Getting off to a bad start

So it's a new month and so far it's not going that great. First of all, I had 2 litters that didn't make it.

Mikey x Nell aka "Nelly" - I didn't hope for much since this was Nelly's first time. She had one dead kit yesterday. Which isn't a problem... since it was her first time like I just said. So, I'm going to rebreed her soon. Better luck next time!

Tang x Mango - Here's the aggravating part. Mango had 3 kits (one peanut) on March 1st. I was thrilled for her because she was a first time mom so that's great, right? It's not so great when the mother doesn't feed her babies though. I really regret not paying close enough attention. So needless to say, all of her kits passed away. I guess I know for next time.

That's everything for now. Also, I won't be able to make it to Dalton this weekend. I just thought I'd throw that out there... :)

Another litter

I had one more litter that was born yesterday. :)

Mikey x Aquene - 3 kits born last night! She actually had 4 but one didn't make it. I'm still thrilled because they all should be sable points. ;)

This is the first time I've had so many sable points in the nestboxes at once. I have 7 sable points between 2 litters. Wow! Like I mentioned in the last blog, Melody's kit looks like a Siamese sable. After thinking about it a little bit harder, it might actually be a seal. I hope not though. I'd much rather have a Siamese sable. I'm bound to find out sooner or later though. Its eyes just opened a couple days ago. :) How cute!

I'll keep you posted as the week goes on. Mango and Sunkist are due soon as well. Sunkist is starting to nest but Mango isn't doing much of anything. We'll see what happens!

Nuthin' much

There really isn't anything new to ramble about this time. I just figured since I haven't blogged lately I might as well find something to ramble about. ;)

I think I forgot to mention that Pam had babies. I was so thrilled I can't believe I'm just now blogging about it. She had 4 sable points in her first litter - no peanuts, no problems. They're all healthy and doing great! I was totally shocked because she is a tiny doe - I'm guessing around 2.00 lbs or so and I would have never expected her to have 4 kits! I haven't had any babies lately let alone sable points, so I plan to keep all of them (both bucks and does) for further evaluation. :)

As for Melody's baby, it's doing just fine. :) At first, I thought it was going to be a sable point but now I'm almost certain that it's a Siamese sable. Which is good - I'm not too bummed (even though I would have much rather had a sable point) but, hey, you can't have everything. I don't have any breedable Siamese sables, so if the kit is a doe, I'll probably end up keeping her. On the other hand, if it's a buck, I'll just have to hold onto him to see how well he develops. I'm kinda picky about my bucks as most of you already know... :)

I have a few more litters that are due either this weekend or early next week. Aquene is one of them so I'll be blogging when she has babies. :)

Litters!

This is the very first litter I've had in a long time. Since November I think. Mel (we call her "Melody") kindled on Valentine's Day! To my surprise, she had 2 live kits. It doesn't sound like a lot, but if you haven't had any kits in 3 months and your does aren't taking, it tends to be unexpected. Although, she did feel pregnant but I couldn't tell for sure. One is a peanut and the other is big and healthy. I'm not really sure what it is though. It's not a black so it might be a sable point or tort. Hopefully anyways. :)

Pam is due on the 19th. I'm just about certain she's bred. Her belly is almost touching the cage! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she won't have a hard time or have stillborns, because she's a first-timer, too.

I realized that I haven't blogged in forever! I'm so sorry! I went to the doctor yesterday because I wasn't feeling good and it turns out I have a sinus infection. Just what I want. I feel horrible! It's been running through the family so it has to be something blooming in the air that we don't like. Speaking of air, we are having beautiful weather! Spring must be coming for sure!

That's everything for now.

Spartanburg show

Boy, are we tired out. After a long day of showing, it's good to come home and relax. We probably live the closest to the show yet we were the latest to arrive! Lol. I got up at about 10 to 7 this morning and we got home around 4:00pm.

Here are my show results.

RD's Red Hot (RH) placed 1st, Dow's Zip (ZP) placed 2nd, and Peachtree's Tang (TG) placed 3rd out of only 4 oranges. MB's Tempest (TM) was placed 2nd in his class as well. As for Peachtree's Evana, she won 3 legs! Overall, we had a great time and I'm proud of my rabbits. I just wish there could have been more rabbits in each class to make it more of a competition. Anyway, congratulations to all the winners and better luck next time!

As of yesterday, Sunsation is bred to Red Hot, and Mango is bred to Tang. I'll be breeding more soon, though!

