Rabbit Troubles

So...on top of my favorite buddy, Franz dying...there have been quite a few other issues arise in these few past weeks.

My female Holland Lop, Ebony who was given to me has always been mean.  Won't let me touch her, pet her, etc.  However, the other day she let me actually grab her and hold her.  So I flipped her over to make sure she was clean (because as long as she's being so nice, I decided to take advantage of that).  Anyway, her fur was very matted.  With the help of my brother, we carefully cut away the matted fur.

From her fur being matted, every time she urinated it stayed close to her, and I honestly believe it burned her.  The flesh was all slimy, pussy, and easily pulled off.  It was horrific.  I put ointment on it and gave her lots of medicinal herbs.  The next few days went by and I checked her again.  The improvement she made was unbelievable! It looked a thousand times better.  So since then, I've continued giving her more of the same herbs.

Then my English lop...(Spice Girl or Ragnara - still undecided), had a miscarriage.  She was urinating blood and I kept finding bits of flesh in her cage.  So I put her into a solid bottom cage and she's in the house where I could keep an eye on her.  After a good week with different medicinal herbs and some organic essential oil drops in her water, plus slices of fresh banana's, hay, pellets with oats, etc...she began improving.  She's currently doing extremely well and putting weight back on.

And yes, I still have more to tell...

Then yesterday when I was feeding and watering, I noticed something was wrong with my Holland Lop male, Watson's eye.  So I picked him up to get a better look.  His second eye lid in the front was inflamed and swelled.  So...got some organic honey and put it in/on his eye.  Hopefully that will help.

And my two Velveteen Lop female sisters have begun fighting.  They can no longer stay together.  Yesterday, Lilly ripped Lilac's ear and punctured it in another spot.  So they are currently in separate cages.

And to top it all off, practically every single person I've dealt with through craigslist in the past 2 weeks about rabbits/cages have all been extremely rude, or waste my time with tons of questions that are all answered in the posting of them and insisting on pictures, which after they are given decide they don't want a bunny at this time.

I think with reducing bunnies for winter and not having any litters, it will be a bit of a nice break.

Franz

I'd just like to mention my Velveteen Lop male, Franz.

As I told you all, I got him from a girl who left for college and couldn't take him with her.  She named him Franz because she'd been studying German for 4 years. 

I had Franz breed with my English Lop (who it is undecided whether her name is Spice Girl or Ragnara).  Anyway, last week, the English Lop had a miscarriage.  She's recovering nicely and I'm so thankful for that...especially since I traveled 3 hours to get her and she was $65.  

I was beginning to take him on car rides, which he enjoyed :) 

And he had made friends with all of our dogs and loved hopping around the house with them.  And just recently, he conquered going up and down stairs, which he found to be lots of fun! 

When I first got him, he wouldn't let you hold him and wouldn't stay in the same room with you.  But These past few weeks he LOVED being right next to you and to cuddle under blankets and just be held for hours. 

Franz truly was becoming one of my favorite bunnies...ever. 

And his fur was soooo soft! And beautiful, I absolutely LOVED his spots!

Sadly, Franz stopped eating and drinking a few days ago.  I had tried syringe feeding him.  Last night, before I went to bed, I went down around 11:30pm to check on him.  I called him by his name and he looked up, rather alert.  Then I went to bed.  This morning, we found he had passed away. 

Raising Rabbits - My Opinion

Raising rabbits in today's society is not something the average person does, nor is it necessarily considered normal.

I get asked all the time by people passing by, friends, and even relatives, "What do you do in your past time?" or "What do you do for fun?"

Whenever anyone finds out I raise rabbits, I normally get this reaction. "Oh! Huh...okay, that's - interesting."

Then they immediantly move onto either a completely different subject or they try and awkwardly come up with some rabbit trivia they once heard of.

And while I completely understand that raising rabbits is not the average person's hobby/job, it is mine.  And because it's mine, I don't find it to be unusual.  To me, it's part of my life.  My everyday, life.

Sometimes, by their reactions I feel as though raising rabbits is not an accomplishment.  As though what I do is a time wasting or even stupid.

But that's when I need to go back and look at what I have done, completely by myself.  I've pursued raising rabbits.  I pursued buying them suitable cages/hutches.  I pursued expanding to increase the amount of bunnies and bunny breeds.  I've kept close records of all my rabbits, male and female involving their health, personality, breed, age, and breeding history.

I've taken the time to nurse sick rabbits back to health.  I've done everything in my power to make sure every single rabbit under my care is doing the best physically that it possibly can.  People see my rabbits in their cages and say, "Do they get enough exercise?" or "I have rabbits, and mine get lots of time to run around the house or outside.  What about yours?"

And honestly, these questions I find annoying.  Because it is insinuating that I do not allow my rabbits to get the proper exercise necessary or am just treating them horribly.  I spend hours on end, Every. Single. Day. with these rabbits.  When there is something wrong with ANY of my bunnies, I do everything possible to help them.  And exercise is something I take into consideration.  Which is why when I bought them cages and hutches, I make sure they're LARGE.  Large enough to allow even my BIGGEST rabbit to have plenty of space to run around, stand up, stretch out, and even raise a litter in there.  They get plenty of exercise in there.  Not to mention I have runs that I put them out into to eat down grass and dig in the dirt.

So, when someone who knows nothing about rabbits (or very little on them), I don't need them telling me I'm doing it wrong or that I don't care about them enough or that I don't let them have enough exercise, etc.  I know my rabbits like the back of my hand and I have a passion for them.

