New Rabbits!

Since Ginger (my Holland Lop) turned out to be a boy, it seemed wrong to have 2 males (Benjamin and Bruce) and only 1 female (Cupcake).  So, needless to say I went out and bought 2 new female Holland Lop bunnies!

They both are between 1-2 years old, so ready to breed.  Also, they're both very sweet.  They came named, but I couldn't remember what exactly they both were.  So the spotted one pictured above I renamed to Valentine. 

Then the other one I named Smokey (although I think that might have already been her name).  She's more of a grayish/white coloring.

I was having a hard time getting a good shot of her, though.  She kept moving as she was exploring the new hutch with all the strange scents. 

Anyway, hopefully I'll be getting new photo's of them both in the near future! Although I just wanted to make sure I posted about it so that you would know what's going on :)

Updated Bunny Book

Since I've sold and lost quite a few breeders as well as buy quite a few new ones, I really needed to update my bunny book.  So while I was doing that, I also added new sections. 

 

After you open the book and flip the "Bunnie Chart" page, you'll see this...

 

Then you flip that page where you'll see lots of different medicinal herbs along with their uses so that I can aid my bunnies whenever needed for practically any reason at all. 

 

Once you pass that, you'll find extra sheets for the female breeders...

 

...and then for male breeders. 

 

Then you get to the first section which is for all my female breeders who's bunnies are meat rabbits.

 

Then you get to section 2, where I have all my male breeders who's bunnies are meat rabbits.

 

Then section 3 is for my female breeders who's bunnies will be sold as pets.

 

And then section 4 is for my male breeders who's bunnies will be sold as pets.

 

Then in section 5, I have information so I know how many bunnies I've sold, when I sold them, what breed they were, and how much they were sold for, etc. 

 

Then I'm also going to start (in section 6) a chart where I keep track of all the feed I'm buying for my rabbits, the brand, and where I'm buying them, etc. 

 

I left section 7 blank for now, but section 8 has all my past breeders information, etc. 

And there you have it, my new and improved bunny book! Hopefully it will make it easier for me to find everything/keep track of everything even better than before :)

Last Lop



For some strange reason, I felt like I should check the gender of my little lop bunny, Ginger.  Just to confirm that she truly was female.  Well...she wasn't.  Ginger was and still is, a boy. 

I immediately checked every bunny that I've been raising up who hasn't proven themselves as breeders yet.  Luckily, those truly were all females.  But it still didn't solve the issue of Ginger.  That would mean 3 male lops and only one female lop.

So I put him up on craigslist.  I had been handling him every day so that he would be an extremely sweet bunny, just like his mother.  And well, he's one of the sweetest rabbits I've ever had!  But I still had no use for him. 

Within an hour of his being posted, I got quite a few people asking for him!  So I sold him to a lovely couple the next day.  Anyway, now I'm on the hunt for a female lop, preferably one who will be old enough to breed this spring!

Here are the photo's of Ginger that I put up on craigslist...

And he was super cute because he had one ear that was floppy and the other ear was normal.  He was really adorable :)

 

The photo above was the main photo I used for the craigslist posting. :)

 

He had beautiful coloration too, just like his father, Bruce. 

So anyway, that's what has been going on.   I'm truly shocked as to how quickly he sold, but then again, he is adorable.  He was so sweet, when you held him he'd like to sit on your shoulder so he could see around :)  

I'm sure he's going to be very happy in his new home and I'm absolutely positive they're going to love him a lot!

Peanut

My proven female Giant Rex bunny, Peanut's building a nest in her hutch out of hay.  She hasn't ripped out any fur yet, but if she will, I think she's planning on doing that last minute with how cold it is outside.

I noticed yesterday she had made a circle out of the remaining hay she had, so I gave her a lot more.  She went right to work, gathering the hay in her mouth and arranging the hay into a tunnel type hole.

She very well could be pregnant, since she was living with 12 boy bunnies.  Although I'm not ruling out the possibility that she might only think she's pregnant and not really have any babies in her at all.

We shall see though and definitely within the next few days!  Some rabbits build nests the day they give birth, others begin building 4 to 5 days before hand, slowly making their nests bigger and bigger.

Since Peanut's a new rabbit, I'm not sure what she likes to do when close to giving birth.  Because of this, I went out multiple times yesterday to check on her.  I also did this because if she did have her babies, I'd want to make sure the nest she made (with her fur added) would be able to keep them warm enough in this weather. (it snowed 4 inches yesterday!)

So there you go, that's the latest.  Hopefully she will have a healthy litter and they will all stay nice and warm! :) 

LionHead Bunnies

So, this afternoon I sold Abbey, along with one of the grey female single maned Lion Heads and Gandalf, the white male single maned Lion Head. 

Abbey will do very well as a 4H project in her new home.  And the other two will be used as breeders by a man I actually sold some Giant Flemish's too a year or so ago. 

Anyway, with Abbey gone, I got to do a deep clean of all 3 sections in that hutch and remove the older single maned lion head out from with all the boys and give her an area of her own.  Also, if she's pregnant (which she very well might be) then she can have her babies by herself in her own area.

Peanuts still hasn't had any babies, but I'm going to wait out another week or so to make sure she really isn't.  When it comes to baby bunnies, it's better to be safe than sorry. 

