This one off Biscuit and Spots, Londesborough, buck This one off Marie and AeroBar, Toronto, buck This one off Splash and Spots, Londesborough, doe
It nice to have buns go to good homes.
I've met a lot of nice people through selling and showing buns. :) shy girl splash has given me 11 kits, one of which was DOA. This kit had an oddity in having webbed back feet. Watch Me Growstarting to show their personalities. the black face one in front and in back are easily started kitlings and I won't be holding them back, they will ONLY go to very experienced homes. the rest are fairly laid back like their dad.
Today was a rather busy day.
Lots to do. The lad was BORED STIFF, but was rewarded for good behaviour by getting a new nerf gun. Sold Bunny poo, Bunnies, attended a meeting for the rabbit club, did some shopping, met a lady and talked snakes, shot the breeze with some other bunny people. All in all, a fair good day for me, but the lad was tired and bored and needing to do something fun....had a nerf gun fight when we got home. Jeremy and Biscuit's girlie have gone to be breeding meat bunnies.
Oreo and Marie's daughters have gone to a pet home. Potter has gone to a breeding home (actually she'll be going to her new home on Saturday). All have gone to pet homes ranging from St. Thomas to Stratford to London.
Nice youngsters, should do their new owners well. The unfortunate reality of raising any kind of livestock is that some mom's will do a better job than other moms.
This of course leaves the owner in a quandry at times. Particularly if the better mom has lesser quality kits then the poorer mom. Do you foster? Do you let nature take it's course? Do you supplement? In my rabbitry my choice is to swap out kits however I have need to do so. I have two harlequin does in my rabbitry who are STELLAR mother. Rarely losing kits, caring for them well, no sick kits. Just healthy happy babies. EXACTLY what you want in a momma rabbit. I've had some does kindle over the past few days. Pinny...raises three well. (holland lop) Oreo....raises up to four well. (polish) DJ .... big mini rex doe, doing an excellent job as a first time mom Lisa..harlequin doe Splash...Harlequin doe Marie ... Holland lop doe doing a good job as a first time mom. KNOWING that Oreo and Pinny sometimes struggle in their roles as momma's I did some litter switching. Marie's kits went to Lisa along with a couple from DJ. DJ got Lisa's kits. Pinny got two of DJ's and one from Splash. Oreo got three from DJ. Marie got Oreo and Pinny's kits. This should hopefully result in a bunch of healthy happy kits in five - six weeks time. And DJ who is now raising Lisa's kits will be able to go to her new home sooner as her litter just jumped 10 days older. :) Should make her new people happy. :) I really need an up-to-date picture of Splash. She's still a quiet shy doe, but not quite this shy anymore. She's more a calm lass that doesn't seek the limelight.
Anyways, 12 kits born through Spots. three were quite small so were culled. (two looked like they would die shortly). Hopefully she can raise 9 kits successfully. Biscuit (pictured above) is a generic meat rabbit. She likes me. She has BIG litters..13-14 in each litter but every time she only raises 11. This time round I was a bit concerned as I really had no one I could foster kits to (the rest were all about 2 weeks old). I saw that the three small ones were starting to fail. So it was like okay.. do I let nature take it's course or.... do I take a calculated risk? I have two does side by side that kindled at the same time and don't argue through the wire.. what if it I took the two from the one litter and stuck them in with the other five and then gave the three small ones to that doe? So Rosie's two kits moved over to Splash, and Rosie is raising Biscuits three small ones. Splash wasn't sure what to think but since all her kits were bustling about she basically just growled and kept jumping away from them. They settled, she settled and all was well. The first day Rosie would have NOTHING to do with them so I stuck one of her kits back in with them. That did the trick. She fed them all. I put the big kit back in with the other ones as I saw that it was getting the bulk of the milk. I was quite convinced for three days that the smallest one still wouldn't make it BUT>>>> the other day it was like WOOT WOOT! it's looking good. The little black and white one there is the tiny one of the litter. It is smaller than the rest, but it's coming along. :) I am pleased at the results of this calculated risk.
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AuthorI have been breeding rabbits for a quite a few years. I thoroughly enjoy them as animals and think they make great pets. I also like to take some of them to rabbit shows to see how they measure up to the standards. For the BEST rabbit forum I've ever found. Go to Rabbittalk.com. Good for the pet rabbit owner as well as the breeder for meat or show.
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