Buttercup & Kiki Know Best

If that doesn't say "insulted" I don't know what does. 

I admit it. I have control issues. I *must* have my hands in everything around me. That goes for my daughter's Satin Angora rabbit project as well.  

Yesterday, my daughter's Gray Haven's Buttercup kindled her first litter. I was proud of myself for stepping back as Kiki handled the nestbox management duties. It was my turn to be the assistant.

Kiki chose to start out by removing the nestbox from the maternity pen each night. This morning, I woke up at 4am and spied the nestbox resting in a carrier. After an hour of resisting temptation, I removed the nestbox just to check on the babies. Although the babies seemed warm, I was uncomfortable with the amount of wool Buttercup had placed in the nestbox. I had some clippings from Princess Grace (my REW EA) that I put in for additional warmth. That morning, Kiki immediately noticed the new wool. I got in trouble, but she left it in there since I apologized for meddling. I felt I was right, though. Better safe than sorry.

Kiki went to school unable to check on the babies because Buttercup was in the nestbox during the time she had allotted to check on her. Kiki gave me permission to check on babies while she was at school. Yay! Overwhelmed by all her additional rabbit duties while we were on our cruise, she did not clip down Buttercup as much as she'd liked and was worried about wool getting tangled around babies. 

Later that morning, I removed the nestbox to check on Buttercup's babies. At the top of the hay laid a pile of super white wool (Buttercup's a black tort). Buttercup had neatly placed all the wool I had put in earlier on the top of the nestbox, replacing it with lots of her own wool. I was speechless. I guess Kiki and Buttercup DO know best. 




 

Babies Growing Like Weeds

Kelfla's Florida

My 2013 show herd is continuing to grow. I can hardly wait until I can show them. As I've mentioned before, this is my first litter raised entirely on the Sherwood Forest Natural Rabbit Feed.  Everyone is developing well. But I did notice a difference between this litter and the previous litters raised on my regular rabbit feed.

I always weigh my kits regularly once they hit a couple of weeks old.  I usually do this so I can catch any issues early since it is often hard for me to distinguish between small amounts of weight loss in such small animals. This practice coincidentally gives me some wonderful data to compare to my present litter.  At 6 weeks of age, this litter weighed as much as my 9 week old kits did in previous litters.  

At Convention, I spoke to an ARBA judge who feeds the Sherwood Forest NRF.  He spoke highly of it and specifically mentioned the better growth rate compared to his regular feed when he test fed his meat breeds. I wasn't so concerned with growth rate (as long as it was normal), but I do see a definite difference.  I wish I had measured wool growth at that age, although I'm not sure how I would have done that...maybe measure length, but density is important too. Anyhow, I am really pleased in their progress. 

   

Time & Money

L to R: Time, black tort,  Money, & 2 blues

Hubby and I have a breakfast date every Friday morning.  I love our time together because we get to talk about all kinds of things without either of us being distracted by homework, cooking, laundry, rabbit chores, house chores, or dogs.  

This week's topic was about our new litter of rabbits for the 2013 show season.  We have 5 pretty kits from Cimmerian and Princess Grace.  Last year, we decided that we would divide our rabbits into two lines: a shaded gene line and a line of REWs, torts, and self.  This all started because my hubby felt that since he helped finance my rabbits, he should get naming rights.  So, in the spirit of compromise, hubby names the shaded rabbits and I name the others.  

The kits are so far (I think) are 2 blues, 1 black tort, 1 pearl of some sort, and a smoke pearl.  I mentioned that hubby should start thinking about names for his two shaded rabbits.  Without hesitation, he said, "I've already picked out names.  One will be called User of Time.  The other will be called Lots of Money."  
Ugh.  I think he got me.  

Kits Move Into The Bunny Room

Sleepy kits during
kitchen demolition

Hershey and Cimmerian's kits are now 6 weeks old and have lived with us in our living room all their life. They are all doing really well.  My daughter and I weigh them every afternoon and all are gaining weight and growing.  So....since Hershey joined the rest of the herd earlier in the week (the kits were making her cuckoo), we decided that it was time to have all the rabbits centrally located in the bunny room. 