Yes, I said it.  I have a PASSION for RABBITS.  Is that stupid?  Is that even a thing?  Well, to answer those questions, no, it's not stupid.  And I guess it is a thing, because I have it.  My love overflows when it comes to animals.  My rabbits therefore, get LOTS of love.  I feel horrible if I think a bunny has been out of water for an hour or if I don't feed them dinner until late.  I love my rabbits.  Yes, I do.  I'm not afraid to say it.

Anyone who thinks it's stupid, or a waste of time only says that because they don't have rabbits and do not understand the joy you can have when you watch a female give birth.  Or when you watch a mother lovingly nurse her litter.  Or even just in every day life, seeing them get excited when you're near and them lay down, closing their eyes in delight as you pet them.  It's a calming and almost therapeutic experience to just be outside with them.

Call me crazy, call me whatever you wish.  But I know that my rabbits are beyond healthy.  I buy them expensive, organic, essential oils to ad to their water to keep them healthy.  I feed them TONS of herbs and fresh greens.  They get lots of hay and are kept clean.  Their cleanliness is something I personally make sure of.  I do not tolerate dirty rabbits or dirty cages/hutches.  The rabbits health comes first and so, I am constantly cleaning cages/hutches.

Rabbits, currently, are a massive part of my life.  I am a teenager and have my whole life ahead of me.  But for right now, I raise rabbits.  And yes, I love it and I love them and I wouldn't trade it for a thing in the world.  God created animals for human enjoyment and I DO enjoy every minute with my bunnies, even if I'm only out there scooping poop.  I don't mind and I do it happily and joyfully because they're mine, and I love caring for them.

In conclusion...should you raise rabbits? YES! Yes a thousand times over! Are they hard work? Definitely.  Do they get sick? Yes, all creatures, especially when you get into more and more rabbits, can get sick.  It's part of life and you're bound to have a few issues arise.  However, if you love animals and the joy they bring into your life, then you should do it.  It doesn't matter how many people talk down to you or think you're weird, because if you love it, it doesn't matter what they think.  You're caring for God's creation and there's nothing more fulfilling then that! So yes, to anyone thinking about getting into raising rabbits or have a rabbit and want another, I think you should go for it!  And you will never regret it :)

Newly Painted

Yesterday I went out and gave all my hutches a fresh coat of paint! I used black spray paint for the legs of the hutches and then just a dark brown for the rest of them.  I also put a rubber material on a few of the hutches so that when they have small babies in them and it's raining out, the babies will stay nice and dry :)

I'm so happy with how the hutches all turned out.  I think they look great!!

And the star that's on the side of the hutch that you see when first walking into my rabbitry looked pretty bad.  So I spray pained it to give it some new life :)

And as you can see, all the cages are GONE from the front of the table :) Currently I just have some mums which I need to plant :)

I'm really pleased though with my hutches.  And the one's with new rubber roofs look great!

Even gave this big hutch a fresh coat :)

And the fronts of the posts with the big orange bows on them all got a new coat of black paint on them too.  It really improves the look!

I got lots of mums :)

Put a new roof on this hutch too...should help out this winter!

The hutch furthest away in this picture has a feed bag currently keeping the rain out.  I'm hoping to rip that off soon and put rubber roofing on that also.  That would then complete all the hutches and they would all be uniformed :)  I also got those metal basket type things and hung them on the side of the chicken coop.  I think they're awesome! And for all 3 it was just $7! :)

Oh, I also got some fall echinacea :) 

Spray painted the top of my freezer with a new coating of black.  It looks so much better!!

It all looks so much better :)

Oh, this mum was really neat that I got with the center being yellow and the petals being magenta :)

And this is the female Lop my brother's picked to be his :)

She's so cute!!

So there you go! Some of my improvements to my rabbitry.  I'm hoping to do more...it always looks so nice once tidied up a bit! 

ALL my Rabbits

Okay...so I was trying to set up a website type of blog strictly for selling and wanted to get all my main breeders/soon to be breeds up so people could see my rabbits.  Having done that, I now have pictures of all my rabbits for you to see :)  Enjoy!

Luna, Mini Lop

Unnamed, Velveteen Lop

Lilac, Velveteen Lop

Kayla, Lion Head

Phantom, Lion Head

Pumpkin, Giant Flemish mix

LE, Giant Flemish

Pocahontas, Giant Flemish mix

Unnamed, Giant Flemish mix

Ruby, Giant Flemish mix

Cupcake, Holland Lop

Button's, Giant Flemish mix

Oreo, Satin

Dadooshka, Giant Flemish mix

Juliet, Mini Lion Head

Cottontail, Giant Flemish mix

Dustin, Rex/Californian/New Zealand mix

Harley, Giant Flemish mix

Chuck, Giant Flemish mix

Unnamed, Holland/Mini Lop mix

Unnamed, Rex mix

Unnamed, Rex mix

Unnamed, Rex mix

Bull, Giant Flemish mix

Malaguena, Giant Flemish mix

Kizzy, Mini Lion Head

Unnamed, Rex mix

Valentine, Mini Lop

Tasha, Lion Head

Piccolo, Mini Lion Head

Brody, Velveteen Lop

Watson, Holland Lop

Dotty, Rex mix

Ebony, Holland Lop

Unnamed, English Lop

Bruce, Mini Lop

Rhett Jr, Giant Flemish

Franz, Velveteen Lop

This obviously does not include any litters.  But those are my current breeders/soon-to-be breeders.  My brother got rid of his bunny Honey and is going to keep one of the young Holland Lop females.  

Then hopefully this Monday I'll be getting 3 more Velveteen Lop females.  This will end my spending on buying more bunnies for a good while :)  But those are my current little buddies out there!