Getting Ready

So today is Friday which means the Spartanburg show is tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to showing my rabbits. :) I don't go to shows too often, unfortunately.

I'm still trying to get my does bred in time for Easter. As of yesterday, I bred Mikey to Aquene. After that was Spike to my black otter doe, Peanut Butter. This litter won't be born at my rabbitry since Peanut Butter is sold. Instead, it will be born at Son Rose Rabbitry. I will be delivering her at the Spartanburg show tomorrow pre-bred.

That's all for now. It's time to get all the rabbits ready. :) Good luck to everyone who will be at the show tomorrow!

Website changes

I thought it was time for a website remodel. Why not? After all, it's a new year and a new look on the website. :)

Feel free to take a look around the site. Nothing really "changed" except for the template and the background. Hope you like it!

Nothing is new in the nestboxes though. The Spike to Buttons breeding missed so I rebred her yesterday. I wasn't too disappointed, because that was to be expected since she is a first time mom. I hope she took this time though. I'm super excited to get some babies from Spike! He currently has about 4 does bred so far, so all we have to do now is see what happens. It's pretty funny - all of the does that are bred right now are first-timers. I'm going to really try to crack down on breeding the weekend of the Spartanburg show (which is next weekend). I'm delivering a few rabbits that will clear some babies out. Once the babies are gone, I can rebreed the mothers.

Well, it turns out that I won't be bringing in a new Siamese Sable buck. The seller couldn't find a way to get him to Spartanburg. Oh well... at least I'm still getting the 2 bucks that I'm trading next weekend. I'm really excited for those. It's always fun to bring in new bunnies. :)

That's it for this weekend. Hope you enjoy the new look on my website!

Easter breedings

Within the next few weeks, I really need to buckle down and get to breeding. The Tractor Supply in Anderson, SC is calling for 50 rabbits between now and Easter! Luckily, I'm not the only breeder participating and I don't have to come up with 50 rabbits by then. That doesn't seem possible to me... I've never had 20 rabbits for sale at once let alone 50! So like I said, I'm glad I'm not doing this by myself. :)

If I breed my does this week, their kits will be born in March and will be about 10 weeks (almost 11 wks) old by the time Easter comes around. So I've jumped ahead and started breeding since you know how unpredictable does can be - some simply do not want to be bred!

I will be bringing in a few bucks from a friend at the Spartanburg show this month. We are just going to do a swap so they won't be here to stay. I am also bringing in a buck that will be here to stay. He is a Siamese Sable buck that's about a year old so I'm hoping I can start breeding him right away. :)

Also, people have been emailing me and telling me that my website is down. Not sure why because it's coming up on my computer... I just updated it to clarify that nothing is wrong but people have still been saying it's down. Hopefully it will come back soon! Sorry about that!

Snow!?

The weather forecast says we're getting snow tonight. I really hate to be outside in the snow, but it's so beautiful to watch from inside where it's nice and warm. :) Schools are closed, too, which is a huge bonus!

Nothing much is new as you can tell because I haven't blogged lately. I've added a few junior does to the Juniors page. Only Alana and Evana so far. I have more to add which I'm hoping to do soon. Let's see.... I have 3 of Blue Moon's kits which are all does. Alana is the sable point doe and Evana is the tort doe. I still need to add the other sable point doe out of Blue Moon though. Can you believe it!? 3 does and I'm keeping all of em'! And I also have the sable point doe out of Aquene to add. Quite a few juniors that I'm anxious for. :)

That's about it for now. Keep warm in the snow tonight! 4-7 inches are expected!

Cages for sale

How cool is 1/1/11!? It will be even cooler when it's 11/11/11. Sorry I haven't blogged in a long time. December was a big month. Got the newly remodeled barn set up, went on vacation for almost a week, Christmas, and then the new year. It doesn't sound like a lot but it sure seemed like it.

I have quite a few bunnies still available. Everyone wants babies! Don't forget about the seniors that need loving homes, too! So if you're interested in any bunnies on the For Sale page or Nestbox, don't hesitate to email me. I also have a few cages that I'm going to sell. I rarely sell cages because I always need them but since we remodeled the barn, the cages listed below don't fit very well. With that being said, I'm going to buy cages that do fit and sell these. If you're interested, let me know. :)

1 - 30" x 36" Havahart cage - asking $35: I'm not certain on the measurements but they should be right. It's a real big cage. It didn't come with a pan so I'm only asking $35. I think I paid around $42.99 for it new. Overall it's in good condition. It's rusty in a few spots though. No water bottles or feeders included.

