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!

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!

Individual pictures of Kahlua's, Ginger's & Rum's litters have been up on the site for a week or so.

Ginger's litter can be seen here.

Rum's litter can be seen here.

Kahlua's litter can be seen here.

Babies

Well, Krissie kindled to a litter of just 2 a week ago. Normally she has 11, so it was a bit disappointing to just see 2. But, at least she had a nice healthy litter. They are some FAT babies, since she normally raises 11 by herself with no problems!

One of Ginger's little opals. Ginger's, Kahlua's and Rum's babies are now 3 weeks old, so they will be getting their individual pictures this coming week, Lord willing!

One of Kahlua's little munchkins! Her babies are so chubby!

Rum's babies are quite the entertainment bunch. They are so funny...jumping in and out of the box all day long and so playful :).

This is the little doe I'm keeping from Abby's litter. I've wanted to keep this doe since the day she was born. She's beautiful!

Lots of babies and long overdue update

Just a quick update here:

Quadra's babies are 6 weeks old now. They are adorable little guys. The buck is available and he is very promising (he's the one in the first picture). I am planning on keeping the doe at the moment (the second two pictures).

What a deep little doe!

Abby's babies are 4 weeks old now and so, so, adorable! She has two chocolate chinchilla does and a 1 broken chinchilla buck.

This little doe below is the one I want to keep from Abby's litter :). She's got a monster of a head right now, so we'll see how her body looks in a couple weeks.

 

Ginger's litter of 6 is almost 2 weeks old. She has 3 opals and 2 chestnut agoutis.

Kahlua's litter of 7 are almost 2 weeks old. She has 4 opals and 3 chestnut agoutis.

Rum's litter of 7 CHOCOLATES are almost 2 weeks old. They are so adorable. It's nice to have a whole litter of chocolate colors.

Even self chocolates...finally :)!

Krissie is due today with Escalade's first litter. Kibbles and Kate has been bred to Escalade as well. Lam has been a little slow lately, but I'm hoping to get some does bred to him soon.

New Arrival!

Thanks to Jennifer Townsend, Smokey's Kibbles, now lives here at our barn! I'm sorry to see Jen have to sell out of Mini Lops for the time being, but I'm thrilled to have Kibbles here. Kibbles is out of Hoppin's Britney, who was a beautiful doe I had sold to Erik from Smokey's Bunny Barn in WA last year. I never got to keep anything out of Britney before she left, so I'm glad to have Kibbles here.

I'll be breeding Kibbles to Lam soon hopefully and should have a full litter of lilacs!! They should be some nice, beautifully colored babies.

And just for fun, a picture of one of the outside kittens :).

Rainy Days & Baby Buns

We've had a rainy few days lately, which has been really nice...we needed rain!

The ducks all have had fun playing in the rain and the puddles it's created. They sure are funny to watch!

Quadra's babies are now 3 weeks old and doing great. They are ADORABLE, fat little squishy munchkins! She has 1 buck and 1 doe. Aren't smoke pearls beautiful?!

I have an on-going saga with my red buck, William. He is S-L-O-W-L-Y maturing, but he is SO tiny. He's just 4.4 lbs at 8 months old and has absolutely no interest in breeding, which is very discouraging. Here is he next to my 3 1/2 month old junior, Goldie. She's just an average size ML junior...he is just a .... shrimp, LOL!

I also have some really sad news. I had to put down one of my red does, Sunrise. She was the nicer as far as body type goes of the two does. So, that is a bummer. She went off feed the end of last week and suddenly came down with wry neck. I started treating her as soon as I noticed her head tilt and I had to put her down less than 48 hours later. It progressed so fast, she was rolling within 1 1/2 days. It was by far the most aggressive wry neck I have ever seen. Very sad :(.

On a better note, here are a couple's a couple recent pictures of my other red doe, Vixie. She is maturing nicely and finally starting to fill in some! Hopefully we'll have red babies soon.....