16 Day Old Puppies!

My mom and I bought bandana's for each of the puppies that were totally unique so we could easily tell them apart.  Here are some pictures of them...the lighting was off for some of them and it was hard to get a good shot as they as so wiggly!

(The color of the towel was showing up really strange on the camera. This was even more of a main issue than the lighting)

The puppies fell asleep here so with the lighting issue, we decided to take one puppy at a time outside for some individual pictures.

(This is the first born puppy and yes, it's a boy)

(He fell asleep in the chair)

(This is puppy #2 who also fell right to sleep on the chair)

(Puppy #3 and you can see his eyes are open!)

(This is puppy #4 and a little girl! You can see her eyes are open as well)

 

 

(This is puppy #5 and his name is Toby.)

(You can see his little tongue sticking out!)

 

(This is our other little girl and puppy #6)

(Then last but not least...puppy #7!)

 

And THOSE are the puppies! They are all doing really well...they all have great personalities and hopefully we'll have a few more officially named by the next update post.

 

 

Most Common Rabbit Back Issue

If you've had a lot of rabbits or even one rabbit for a very long time, you may have experienced your rabbit's spine breaking.

Rabbit's have extremely weak spines which are connected to their extremely powerful and strong hind legs.

 

It's not hard at all for the rabbit to jump the wrong way or get frightened by something, causing it to flail in panic and snap their own spine.  This often results in the lower end of the rabbit to become paralyzed.

 

Not only that, but their spine can even be broken when they are being held.  Ever held a rabbit and it began kicking it's hind legs?  When it does this, it is extremely susceptible to damaging it's own spine.

 

The reason I bring this up is because one of my 6 week old rabbits recently broke it's spine when it leapt in a strange way.  In cases like this, it's always the most human thing to put the animal down.  You don't want it to suffer.

Lots of Stuff...

Well, a lot has happened lately.  First off, Piper had her babies Sunday morning.  2 caramel colored babies, 6 white, and 1 black and white.  They are all doing extremely well and I'll have pictures in the very near future!

Second, the puppies have all begun to open their eyes up! Not only that, but they are now beginning to walk around on all fours instead of just dragging themselves around.  They are so cute.  And we have officially named one of the puppies.  The curly haired black male is Toby.

Third, as of yesterday we started VBS! So...we're going to be doing that every night this week.  I'm actually in all the plays that are done each day as well as a group leader for the kindergarteners. And because of this, I might not be able to post as much as a normally do in a week, however I'll try my best.

Then last but not least, I decided to put my female Scarlet up for sale.  She's currently up on craigslist and I really do believe this is the best thing for her. 

She's the sweetest female ever, but I need a good breeder and she is no longer that.  Consequently, I have to let her go. 

James 3:7

"For every king of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind," ~ James 3:7

(The photographer of this picture actually had a REAL bear and a REAL girl together for this shot. It was not photo shopped)

(Look at the massive size difference just of their faces!)

(This woman has the tiger as a pet and has had it for years now)

 

(Yes, this little girl is riding an alligator)

If you really think about it...God has created all these animals and humans throughout time have managed to make pets out of any animal they wished. 

Common pets would be dogs, cats, hamsters, goldfish, birds, etc.  Then you have the common farm animals; cows, horses, goats, rabbits, sheep, chickens, pigs, etc.  Animals like bears, tigers, dolphins, and alligators are definitely NOT a usual pet. However, humans have been able to tame them, just like the Bible says.

If you really think about it, it's a very beautiful and incredible thing to both witness and experience.

Baby Bunny Eyes

Both Lion Head litters have opened their eyes up! Once a rabbit's eyes have opened, they are no longer considered an infant. Nor do they need to be stimulated anymore.  In about another week, they will begin the process of eating solid foods.

Olivia's kits are all doing very well! She's been an excellent mother.

You can see the one baby has it's eye opened...

Kayla's are doing just as well! She always does a wonderful job with the babies and just like Olivia's, all of Kayla's babies have their eyes opened.

Here are her 4 kits...all of them are so sweet and mild tempered!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this little white one with light brown spots is a female.  It is the sweetest little baby and very adorable! If it is a girl, then I will definitely be keeping her.  I should be able to definitely tell within the next week the exact gender of the bunny.

Piper's Litter

Well, this morning it happened. It actually happened.  Piper had her very first litter! When you first walk out and look into her hutch, all you can see is this...

Pushing the fur away in the left corner, you can see 7 beautiful baby kits...

(There are black, pink and grey babies)

I gave Piper some extra 'goodies' for her to eat so that she would be able to have a little extra energy.

(You can see a bald spot behind her front leg...that's where she pulled some of the fur out to help build a nest to keep her kits warm)

Jazz has her nest all built and her stomach has dropped tremendously.  I think she should have hers sometime tomorrow...

Now it's just a matter of time before we have another litter of babies to hold!

Is Your Rabbit A GOOD Breeder?

People get rabbits and if it's not for a pet, it's to raise as a breeder so that you can begin raising your own bundle of bunnies. 

They become attached to the rabbit, usually naming it something like "Fluffy" and then when 'Fluffy' doesn't deliver quality babies, a good excuse is to say "But she's so sweet, we can't get rid of her! Let's give her another chance!"

And there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with this! However, if you honestly want a GOOD breeder, you need to realize that a good breeder will be producing a certain amount of babies each year.

You now find yourself asking this question, "How can I tell if my female actually IS a good breeder?"

Well...that's what I'm here for.  Now, of course it will be different for different sized breeds.  Here's the basic list:

- Small Breeds should have a minimum of 14
- Medium Breeds should have a minimum of 16
- Giant Breeds should have a minimum of 16

Then there are the meat breeds; these should be having a minimum of 20 a year and if you have any dwarf rabbits...they should have about 8.

And when I say they should be having these different amounts, what I really mean is this: They should be able to actually raise to 8 weeks old the following amount.  And these babies should be HEALTHY! Not sickly, skinny, etc.  They should be solid, healthy, happy rabbits that made it to 8 weeks like this. 

If your rabbit can accomplish this, then you have a GOOD breeder! If not? Well, you need to think about retiring your female or better yet, sell her to a good home as a pet and get yourself a different rabbit. 

And that is how you can figure out if your female is a good breeder or not.  Of course, this means keeping track of everything fairly closely. But it isn't hard, especially if you set yourself up a book full of charts like I have. 

Bees

My grandfather owns bees which he has for pollination of his fruit trees.  I went out with my mom today and helped her give the bees some sugar water.

 

As you can see from this picture, the bees were going in and out of the hives through the small hole at the bottom of their boxes.  It was slightly different doing them today, as we forgot our smoker and all but one of the gloves.  However, we were all very lucky in that the bees did not sting any of us.

 

That ring was left in place of where the feeder had been sitting.

There were still bees crawling on the feeder when we took it out.

We just used an old milk carton to carry our sugar water over with.

(Filling it up!)

We put the feeder back inside.  We were a little disappointed to see there was not a lot of activity in this hive.

 

The second hive was absolutely packed FULL with bees!  The second my mom began opening the lid all you could hear was the loud humming of their little wings as they moved around.

 

And THAT was our outing to go tend the bees.  We're going to go back on Sunday and see how much of the sugar water they have consumed in that time.