Munchkins!

Here's a few cute pictures of my little babies ~

Sugar's babies ~

Brandy's babies ~


Daisy's babies ~
Qadoshyah

24 & counting

Daisy was due yesterday and she kindled to 7 beautiful babies this afternoon. I was nervous she wouldn't have the babies in the box, as she kept scratching all the shavings out of the box (I refilled it like 3 times!), but she surprised me a made a nice nest in the box. She has 2 brokens and 5 solids -several chocolates & lilacs. Hoping for a lilac chinchilla from this cross - which is totally possible!

It feels so good to have big litters again! I haven't had this for months!

Jenny is due this Saturday and is HUGE. I'm expecting at least 8 and wouldn't be surprised if there were more. She's had her box since the weekend, because she made a nest with fur before I even gave her the box. I felt sorry for her, so went ahead a gave her the box early.

With Daisy's litter it puts the baby count to 24, which is nice. I haven't had that many babies for months! Brandy has 7 (raising 6), Sugar has 4 (raising 5 - one of Brandy's), Totsie has 4, and Kristen has 2.

I tattoo'd the 6 six week old babies on Sunday and made my picks as to who I am keeping from Totsie's litter. The ST steel buck & the lilac doe. But, I could've easily kept one of the lilac bucks as well. I'm giving Kristen's babies another couple weeks before I fully decide who I'm keeping, but I think it'll be the little lilac doe.

Friday-Saturday I went on a breeding spree and bred 5 does. Clara (to Justin), Tatianna (to Kaden), Kaylee (to Justin), Sarabeth (to Josh), & Tara (to Brant). Seriously, I am just hoping Clara takes sometime - this is the 6th try for breeding her. That's why I bred her to Justin - using any buck that'll make her have her first litter! I'm hoping the same for Tatianna, but if all else fails, I'll just move her along. Clara is one gorgeous doe who would be so beneficial in my chocolates!

I'm going to do a quick update on the site right now.

~ Qadoshyah

Consistency

I typed my two 5 week old litters today - Totsie's & Kristen's. Totsie's babies are VERY consistent and very promising. It's going to be very hard to pick who I will be keeping. I almost want to grow them all out at this point, but I can't! We'll have to give it a couple more weeks to be sure who I will keep. 3 of Totsie's 4 are bucks anyways, so that makes things even more interesting.

But, it is very nice to have a litter that is so consistent. They all look great. Very short midsection, nice shoulders, and deep. I haven't had a litter this consistent for months and I think it's all due to feed. It reminds me of the good 'ole days in California with my Templeton feed. I am hoping that my litters are back to normal now and will continue to be consistent. Time will tell.

Feed is such a tricky and sensitive issue. You'd never think it is such an important issue, but it is. And you really notice it when you've used an excellent feed for 5 + years and suddenly switch to a terrible feed.

Kristen's babies need a few more weeks until I can really type them as they don't seem to be in their prime until 8 weeks old or so. But, her little lilac doe sure is cute right now. She has Deckles awesome head and width!

Check her out - she looks like a "mini Deckles"!


This little boy of Totsie's is lookin' cute too. His head is coming in a lot nicer than I thought (took his ears a little longer to lop than a couple of the others) -

But, he's in a close call with his lilac brothers. Both have promising bodies and one in particular has a very promising head.

You can see new (just taken today!) pictures of Kristen's babies & Totsie's babies up on the site.

Qadoshyah

Spring Time!

Wow, it is finally clear skies and gorgeous weather (in the 70's). Will take this kind of weather any day :)!

Brandy had her 9 babies last Tuesday and Sugar kindled to 5 babies (1 DOA) on Saturday. Sugar went 3 days over her due date, as she seems to always do.

On the other hand . . . Brandy gave me a stressful day last Wednesday. She hadn't fed her babies for over 24 hours. So, as usual I put her in the box to encourage her to feed the babies. She wouldn't have any of it. I don't know why, I can only assume she was too hot (it was warm that day). Finally, after much stress & tears and hours later (at 12midnight) she willingly fed the babies. Her milk always takes a little while to fully come in, so that does throw things for a loop. Especially when you have 9 babies that need to be fed. I lost 2 of Brandy's babies by Friday though. Not surprising, as they were runts anyways. But the rest are doing good!

I spent most of today painting my barn. It's needed to be done for a few months. Only half of it is done though, so hopefully it can be finished tomorrow.

