Baby & Bun News

Life has been busy, as usual around here. Between working on websites, living on a ranch with a family of 13, doing household chores, and taking care of everything (animals & people), there's never a dull moment!

The bunnies are all doing great and handling the heat wonderfully. They are all cool in their barn with the air conditioner. I'm so thankful for that! I had a small scare with it a couple days ago. I got home and it was OFF. Thankfully it isn't that hot yet, so everyone was fine. I thought it was broken, but I found out that someone had just flipped the switch off (more than likely the silly barn cats did) and all is good.

Brownie palpates positive. I'm hoping for a LIVE litter this time! Diamond also palpates positive. She had 1 baby on her last due date (June 4th), but pulled no fur & made no nest. Which doesn't make sense at all, since she is not a first time mama. That baby ended up dieing a few days later, so she is rebreed. I just have to palpate Abilene & Allie (both Lam litters!). Kayla is due the 28th.

Melinda kindled to a beautiful litter of 6 last week. This is the first litter by Lam here and they are so pretty. A couple have pretty unique markings on their broken pattern, which is kind of cool.

I haven't had a baby with a partial face marking for *years*! This baby reminds of it's way-back grandfather, Velotta's Raymond who was a RGC and his markings were SO similar to this.

And of course, the usual broken, full face pattern :).

And this little baby has a little bit of "milk-dipped-ness" to one of it's ears. So cute. I haven't had a baby with white on the ears for years either.

Krissie's babies pictures are up now at this link. I am keeping the broken chocolate chinchilla buck out of this litter. I'll contact those on my waiting list soon for the other babies, Lord willing, unless you contact me first :)!

This is Krissie's smallest baby and biggest baby. The "biggest baby" really isn't that different than the sizes of the other babies in the litter. but, the smallest baby is for sure the run and is, as  you can see, about half the size of his littermates. But, he sure has a lively personality and strong will to live, so he is thriving!

Abby's babies pictures are up also at this link.

And Kahlua's babies pictures can be seen here. I am keeping the broken chocolate chestnut agouti buck out of this litter. I'll contact those on my waiting list soon for the other babies, Lord willing, unless you contact me first :)!

And, finally, here are a couple pictures of the doe I kept out of Kayla's last litter. She's a promising doe. I still haven't decided on a name for her yet. I know, so bad :)!

Red Mini Lops are here!

Well, it's been long in coming and much awaited buns. Red Mini Lops are finally back at Hoppin' Herd of Hares.

I used to raise them about 6 years ago, but sold out to focus on the chocolates and lilacs. But, over the last couple years I've wanted to bring them back in. Thanks to ARBA Judge Jody Rosnik in Colorado, I was able to bring in a beautiful trio of reds. I spent a fair amount of money on them and bought them sight unseen. I normally don't do that, but I've worked with Jody so many times over the years, she said she'd pick me out the 3 best in her litters.

I couldn't be happier with the 3. They are beautiful. They are a little shy right now, but I think they will come around, as they are only 3 months old.

Two does and one buck came. Here are a few pictures:

Alpine's Sunset (doe):

Alpine's R (buck):

Alpine's Vixie (doe):

Lots of babies!

All the babies are getting big in the barn!

Shirley has 3 sable steels, 1 sable and 2 pointed white babies. One of the babies might be a REW, but I don't think so. They both look to have a little bit of coloring on their tail. I was kind of hoping for a REW.

Abby's babies are all so adorable and fat! They are all chinchillas - 5 chocolate and 1 black. 

 

Rum's babies are looking very nice. They are going to be some t-h-i-c-k babies and all chocolate carriers.

Kahlua's babies are 4 wks old now. She has 2 bucks and 2 does. I did get new pictures up of her babies last week at this link.

Krissie's babies are 3 wks old now too. She always has the cutest babies *ever*! She has 6 does and 4 bucks. The new individual pictures are up at this link.

That's about it for now! Just a short little update.

Babies All Over

We've got more and more babies being born here, thankfully :)!

Krissie's babies are all getting big. She still amazes me at her mothering abilities. She's such an awesome doe. To be able to raise her whole litter (large litters - 9-10 babies) by herself is a big blessing. She is a doe who will be around for awhile. Not only does she raise amazing litters, the babies always have gorgeous type (she's a beautiful doe). Her whole litter of 10 last time was extremely promising.

Krissie's self chocolate baby next to the smallest in the litter. Yes, the baby really is that tiny. He probably wouldn't have made it, but I let him nurse on Krissie extra in addition to the rest of the babies. It was just enough to get him up over the hump and now he's catching up beautifully. I don't normally do that with babies. But, this little guy had a will to live and I thought he stood a chance.

One of Krissie's broken chocolate chins. I think the pattern on this baby is so cool!

Kahlua's cuties...

This is the baby that Kahlua is raising of Krissie's.

One of Kahlua's chunky babies. This little one is so squishy!

Shirley's babies. She kindled to a litter of 7 yesterday (Sunday). All are shadeds of some kind, plus 2 whites or pointed whites.

She has 3 like this baby. They are all very light and look really dilute. But, I know sables can do that too. So, we'll wait a few days to see if they are sables or smoke pearls.

One of the lighter babies next to one of the two dark babies. The two dark babies are definitely sables. I'm so hoping that they are smoke pearls!

