Four pups born, no pics since not born here.  They are on loan to a non-breeding guinea pig home.  :)

All are tricolours.

Rabbits... so many people think they are rodents, much like a guinea pig, rat or hamster.  But what are they truly?

First of all, to to those that don't know much about taxonomy, this is how everything works together. Taxonomy is scientists' method of ordering all living things. The taxonomic groups go in this order: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species name.

Kingdom: Animalia 
Phylum: Chordata 
Class: Mammalia 
Order: Lagomorpha 
Family: Leporidae 
Genus: Oryctolagus 
Species: Cuniculus (domestic rabbit)

Rabbits belong to the order Lagomorpha, and rodents belong to the order Rodentia. The name Lagomorpha comes from the Latin word lagosmeaning "hare", and morphe meaning "form". The order has only two families: Leporidae (rabbits and hares), and Ochotonidae (pikas).

Just for reference here is what a guinea pig is
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia*
Suborder: Hystricomorpha
Family: Caviidae
Subfamily: Caviinae
Genus: Cavia
Species: Cavia porcellus

And rats: 
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Genus: Rattus
Species: norvegicus

and hamsters
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Subphylum:Vertebrata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Rodentia
Suborder:Myomorpha
Superfamily:Muroidea
Family: Cricetidae
Subfamily: Cricetinae
Genus: 
Mesocricetus
Phodopus
Cricetus
Cricetulus
Allocricetulus
Cansumys
Tscherskia

Four pups in this litter, one born dead.

Nice coloured pups, one boy two girls.

Nearest I could tell she has five babies.   She's somewhat protective this litter so it wasn't particularly easy to tell for sure.  :)

1. picking up 3 week old kits just after you feed them hay and they keeping munching on it while you check them over.

2. Newborn babies. :)

3. the calmness of the boys.

4. the individuality of the girls.

5. the joy of a new pet owner

6. the satisfaction of pleasing another rabbit breeder

7. the joy of mentoring someone in the fine art and joy of that which is bunnies. 

A pedigree is simply a piece of paper that shows you the heritage of the bunny.
Most pedigrees are three generations, but you can always start with one generation and then work yourself up from there.

Three generations gives you a purebred rabbit (as long as the breed itself is recognized).  The pedigree just helps you to know what is in their background.

Pedigrees should list colour, weight and any awards.

There's the old stand by of doing them by hand.

Do you know what a pain that is?   and reading the writing of some folks is a bit of a challenge!

There are free ones : sit/stay has one.   Each pedigree has to be manually entered but you can email it to yourself.  Useful only if you have a few rabbits that you need pedigrees for OR are waiting to get a paid system and don't want to handwrite out a litter as you can print off more than one copy of a given pedigree.

and there are ones that you can purchase

Kintraks is what I use.  LOVE this program.  It's affordable.  Does what I want it to.  The owner is quick to respond.   It changes and grows.  ONE program handles all my livestock needs.  I have it for rabbits and guinea pigs and if I wanted to add cattle, sheep, goats, spiders and what have you I could do that!   All for one measly $20!   It has on-line storage and such like as well.

Global Pedigree.  This is a new program to me.  I haven't really looked at it a whole lot.

Breeders's assistant.  Tried it, was unimpressed.  Removed it from the computer since it was a pain to work with.   I know other breeders love it though so.. depends on your needs.   It may have changed in the last four years though.

Evans.  This one is highly popular among the rabbit folk.   Too pricey for my blood though.   A lot of people swear by it though.   Has a genetics component for extra dollars as well.

Cunitec.  I actually have this on my computer.   I can't recall what my thoughts were on it.  I just love kintraks though so I haven't really needed to use it.  :)

Homestead Apps   Homestead Apps released an app to help hobby and urban farmers manage their animals - My Animal Manager.   Here is a post that talks about this program as I've never seen/heard of it before.

So am I missing any?   If so let me know please.

Okay are some that I found that I know nothing about

the breeders program. seems oriented to cats. dogs. horses.
various genealogy  apps work as well.  :)

 One of my pet peeves in the husbandry of rabbits is the overuse of medications OR the wrong use of medications in rabbits.   One should always breed for health and good immune systems.

One of these meds was recently discussed over at the meat rabbits board.

Ivermectin.

People use ivermectin as a wormer for rabbits.  There are better known and rabbit safe meds out on the market.   People will use it as a preventative medication.  People will use it as a first drug of choice.

Panacur for one.  Easy to use, easy to treat, out of their system in two weeks.  and there are other ones out there.

But no.. people like to use Ivermectin as it's an over-the-counter medication and easily available in a handy little tube for administration.   So no need for fecals, no dealing with vets, etc.

But no fecals means no certainty in what you are treating either so it's a bit of a catch 22 right?

Personally I only worm when I KNOW I have a problem, and then I get a fecal done at the local vet.  Costs me $5 for the fecal, $5-8 for the wormer.  No issues.

Ivermectin is being over used.  People use it for their dogs, their horses, their cattle.  People don't pay attention to strength differences.

So easy to over medicate.
So easy to give via the wrong methodology.
People think because it's over the counter that it's a safe medication.  It isn't.

Ivermectin overdoses can cause seizures and whole host of other issues.  Such as

• Lethargy
• Tremors
• loss of coordination of the muscles, mainly in the extremities
• Drooling
• Tachycardia
• Excessive dilation of the pupil of the eye
• Stupor
• Coma
• Depression 
• Death
• Fluctuating blood pressure
• Birth defects in kits (aka cleft palates)
• Temporary Blindness

If you ever send your rabbits out as critter food do make sure that the species eating your rabbits DO NOT have an ivermectin sensitivity.   OR make a point of NEVER giving your rabbits ivermectin. 