Yesterday I spent much of the day outside because it was just so beautiful, so I got some cute pictures of the bunnies.

Sugar's babies ~
Brandy's babies ~
It's so nice to be able to have all 4 sides of the barn open and to just look out and see the green view
My little Jake
Goofy Sarabeth . . . she's such a flighty girl when I first open the cage door.
And, Mud trying to get out of the cage just because I was there :)!
Qadoshyah

Juniors

I updated the website today. Just a general update. Put up pictures of the pointed white jr. doe I have available. She's a pretty little doe :).

Here's some new pictures of my juniors. Jake, Daphnie, Kadence & Mud.

Jake ~ It's a shame he is a broken pointed white, as he is down-right gorgeous! With amazing type!



Daphnie's a petite little thing, but is maturing into herself ~


Kadence is developing nicely! She's definitely goin' through the "uglies", but I can see promise in how she'll turn out. Should be a fine replacement for her dam!



And last, but certainly not least is Mud! He's definitely growing right now, but I think he will turn out gorgeous. He's starting to do his head molt and I can't wait to see how big his head will come in. Mud is such a character and probably my favorite junior because of that right now. He's at one of the first cages when I walk in the barn and he goes nuts when he hears my voice. So cute!



I just went out to my barn to peek at the bunnies, since I typically do that a couple times a day. Brandy's due today, so I was so curious to see if she had her babies yet. I was expecting a bigger litter, since I could see the "belly bulge" and that was encouraging. I hadn't had a nice big litter for awhile (Bleh to Fibre3!). Anyways, I went out to the barn and sure enough she had JUST gotten done kindling. I started counting the babies and she had . . . . EIGHT! I'm so excited!!! Praise the Lord. They're all chocolate colors too - brokens & solids.

Qadoshyah

My old boys

As I was wandering around outside yesterday enjoying the beautiful weather, I let my two old boys run around the barn for a few minutes. Striper will be 5 in June and Deckles is about 5 1/2 (will be 6 in December). Here's a few pictures I snapped of them ~







Qadoshyah

Checkin' In

Wow, what an interesting week we've had!

A major thunderstorm rolled in early Friday morning. Thunder & lightning that was intense, down pouring rain, and golf-ball sized hail. It was crazy. Our internet has been down until today because of that storm.

It's been storming all weekend, with a lot of rain, and another storm has rolled in now :). Fun!

The bunnies are doing really good though and thankfully the storms haven't stressed any of the bunnies out. Sugar did start to stress out and come down with wry neck last Tuesday (from a thunderstorm the previous night), but thankfully I caught it early enough where she didn't get the head tilt & everything.

Totsie's babies are 3 bucks (2 lilacs, 1 ST choc. steel) and 1 doe (lilac). Kristen's babies are both does :). I took pictures of all of them today and will work on getting them up on the site asap.

I'll be palpating Clara & Daisy tomorrow, hopefully they took. I bred Jenny on the 30th to Brantini. I still just have to breed Tatianna - miss troublemaker!

Over the past couple days I spent some time looking over a few of the bunnies. I am really impressed with how everyone's condition looks. They look & feel great . . . something I haven't felt on several for awhile. Praise the Lord! My juniors feel really good and look very promising. Tennessee Mud is looking good, even though he is in the uglies. I have high hopes PenPals will be *the* feed.

Here's a few pictures of the babies and my new doe, Sarabeth:

First off - Sarabeth!


Kristen's babies ~

Totsie's babies ~

Qadoshyah

Various updates

The 3 bred does, Brandy, Laci & Sugar yesterday all palpated positive. I'm so glad! Hoping for larger litters this time around. I had palpated them a few days ago and didn't feel anything, so I was a little nervous.

Clara & Daisy got bred yesterday. I plan on breeding Tatianna & Jenny or Kaylee. I can only do two more does right now, since my baby cages will be full then if all take (plus I have my two current litters). Clara was bred to Striper (my old faithful buck!) just because I need to get a litter out of her to get her going (she has given me the *hardest* time and she's a year old now). Daisy is 7 months old and was more than ready to breed, so I bred her to Brant. Should be some PRETTY babies!! They are half siblings . . .didn't even think about it :).

Tatianna will probably be bred to Kaden just because I need to get a litter out of her before she gets older. Jenny will probably be bred to Brant. If I breed Kaylee (probably won't though), I'm not sure who she will be bred to.

