Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The pictures

Here are the pictures of the cage system and for fun, I'll throw in a couple pictures of the organized barn.





Qadoshyah

Busy Weekend

My cousin has been working on my "flush kleen" cage system for the past couple weeks. He spent almost all week last week working on it up here at my barn, since all preliminary set-up work was done. It's very cool! There's a few minor modifications/touch-ups to do, but it's pretty much done.

It holds 24, 24"x24" cages - 12 on top, 12 on bottom. I have twelve empty cages now with this set-up, very cool. I am able to have a few more "baby cages" as well - up to 9 of those. So, the barn total comes out to 34 hole rabbitry (including my retired doe, Truffle's, pen).

The barn was a wreck all last week, so I had to spend all day Sunday re-organizing and making it workable in here. It's nice now!

We dropped off Danielle's 3 mini lops at the Fayetteville, AR airport and they should be arriving in Louisiana in about an hour :). They were supposed to be shipped on Friday, but the flight was cancelled due to bad weather (gotta expect that out here!).

I will work on getting some pictures of the cage system up and posted, but just wanted to check in here.

Qadoshyah

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Keepers

I took some new pictures of my 3 litters since they just turned 5 weeks old. You can see them all here ~ Brandy's litter, Tara's litter & Laci's litter.

We're keeping a buck from Brandy's litter and a doe from Tara's litter. I'll make my decision as to whether I keep a baby from Laci's litter in a few weeks when they are about 8 weeks old.

These two babies are so promising! And their both chocolate colors to boot!

Brandy's buck . . . still deciding on a name for him. I'm leaning towards an alcholic drink name most likely :). Wow, he is JUST what I have been hoping for in a solid agouti chocolate colored buck.


Tara's doe . . . still deciding on a name for her as well. Thinking Tiffany or Tracie, but maybe will go for a chocolate name. Not sure yet. She is solid & short. Beautiful doe!



Qadoshyah

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

That's what I'm talking about

Let's see, what's been going on around here. It's been some time since I updated. I palpated all 4 of the does that I bred on the 12th & 13th and they all took :) Yay, I'm so excited! Hoping for nice big litters this time . . .

The 3 litters just turned 5 weeks old yesterday. I spent some time playing with each of the babies and posing them up to see how they're looking so far. Wow, I'm so impressed with how they are looking! Very nice. Even Laci's 3 pointeds. They are all soooo incredibly smooth, thick and have no boney feeling to them. I really don't think it's a coincidence, I'm so glad I changed feeds as soon as they started eating. There's a MASSIVE difference in these 3 litters compared to my last 7 litters I had since September. My babies are like they used to be. Consistent.

There's 2-3, maybe 4 babies, that I'll be keeping from these litters. I'm glad to be able to have the opportunity to keep several. My litters have looked so horrible, I've barely been able to keep one out of a litter. I won't say who I'm planning/considering keeping yet . . . I'll leave y'all in limbo ;).

I don't want to get myself too excited yet, since it's so early. But, I can't help but be thankful & excited that I switched feeds when I did, when there's such a massive difference in these babies. If you could've just felt my babies from my last 7 litters and these babies, you could feel the difference. I want to see how my next 4 litters do on this feed. But, I'm pretty convinced on PenPals right now.

We had a nice storm roll in this morning and had a good hour or so of downpouring rain and now it's a beautiful sunny spring afternoon :). My cousin's up finishing my cage system. It's almost done. My barn is almost done being a scattered mess, LOL. I'll be sure to get pictures of the system when it's done. It'll probably be another day or two before he's fully finished.

My barn is such an "under construction" zone right now that cages are oddly placed in front of each other and it's rather difficult to feed in the mornings in these tight quarters. But, I'm making it work :).

I'll be shipping out 3 bunnies on Friday, by God's grace to Louisiana :). They went for their health check today and we just have to book the flight now.

I think that's about it for now. I'm planning on getting some pictures of the babies tomorrow, hopefully.

Qadoshyah

Friday, March 20, 2009

Awwww, My Chocolate Chestnut

Brandy's little buck is just the most stinkin' cute thing ever!







Qadoshyah

Friday, March 13, 2009

Does bred

I was able to get 3 does bred last night and 1 doe bred today, thankfully.

Hopefully they will all take and have nice big litters.

Brantini X Totsie

Kaden X Clara

Josh X Tatianna

Deckles X Kristen

My senior doe who came down with wry neck a couple weeks ago was not getting better, even after the second treatment of Ivomec. She has been continually getting worse the past few days, so I had to make a hard decision and have my brother put her down :(. I so did not want to, but she was not getting better, only worse. She was getting so bad, she was rolling. It was horrible to see. So, bye-bye sweet Chocolate :(.

While out in the barn earlier today, and making the hard decision about Chocolate, I decided to play around with my babies some. They are so fun! Brandy's little chocolate chestnut boy has me taken. I am so hoping he turns out nice. He is the cutest thing right now and with the most awesome personality.


"Where are you?"

I can't get over how much Brandy and Daisy look like each other. Daisy is just a wider version of Brandy, LOL. Brandy's 3 weeks into raising a litter, so she obviously isn't in as good of condition as Daisy. Their patterns are almost *identical*.


Qadoshyah

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Sold!

New pictures of my 3 three week old litters are up on the site! They are all so cute and squishable right now!! I am so happy with how they look right now, hopefully they will continue looking great. Check 'em all out on the babies page.


