the beginning of the week. By Wednesday, I was doing much better, so it was time to tend to the barn, which was well overdue for a cleaning. I spent 3 hours in the barn on Wednesday cleaning it out and it feels much nicer in there now!

The babies are all doing good.

I just have Abby's 1 doe that I am keeping left out of her litter. She's a VERY promising doe and I will get pictures sometime soon, Lord willing. I still haven't decided on a name for her. I also need to get pictures of Abilene's little buck that I kept out of her last litter...Hoppin's Abe. He's a cutie for sure :)!

Kahlua's, Ginger's and Rum's litters are 5 weeks old today. I will be going through them next week, Lord willing and will be letting people know which babies are available and which are not. I have a waiting list, with some people who have been waiting for awhile, so I am not sure which ones, particularly of my chocolates, will be available.

Kibbles is due on New Year's. She's bred to Escalade, who is Lam's son, so they should be beautiful babies! And ALL chocolates and lilacs!

Renee (bred to Jaxon) is due shortly after her. And then Quadra (bred to Donovan) & Abilene (bred to Lam!) are due after that. I have a few other does I will be breeding soon, Lord willing - Abrielle, Vixie, Kate & Abby.

Abilene is bred to Lam and palpates positive! So exciting!! I've been trying to get a litter from Lam since his last litter which was with Kahlua in August. He has done this very odd thing when he breeds the doe ever since that last litter and ends up not actually "getting" the doe when he crunches up, but rather missing her and therefore getting the table wet. It's been very frustrating, because I KNOW he can breed, as I've had litters from him. So, with Abilene, I assisted with the breeding and "held" him in the "crunched up" position once he actually went to crunch up. And success, the table wasn't wet underneath him, so he actually bred her. I'm very excited to have Lam babies again soon, Lord willing. And it gives me hope that I will be able to get him bred to more does soon. I think his issue just happens to be something with his age. Although, he is not very old, he has had a rough year in his journey to Oklahoma.

In sad news, Sugar passed away this past Monday. She had been battling with something for about 2 months, as she went off feed 2 months ago. She would eat parsley, carrots, apple, vitamin C, rabbit nutridrops, oatmeal, oats, hay and goat milk. She would eat no pellets and drink no water, only goat milk. I had treated her for GI issues, coccidia, hairballs, etc and no change at all. She did quite well despite this, but as of Saturday night, she started going downhill. I could tell she wouldn't make it much longer. I had palpated lumps in her the past couple months, so I suspected that she may actually have uterine cancer or tumors (as there was no possibility of being bred).

When she died, I had to do a necropsy, because I wanted to see why she had died. Sure enough, my suspicion was confirmed. Her entire uterus was FULL, round and hard - about the size of a golf ball. It had a very peculiar smell to it as well. She had uterine cancer/tumor, which is very common in in unspayed rabbits. You can see pictures of the tumor and her uterus here.

I also received a Rabbits USA magazine in the mail this week. At first I had forgotten why, but then I remembered that I was asked a few months ago to share info on Mini Lops for this magazine. The gal from Rabbits USA who emailed me had said she would send a copy of the magazine once it was printed. So, we are here in the Rabbits USA magazine - pretty cool!

One picture of Krissie's babies from a week ago or so. They are FAT little babies :)! I'll be getting individual pictures of them soon, Lord willing. She has 1 buck and 1 doe. Very sweet little munchkins too!