You guys again!

I have mixed feelings because I so enjoy having them in the house with us, even though I could live without the stray hay bits everywhere. But, these little guys will definitely be bomb proof kits because they have been through everything! 

Relaxing in their new room

They've survived car rides, moving to a new house, rambunctious kids, yappy dogs, and a kitchen demolition...complete with miter saws, high powered drills, and hammering that would have drove most humans nuts.  They took it all in stride as they spread out on their pen floor, quietly munching hay through it all.  They are all happily social and come running up the to anyone who dares pass by the pen...begging for attention.  Of course, I always stop to visit which means that I am always behind in my daily duties. Oops!   

Oops! Me getting caught in the
rabbit room...again. Maybe we should have
left everyone in the living room haha :)

This morning was definitely weird.  I get up at 5am every day and peck on the computer while listening to the wake up ping of cage wire against that morning's bouncy bunny feet.  Today it was so quiet.  Sure, I got up and went to check on everyone tucked in the bunny room.  They were all just fine and I can't resist visiting everyone for a quick pat on the head before heading back out and waking up the rest of the house.  Still, it was different...empty nest syndrome, I'm sure :)

Have Kits...Will Travel? :-(

Even the best laid plans of mice and men…

John Steinbeck certainly knew what he was talking about. 

Hershey and Cimmerian's traveling kits

My carefully planned breeding of Hershey to Cimmerian was successful!  I was so thrilled that Hershey blessed us with four beautiful kits (3 black, 1 lilac)…so far, so good.  

Hershey is a first time mom so we were worried with all those regular first-time mom things…like, will she give birth safely?  Will the kits survive? Will she reject them?  Will she be a big fat meanie like Little Sun was (territorial…not really a bad thing with little ones)? Well, Hershey did what Hershey does…she is a great mom with her same loving personality and has a nestbox full of fat bellied babies.

We timed this breeding to give the kits 3 weeks before we’d have to move them to our new home. However,things don’t always work out as planned and I had to move them at 8 days. We carefully packed up the nestbox, Hershey’s pen, and all her accessories and moved everyone to our new house across town. 

Hershey at the new house... refusing to acknowledge me.

I timed our "new" move date to give Hershey plenty of time to adjust…but she’s a smart girl and knew something was up since all her bunny friends (and pens) were disappearing, one by one.  She basically bounced all around her pen and was super edgy.  I was concerned… but this couldn’t be helped. We decided to move her right after a feeding so she’d have the most time to adjust before nursing again. 

Whew...Success!

Once in her new house, Hershey settled in fairly well.  Still a bit edgy, I was relieved to see she was eating and drinking... even though she refused to bounce up and greet me like she usually does. The next morning, I brought the nestbox in for her to feed the kits.  She kept me waiting by repeatedly jumping in and out of the box. Her kits were so confused and demanded their mother... squeak, squeak! Eventually though, the urges of motherhood won out and she fed her babies.  The look on her face was hilarious! OK, OK, you win. No, Hershey…you win. Good girl! 


Thankfully, everyone is resting peacefully and I can breathe again.  

Disclaimer: I don't recommend moving a mother and new kits.  This was no fun at all...I think I lost 10 years off my life worrying. 

Growing Up Angora

Tricky Exposure, but I love that chocolate face!

Cimmerian and Little Sun's kits are growing up.  They're seven weeks old now and so sweet.  I can't believe how much they've grown!

Okay, don't move...

They just got their tattoos for February's show...and I confirmed that they are both does (silly me...doubting myself).

I thought I'd try to get a few pictures before they get too much bigger since I've been slipping on my "photograph the kits each week" plan. It was a big tricky with the exposure and finding the right color background, since one was dark and one kit was light, but...like Goldilocks, eventually they came out just right...or at least better.  I was surprised at how still everyone was for their session....natural posers and very patient bunnies :) However, that meant that I ended up with about thirty pictures of what look like the same picture.  

How long do we have to sit like this?