My cousin picked up my new bunny yesterday in Springfield, IL from . . . Sara Kitsemble :)! Sara was on her way home to Wisconsin from a show and my cousin was picking up/transporting a horse for someone. So, it worked out really well! The new doe is Kitsemble's Sarabeth. She's a sable with 2 legs. Sarabeth is gorgeous and has the cutest face! I think she will add a lot to the pointed whites. Seeing her great condition (even though her fur is molty), gives me hope that the PenPals will continue to work for the buns, as Sara feeds PenPals as well.

Pictures to come soon!

Qadoshyah

Been awhile . . .

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted anything on here . . . sorry! I've been busy this week doing medical research and designing a website.

There's not too much to report with the bunnies anyways.

Kristen's "pink" baby looks like a pointed white. What color pointed? I'm not sure yet. But, I see a small amount of color coming in on the tail (first spot to notice it typically).

Totsie's babies eyes are all opening and they are getting to the really cute, interactive age :). The little chocolate is a ST chocolate steel. I can't tell if any of the lilacs are steels yet.

I bought a bath tub/shower scrubber on a pole to scrub the trays of my cage system off and get that nasty brown crusties off of it. It seems to work good. Just use a little white vinegar (like I did with the other trays anyways) and scrub it off. I only got the top tray done today and will work on the other one sometime.

The weather has finally been warm and beautiful this week, so the barn has been completely open. Very nice. This is the first week of weather that actually feels like spring :)!

Maybe I can get some pictures uploaded to the website of the bunnies that I took a couple weeks ago. Maybe even a few pictures of everything that's finally turning green! It's getting beautiful again :). This picture is from about 2 weeks ago and it's SO much greener now.

Qadoshyah

Working with Colors

I had someone email me asking questions in regards to breeding "colors." I thought they asked some good & interesting questions, so I figured I would put my response on the blog with the general question that was asked.

"I noticed you started in the reds and oranges. Why did you get out of them?"

I only sold out of the reds & oranges because I wanted to focus more on the chocolates & lilacs. I had too many rabbits (had around 50 holes at the time) and it was getting overwhelming. At the time, I was still in high school and had other things to deal with, so I figured it was best to just focus on one color at the time. The reds, oranges & tris are GORGEOUS colors and I would really like to get back into them. I hope to get some reds later this year and start working with them again. The reds are one of my most favorite colors and probably always will be :).

"I have a buck who has orange in his pedigree, I just need to get a doe to breed him to now."

You’ll want to get a doe who has orange, or tort (and is an agouti color herself) in her close background to breed to your REW buck. If there is orange way back where in the pedigree, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he will carry orange. So, if you don’t have the color you want to work with, it can be tricky getting it. Especially when it is a color that is rare & recessive.

"Is there such a thing as an orange pointed white?"

The genetics of an orange pointed white (“technically” referred to as a flame or red point) are kind of a debate. That color doesn’t exist typically and there is debate as to whether you could even get a pointed white that color. The cross with the pointed white gene (c(h)) and the non-extension gene may not create red points/may not be possible.

"Why did you choose to work with the colors you work with?"

I chose to work with chocolates & lilacs because they were (& somewhat are still) rare out here in the states. Especially chocolates & lilacs with GOOD type AND color. The first chocolates I got had horrible type and horrible color. So, I had to bring nice chocolate & lilac stock in from a couple states away to get a good start in the chocolates. It has paid off, since I am one of the main breeders with nice chocolates and lilacs right now. A true, deep, colored chocolate is one of my favorite colors as well, so that was a plus to working with them. *If you're interested in seeing pictures of our progress, I have it laid out on our about us page*

I decided to start working with the pointed whites because I like the variety, but mainly they are extremely rare out here. When I first got them, 2 ½ years ago, there was ONE other breeder who had them. There are several more now, because I’ve started working with them. All these other breeders who are working with them got their start from my herd of pointed whites. The pointed whites need a lot more work than the chocolates & lilacs did, but they are coming along well. The pointed whites are also a bit interesting & challenging to breed as far as the genetics go. Shadeds are an interesting variety to work with!

"Do you have any tips for someone wanting to start working with rare colors?"

I would try to find a rare variety that at least some breeder works with already. That way you can get good starter stock in that particular color already and go from there and develop your own line. It’s MUCH easier to start with the color you want to work with, than to try and get that color through animals that carry it or *might* carry it.

Qadoshyah