So there you go, that's what has been happening with my rabbits lately.  Oh! And if you'd like to check out the different sections saying "Male Breeders" "Female Breeders" "Soon-to-Be Breeders" and "Available Rabbits", I've updated all of them.  So be sure and check that out! :) 

Breeding Rabbits

Rabbits are known for being able to breed extremely easily and have lots of babies very quickly. 

I know this is very true in many cases.  However, just like everything else in life, it's never as easy as it sounds.

Just because you have a rabbit doesn't mean it will breed. And just because you put them together to breed, doesn't mean they will react kindly towards one another.

Breeding is a delicate process.  When you first put the two rabbits (and make sure you have a male and female...that's very important) stick around and make sure they don't act violently towards each other.

The male almost never acts violently, he just begins the process.  If one becomes violent, it's most likely the female. 

Once you're sure that they won't attack each other, give them 30 minutes to an hour.  Or, you can do what I do.  I watch them and make sure they do what they're supposed to do at least 4 times.  Four seems to be a lucky number when it comes to getting a nice litter.

I'm hoping in the spring to possibly take a video of the rabbits breeding.  However, until that time you'll be stuck reading.

When rabbits are breeding, you'll see them hop on and off each other many times.  This does not mean the females been bred though.  Only when you hear a grunt from the female after a jerk from the male, then the male will either fall off the back or the side of the female. 

Once this has been done, she's been bred.  But like I said, I like to make sure they do this at least 4 times before removing the female from the male's cage. 

After that, it will only take between 28 - 36 days and you should have a nice litter of bunnies!  I've noticed that all my rabbits have their babies on either day 31 or 32.  But just incase your female has the litter early, you'll want to put her either into a hutch or with a nesting-box by day 28. 

It can be very hard to tell if your female is pregnant.  But with most of my rabbits, I can normally tell when their stomach's dropped. 

So there you have it.  Breeding rabbits is very simple, just make sure your female and male get along well. 

Foddering

Since my last post on fodder, I've managed to grow a fair bit!  I'm hoping to use the first batch either tomorrow or the day after to give to my rabbits.

 

This is from the first batch...it's looking really nice and healthy!

 

 

Then I have two racks, both holding 8 trays worth of fodder growing. 

 

I actually had to stop soaking fodder because I've run out of trays!  I'll start back up once I've used two trays worth of beautiful green :)

 

 Then I have the ninth and final tray in the sink in the basement.  I'm hoping to put it with the others on the shelf once there's an opening.

 

Anyway, there's my fodder update for you!  As you can see, it's doing very well in the basement even though it's freezing outside!  We've been keeping a fire going in the basement fireplace to help keep it a little warmer so that the fodder will continue to grow nicely. 

Honey Water

It keeps freezing over here.  Our entire yard is covered in a sheet of slick ice.  It's been nearly impossible trying to keep the rabbits' water from freezing. 

And I've been trying to think of a way to prevent their water from freezing so quickly.

I know salt would, but it wouldn't taste good.  Sugar wouldn't do it either. 

Then I thought about honey.  Now, honey won't keep the water from freezing.  It won't even help to slow down the freezing process.  However, it would give my rabbits extra calories.

And seeing as to how cold it's been and still is outside, I figured they could use some extra calories! So I added a healthy amount of honey to my five gallon bucket of water and took it up to them.

The rabbits loved the honey flavor!  So, they actually drank more water than they usually would have.  And anything to help keep them hydrated is a good thing.

Not only will they get extra calories and stay hydrated, but honey itself has many wonderful aspects to it.   It has many medicinal purposes and helps prevent many illnesses.

I figured that adding honey was a win-win!  I still have to pop ice blocks out of their bowls everyday, but I'm just happy I've come up with something that will keep them healthy. 

I actually had a bunny, Ruby who had a cut on her lip.  After having the honey water it healed right up!  I was really worried about her too, because cuts in/around the mouth can cause the rabbit to stop eating, and eventually starving to death.

So once again, if you have rabbits that are outside, or even inside, I would suggest adding a little honey to their water.  I would not do it every day, but maybe every few days.  This way, you can help ward off any unwanted illnesses in your rabbit. :) 

Winter Fodder

So, before my mom had been the one who would make the fodder that I would feed to my rabbits over summer and fall.  But shortly into the fall season, she slowly got out of the habit of making it.

Since then, the amount of feed I've been going through has been crazy!  I've been (before I got these 16 other bunnies) going through about 300 lbs. of JUST grain.

Consequently, I've just begun making more.  I only started in back up yesterday, so I don't have any grown fodder yet, but within the next week I will :) 

 

With fodder, you have to soak the seeds 24 hours before the 'real' process begins.  These two trays full are the ones I had just made after soaking them since yesterday.

 

I have lots of trays which I'm planning on filling up very soon!

 

For tomorrow I've already set out 3 trays worth of fodder.   A good tip to help keep your fodder from molding is that while it soaks for the initial 24 hours, add a dab of bleach to it.  It's perfectly safe and works like a charm :)

Then lastly, I have this old colander which I use to get the barley seeds out of the water.  It's very nice because the holes are smaller in it. 

One thing to remember before straining the fodder is to scrape off the top layer of seeds.  Any seeds still floating after the 24 hours won't sprout.  So just skim them off the top and you'll be good to go!