Kibbles is a mama!

Kibbles is such a sweet girl and she just had her first litter of 6 on New Years Eve! She's one of those does who seems to thoroughly enjoy being a mama :).

She has 2 solid lilac colors, 1 brkn lilac color, and 3 solid chocolate colors. Time will tell whether any of them are chocolate/lilac agouti colors.

The little broken lilac baby! I am hoping this little baby will be a Lam Jr. Lam had to be put down on Dec. 30th. It was a very sad night and very disappointing to have to put him down. It's a complicated story, but he will be missed by many.

One of her little broken chocolates.

This is Escalade...the daddy to the litter. His hair is still growing back on his head (and he's in a head molt), that his neighbor decided to chew off! He's the only buck I have out of Lam and I am so thankful I have him. He looks and acts just like Lam, only in a different color. He does have some growing to do to finish filling out, especially in his head, but I have no doubt, he'll fill in.

Last spring I talked to a breeder who has been raising Mini Lops for 20+ years and she was telling me how she only feeds 18% PenPals feed. I think I mentioned this on my blog back when I switched to 18%. Because of what she told me - her does never slow down in production in the cold winter months, litter size stays good, etc - I switched to 18% back then. I wasn't too sure how my does would do on it, but now that the winter months have come, I am seeing the massive difference. This time last year I had 3 litters - a litter of 2 (that were almost weaned), a litter of 4 (that were almost weaned) and a litter of 6 (that was just born). And no other litters due anytime soon. It was quite depressing. This year I have 5 litters with a total of 28 babies. Plus, 3 litters due next week and 4 more litters due the end of the month. This makes it so that all my does are on litters or bred except for my youngest two does (who are just seniors, so will be bred soon).

It's very nice to have such a bountiful winter with so many babies!