1 - 5 hole cage, about 10 feet long - $120: VERY nice cage. I purchased it from a local breeder when they sold out of rabbits. The individual hole sizes are enormous! And there's 5 holes so plenty of room for moms with big litters. Not exact on each size though. The wire is smaller so rabbits can't bite through the cage and babies can't escape. Only bad part is there are holes cut out at the opening of each cage for those big metal feeders. I don't have them so I just block the holes off. Overall excellent cage! No water bottles or feeders included.

Running out of steam

The rabbits are getting harder and harder to take care of. I can tolerate the heat and I don't mind 95 or 100 degree weather - sure I might complain a little - but it's nothing like having 50 frozen water bottles in 15 degree weather. It's absolutely ridiculous. With the wind chill, yes, yesterday is was literally 15 degrees. To be exact, winter hasn't even started yet! The first day of winter starts on December 21st. Gee... can't wait.

Now, we are going to try plan B. What's plan B? Bunnies in the garage. We will be going to Michigan this month and we need a friend to take care of the bunnies. Well, I can guarantee you that the 'bunny watcher' won't want to bring inside 50 water bottles at night so they won't freeze. I know I wouldn't want too! Too bad I have to. But that's besides the point. Since the barn isn't very secure, as far as holding warmth, we're going to move all of the rabbits in the garage and give them heaters. It will be a lot of work but it might be worth it in the end! I hope so anyways! :)

Now let's talk babies. No kits yet! I had a few does that were due but I don't think they took either that or they're going to be stillborn. I have quite a few babies that are available, so feel free to take a look at the For Sale page. I need to take pics of my BEW bucks so will try to do that soon. :)

Stay warm and have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas kits

Good news! I tried to sex all of the litters last night and I was very pleased. Well some kits were harder to tell than others which is why I can't sex everyone right off the bat. Lists are below. :)

Absolute (Sable Point) x Dancer (Smoke Pearl Marten) - Like I said, I can't tell for sure but it looks like Dancer has 2 does and a buck. The buck is a sable point marten and the two does are sable point and sable point marten. I will definitely be keeping the sable point doe! :) And possibly the sable point marten doe as well just to breed back to my sable points. The sable point marten buck is available, so let me know if you're interested in him.

Absolute (Sable Point) x Blue Moon (Blue Tort) - This litter was probably the hardest to sex because, for one, they're pretty small for their age. I'll start off with the black torts... it looks like I have one of each gender. :) I might keep the doe because I don't have many black torts at all. The buck should be available if I decide not to sell him. He may be useful in my sable point program because he's the only tort buck out of Absolute. Still thinking about him but feel free to inquire anyway if you're interested. As far as the sable points go, one is a doe but I'm not sure about the second one. The questionable kit is the runt of the litter, therefore it makes he/she harder to sex. Will be keeping the sable point doe and the questionable kit if it's a doe. ;) I guess it's safe to say that this litter isn't going anywhere for awhile. :)

Zip (Orange) x Caramel (Chocolate Otter) - the only kit out of this pair turned out to be a buck - a cinnamon buck. He's an only child and is very spoiled but is super friendly! This buck will definitely be available simply because I have no use for a cinnamon buck right now, unfortunately.

Tempest (BEW) x Heartfelt Oreo (Black VM) - 2 BEW bucks... NO!! Why couldn't I have had just one doe? Just one!? I love BEWs and I wish I could have had a doe to keep. :( That's okay though, they'll make wonderful pets for Chirstmas or herd bucks.

Absolute (Sable Point) x Aquene (Sable Point) - To make this blog shorter, I'm just going to come out and say... A SABLE POINT DOE - KEEPING! Lol, I've been waiting for a doe out of Aquene for awhile now and I'm so thrilled she finally had one. This little kit is extraordinary because she is out of Absolute, too. :)

And that's all. The other litters are very young and don't have their eyes opened yet. So anyways, if you happened to see something that you might be interested in, don't hesitate to ask! I know I still don't have pics but I'm working on it. ;)

Oh yeah. One more thing. Did I mention that MB's Sunkist had her litter on November 26th? I probably forgot... sorry. She had a total of 4 kits but unfortunately, only 1 orange made it. The other 3 oranges were very small - almost like peanuts at birth. I nearly thought they didn't have enough nutrition or something. Sunkist has never thrown peanuts before and definitely not 3 so something must have gone wrong.

25 days til Christmas! :)