Just for fun, Kayla's two girls. The one in the front is the one I'm keeping (I think). The other will be going to Missouri, Lord willing.

Striper, the old man of the barn. He's just a couple weeks shy of 7 years old. He got fly strike last week (even though there are almost no flies in the barn...ugh...) and I thought he wasn't going to make it. I cleaned him all up, gave him a bowl of water, his feed and made him all cushioned in a carrier cage. This was at 1am in the morning and I really didn't think he'd be alive when I got up in the morning. Sure enough he was a live and a whole lot perkier.

He was eating & drinking and able to hop around. He surely has a will to live and has survived the odds a few times now, when I thought he was going down. He can't move around as well as he used to, but he's still eating, drinking & going strong.

My sweet old boy...

Rum is due anytime now. Abby is due in 4 days. Diamond palpates positive. And then I've got a few more does to palpate in the next few days.

Views from the Barn

I thought I'd put a post up with just some updates from the barn.

Krissie's babies are all doing great. She has one *really tiny* little guy, but he seems to be hanging on quite well right now.

One of Kahlua's chocolate chestnuts. She has two of these!

One of Kahlua's babies and her baby from Krissie that she's raising. Amazing how much bigger the baby is of Kahlua's, even though it's just 3 days older.

Just a cute picture of....well, you can see who it is by the name tag :)!

Kate, Diamond's doe that I kept from her last litter.

Ginger trying to peek out of her cage...she's such a funny girl!

Striper and his new little ramp & shelf area. He likes to sit "up" on something!

The silly little cats, who like to lay on the grooming table all the time! Which, by the way, we're expecting kittens the end of the week!

The white board in the barn. This is very handy to have. It would be nice if the full thing was a whiteboard, but this works. It's nice to be able to write down birth dates, due dates, who to breed and when to palpate.

Kahlua's babies getting socialization from one of my little sisters. It's one of her favorite jobs!

And last, the meat bunny barn which has a bunch of "ugly" meat does and litters in it. We've got 42 babies in that barn right now. And more litters on the way!

Feed Thoughts

I was on the phone for awhile yesterday with a good ML breeder/friend. We talked about all kinds of things, but one thing we talked about was feed. I asked her if she had PenPals out in her area and she said that's what she's used for 15 years!

She has been using 18% though instead of the 16%. I use 16% just because that is what I've always used in a feed and had good success with it. PenPals is such an amazing feed and the rabbits fur & condition is *always* super.

Through talking with this breeder, she said with the 18% she always gets large litters and their condition is firm. Now, my does tend to have larger litters as well (Krissie just had her second litter of 10 today actually!). But, I do get my fair share of  "smaller" litters (6 babies or so). When this breeder mentioned that she had a smaller litter born the other day....and that litter size was 7....it made me think.

I also asked her how her does do in the winter. I have always bred year round and winter has normally been the time when I have more litters. But, since I moved to Oklahoma, it has been so hard to get winter litters. From November to late January-February I get maybe 2-3 litters. Which is *not* normal for me and what I'm used to in California. This breeder I was talking to has an even less insulated barn than I do (and doesn't heat it) and lives in a climate that gets very cold (-20 to -30 below) in the winter months. And she has large litters year round with no drop in conception or production. That was very encouraging to hear.

I definitely respect this breeder (she is also an ARBA judge) and her thoughts on it. And I'm going to try out the 18% PenPals with the rabbits. It's the same price as the 16% that I buy anyways, so it won't hurt them at all. I could even do half the barn on 16% and half on 18%, but we'll see. To be able to have litters year round out here in Oklahoma would be so nice!

So, this was very fascinating for me to hear. I've always heard that if you feed the higher protein to a "smaller" or medium-sized breed that you will have reproductive problems, as in does not being able to take. But, this breeder who has studied feed on her rabbits since the '70's has never seen this.

I thought I would share this information I learned....maybe it'll help someone else :).

On other news...Krissie kindled to 10 babies between yesterday and today. She had 1 baby yesterday (not sure why), but had the rest today. She has 6 or 7 chocolates out of all of them! Yay, praise the Lord. Kahlua is raising Krissie's baby that was born yesterday. Krissie should be able to handle the rest.

New pictures of Kayla's babies will be up soon also!

Lots of happenings

Wow, I seriously have been in a posting hiatus on this blog!

A lot has gone on in the last few weeks.

12 bunnies left to their new homes in the last week: 2 to Indiana (via Ohio "mini convention"), 2 to TX, 2 to NM, 2 to a breeder in OK, 2 to KS, and 2 to another breeder in OK.

A trio of chocolates will be shipped out to New York within the next week to week and a half, Lord willing.

Diamond has been bred to Lamborghini. That should be a very nice litter! I'll be breeding Prudence & Melinda to Lamborghini soon as well.

Kahlua kindled to a litter of 4 on Tuesday night. 2 broken chocolates (yay!), 1 black and 1 black agouti. Krissie is due tomorrow. And then we have a few more does due after that.

Brianna went to her new home this week...which happens to be to a breeder just a couple miles down the road :). She is also bred to Lamborghini and I'll be getting a baby back from her. Those should be some VERY nice, colorful babies.

So, there's a quick run-down of what's been happening in the barn :).