Anyhow, I've been putting them on the grooming table so they get used to it, but they're so laid back that they just sprawl out like it's naptime...which is exactly like their mother.  What a change from the Kelly/Hershey wrestling match that goes on when I put Hershey on the grooming table!  I really have to show that bunny who's the boss, but I like her diva ways so much that I sometimes just let her run amuck. 

I really love the chocolate one's ears and typey body, but I also really like the pearl's flashy color and sweet demeanor. Both bunnies have excellent crimp, too. I'm excited to see how they develop. Decisions, decisions...

Until she gets it right...ugh. 

Baby Pictures...with video

Just a couple pictures of Little Sun and the babies. We are enjoying them so much. They have begun nibbling on hay and oats. I have a cute video of Little Sun nursing the little ones, but can't seem to upload it now. Rats! I'll keep trying, but long overdue Christmas shopping and family visits outrank me playing on my blog :) SO..... It might have to wait. Hope everyone has a joyous holiday season. Be safe out there and enjoy what God has given us. Merry Christmas!

OK, I finally got that video uploaded. Here is Little Sun nursing her babies.

What color am I?

So I had this little mystery kit...

11 days old

3 days old

Cooperative bunny

Sorry...doing this one-handed.  

15 Days Old

 who has sable, smoke pearl, lilac pearl, REW, a variety of torts and an assortment of self colors in her pedigree.

Dam is lilac tort.
Sire is black.

I have asked my buddies, asked my FB friends (the English Angora ones), and posted on Rabbit_Genetics group.  I have one answer for almost every possibility so far...that pesky C locus!  I originally wanted to focus on blacks, but I am liking the puzzle (and the color) so far.

I'm not the best photographer so I've started over from scratch and took more pics with a black background and full spectrum lighting.

I thought it was a lilac pearl at first.  I had it on some mighty good authority that it looks like chocolate pearl (depending on camera lighting), but there were some pretty knowledgeable votes for lilac tort as well.  In real life, the kit's body was not really orangey-beige enough for lilac tort, though.  BUT, it does have chinchilla light in its background so pearl was a real possibility.  I thought the kit was one of the pearls (angora term for sable point)...I just was not sure which one.  Rats!  So I had to wait for it to grow a bit.
     
So...after Terri on the FB English Angora Breeders page passed along this great kit color ID site...
Northeast Lionhead Kit Color Guide Plus
and checking out this link about a similarly colored angora on another web site Wenut Angoras Kit Lilac Point/Cream, I think we've finally got it.

THE VERDICT:  
CHOCOLATE PEARL! ....OK, I was really a LILAC PEARL...go figure :)

Kits!....and I have papers to write.

Cimmerian x Little Sun: Kits of Distraction

Hi there, Little Sun! How've ya been these
last say...3 minutes?!

This week has been a hectic week.  All my papers/presentations are due and finals have begun.  Two months ago when I decided that a litter of EAs were in order, I knew that this week would be a bit of a collision.  Back then I felt like I would be firmly in control.  However, I failed to take into account the lure of kits in a nestbox.  Little Sun and Cimmerian's breeding brought two new kits into our little world.  Those pesky little beings occupy much of my thinking this week...what colors are they? what sex are they? are they still OK? I'd better go check...the list goes on.  My Google-ing expeditions have reached a fever pitch.  Of course, I am OK with that ever expanding "quest for knowledge", but what about those other quests that I am usually equally fascinated with...like learning PHP for my spring semester special project, honing my web developing skills with a now dusty edition of Flux, finishing those two research papers and one presentation?  How those once loved pet projects pale against the sweet chirp of baby bunnies!  I try to regain focus, but really...those other things do not have a chance.

Hmmm...maybe this was NOT such a good idea...

My ever wonderful DH decided he would help me regain focus by setting up Facetime on my Mac and his iPhone so I could keep an eye on Little Sun without getting up from my computer.  How wonderful! I wish I had taken a pic of her when she was at the front of the pen trying to reach my voice.  She was sooo cute!  HOWEVER, I am not sure it had his intended effect of more productivity.    

         THE SCORE:

     Bunnies 1, Schoolwork 0                                                                                

      GO BUNNIES!!

                                                                                   Now seriously, I've got to go write those papers...