Some animals have a genetic mutation that weakens the molecular pump that keeps ivermectin out of the brain.  With this mutation, the drug freely enters the brain's blood supply and the animal seizures to death.  This can also happen with a massive overdose of the drug in an animal without the mutation.  This mutation has been found in many animals, but is mostly commonly found in some herding dogs, particularly the collies. 
The second issue is that, as with all antibiotics and diseases and dewormers and weedkillers and so forth - some organisms are more sensitive to ivermectin than others.  If you give ivermectin to an animal, particularly to a whole herd, even if given at the right dose to treat those animals, some of the parasites will survive.  The tougher ones will go on to reproduce, and pass on those ivermectin resistant genes. 

Resistance is thought to grow any time a dewormer is used, and the more often it is used, and at the lower dose, the faster the resistance grows. So if a producer is using too low a dose (half the amount, in order to save money and treat twice as many animals) and is using the formula wrong (there are pour on vs oral vs injectable solutions) even fewer of the worms will be killed and the population of resistant worms in the pasture will grow even faster. 


Rabbits have so few meds that can be used on them.  Why would you want to encourage drug resistance when there are better meds out there that do the job properly?

The third problem is that ivermectin stays in an animals system for a pretty long time, from 14 to 60 days, depending on the species and the formulation used.  So care must be taken to know just how long to wait until slaughtering the animals, in order to keep the drug out of the food supply. 

If you don't know for sure how long it will be in their system (and remember, rabbits eat their fecals thereby keeping the meds in their systems longer) then how long do you know to hold back that rabbit in order to keep it out of the food system?  
 
For more information, you can check out:

American Consortium on Small Ruminants Parasite Control (discusses FAMACHA)http://www.scsrpc.org/

FARAD (Food Animal Residue Avoidance Database) - FARAD.org

Minor Species Drug Act - http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/MinorUseMinorSpecies/default.htm

 Here is a list of some interesting facts about rabbits…

1. The World’s Largest Rabbit named “Darius” weighs approximately 50 pounds and is currently 4 feet, 3 inches. Although this might sound unbelievable, “Darius” is indeed a real rabbit that currently lives with its owner Annette Edwards from the UK. It has been reported that Darius thinks he is a dog.
2. The “most valuable” rabbit on Earth, “Darius”, is currently insured for around $1.6/million and has his own personal caretaker aka body guard.
3. In the wild some female rabbits can produce about eight litters of bunnies per year.
4. The largest litter of bunnies every reported consisted of 24 kits.
5. Rabbits are natural runners and can reach speeds of up to 30 to 40 mph.
6. Domesticated rabbits that people raise do not open their eyes until they reach about 9-12 days old.
7. Baby domestic rabbits are actually born fur-less.
8. Rabbits have 28 teeth.
9. The World’s oldest rabbit on record lived to be 16 years old.
10. The average lifespan of a domesticated rabbit is around 5 to 8 years.
11. With the right guidance rabbits can be trained to live indoors perfectly.
12. The average heart rate of a rabbit ranges between 130-325 beats per minute.
13. It is estimated that over 2 million U.S. households own a pet rabbit.
14. Thousands of rabbit shows take place annually in the Continental United States alone, each year.
15. Male rabbits are referred to as “bucks” and female rabbits are referred to as “does”.
16. Believe it or not, a rabbit’s teeth never stop growing throughout its life.
17. Rabbits can jump up to 36 inches or higher.
18. In general rabbits are very clean animals that will groom themselves and even each other.

Came on Tuesday, out on Saturday.   This is a girl lionhead that I helped place in a home last summer and came back.   

Here's a story for you. 

BROOKFIELD- Everyone knows that rabbits don’t lay eggs—so what is this thing with Easter bunnies? Why not an Easter duck? Or an Easter hen? That would make more sense, wouldn’t it?

Well, Easter bunnies, like most Christian holiday traditions, are drawn from pagan beliefs, dusted off, repackaged and sold as representative of Christ’s story. In the case of Easter bunnies, rabbits are notorious for their fervent lovelife and their consequent fertility. Easter, the season of rebirth, not illogically became associated with hares and rabbits, as did eggs, the very icon of new life.

The Easter bunny appears to have originated in Germany, where tales were told of the “Easter hare,” which laid eggs for children to find. According to the legend, only good children received gifts of colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before Easter. The tradition was carried to America by German immigrants, and the immigrants may have also made popular the practice of making chocolate bunnies and eggs.

.......

 Why they were dyed different colors remains a mystery, but a variety of traditions have emerged. The ancient Zoroastrians are said to have painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the spring equinox. The Nawrooz tradition is said to have existed for at least 2,500 years. The sculptures on the walls of Persepolis show people carrying eggs for Nowrooz to the king. Egyptians, Romans and Greeks are also reported to have dyed eggs for their spring celebrations.

....

 The decorated eggs became the object of children’s games, a practice that continues today in Easter Egg hunts and egg rolls. The most famous egg roll takes place on the White House lawn every year, a tradition said to have been originated by the irrepressibly social Dolly Madison, who, told that Egyptian children used to roll eggs down the pyramids, invited Washington, D.C., children to roll hard-boiled eggs down the hilly lawn of the new Capitol building.

_______________
anyways, go read the whole article if you are so inclined.  Just thought it made for some interesting research.  :)