I was able to sell all 5 available babies from Jenny's litter yesterday. Praise the Lord. I ran an ad on craigslist on Tuesday and they were all sold by the next day. All went to good homes too!

Fibre3 has not been working too great in my herd. They've been on it for 5 months now and I think that's plenty of time to know how it will affect them. After raising 7 litters on it and none of the litters have turned out like they typically do, I've had it. It's not something that is very visible, but it's something that I can feel and see because I know my herd and the results I typically get. I went all the way down to Vian, a good 35 miles south of our local town (Tahlequah) to pick up 6 bags of PenPals on Tuesday. I was going to get the 16%, but they loaded me up the 18%, so oh well. PenPals is a couple dollars cheaper than Fibre3 too.

The Tulsa RBA bulk orders PenPals every 4-5 weeks, so I am going to get on their bulk feed order. It'll be cheaper than the feed store in Vian and also a lot closer . . . especially considering the fact that I go into Tulsa every two weeks anyways.

Jenny's 3 babies feel better already. Coincidence? It must be, since they've only been half-way switched to PenPals since Tuesday night. They could just be growing. I don't know, but I can't wait to see how Brandy's, Laci's & Tara's babies do on this feed for the next couple weeks.

I looked at Kadence again today. Wow, I'm so glad I chose to keep her. I'll be sure to get some new pictures of her asap. Maybe later today. I'm thinking of breeding some does, although I don't know if I want to since it's so cold outside right now. But, I've gotta get some girls bred.

Qadoshyah

Monday, March 9, 2009

Random News

I was hoping to get some pictures taken this morning, but I wasn't able to . . . forgot I had to charge my camera. Hopefully I can get the pictures of my 3 week olds taken tomorrow. They are awfully cute. With HUGE heads and lopped ears.

But, I did sex all 9 of my babies today . . . so the run-down is:

Laci's 3 - 2 does, 1 buck
Brandy's 4 - 2 does, 2 bucks
Tara's 2 - 1 doe, 1 buck

Great splits on the sexes there :).

All 3 of Laci's are pointed whites. I think one may be a blue pointed white. Because they are all pointed whites that means Josh doesn't carry REW. Exciting!

My cousin started working on the "custom cage system" he's building for me about a week ago. The first "section" is done. It's going to hold a total of 24 cages (12 on top, 12 on bottom) and have a big tray underneath each section. I can then just spray that tray down and it will go down some pipes and either out to the garden area or into a bucket. It will make life much easier . . . and cleaner for that matter. Each section that he's working on has 8 holes in it. Once the last two sections are done, we can assemble it all together and be ready to go.

We started cementing my barn in. We just have a small 2'x7' section done and I'll be doing small sections at a time (cement is not cheap!) until it's all done. It will be very nice once it is all done though.

When I was moving stuff to get ready to put this cement in, I picked up the pallet I have my feed cans on and found about 25-30 mice. Yeah, literally that many. I was shocked and didn't know what to do at first. I started stepping on the ones I could and then spent the next few hours in between moving stuff chasing and killing mice, LOL. Pretty funny scene. Over the course of the next few hours though, I (along with my brother & cousin :)) were able to kill about 12 mice. Yes, success!

Alright, well that's about it for now. Gotta get ready to give line dance lessons here :).

Qadoshyah

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Long Week

It's been a long week, but I'll give as best an update as I can :).

Brandy's, Tara's & Laci's babies are all doing great. Their eyes are open now and they are looking so cute! Laci has two pointed whites and one REW, I think . . . it's hard to tell for sure. They may all be pointed whites. Tara's babies are so stinkin' cute - they have monster heads - thanks to daddy Deckles :).

Last week the weather was really nice (in the 70's) for most of the week, until Friday. Friday evening the temps dropped rapidly to below freezing and Saturday we had snow. Crazy, crazy. Some of the buns didn't handle this too well. One of them came down with wry neck. I caught it right away though, so she should be fine. I dealt with wry neck rarely in California and I've dealt with it twice already out here. *Sigh* Oklahoma is a harsh environment.

As much as I hate switching feeds, I am finding myself need to find a new feed again. Fibre3 is just not cutting it. My babies are not like they used to be. I miss my Templeton feed big time :(. My babies don't have the fullness and are not as well filled out when they are growing. I've noticed this in all of my litters I've had here and they've all been raised on Fibre3. I've had enough of it now. I am hoping my feed store will order PenPals for me, as I think (& hope) that it will be a better feed. Otherwise I have to pick some up from a feed store half an hour north. I would like to switch asap so that my 3 current litters won't be raised on Fibre3.

Jenny's babies are doing good. They are almost 7 weeks old now and getting close to being ready to go to their new homes. I like JK2 - the chinchilla doe. She is looking very promising. One of the broken chinchilla bucks is decent too - JK7. JK8 the other broken chinchilla buck is not too bad either, but he has some slightly funky shoulders.

I've decided to name the little doe I'm keeping from Jenny's litter Hoppin's Kadence.

Now the fun part . . . baby pictures:


Tara's 2 ~
My favorite of Tara's :)
Laci's 3 ~

Brandy's 4 ~

Little "Kaden Jr" :)



This little one is being raised by Tara

I think that's about it for now . . .

Qadoshyah

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Quick post

I am updating from my iPod so this is going to be short.

I've had a crazy and stressful week. Hence the lack of updates. I will try to update tomorrow if possible along with new baby pictures :).

Qadoshyah