Breeding Bunnies

While I was unable to breed my rabbits last week due to a foot and a half of snow, the weather was nice enough for me to breed again this week. 

So on Tuesday, I put my Holland Lop female Hope in with my Holland Lop male, Bubba. 

Hopefully they'll carry through some blue eyes into their litter. 

Then I put my Lion Head female Raine in with my Lion Head male Napoleon. 

Since both of them have pure blue eyes, I'm excited to see the eye coloring of their litter. 

Plus, since they're both Broken Tort in coloring, I have a feeling the entire litter will look very similar.

Napoleon did a very good and quick job with Raine, so after giving him a break, I put my Lion Head female Fawn in with him. 

She's a beautiful Chocolate Tort VM, so she has the ability to carry blue eyes to her litter, and hopefully a few chocolate colored babies as well. 

She and Napoleon are both on the petite side, so their offspring will be adorably small!

Then I put my Lion Head female Damara in with my Lion Head male Phantom. 

Both of them have partially blue, partially brown eyes.  So their offspring will probably be really neat!

Then lastly, I put my Lion Head Zeus...

...and my Lion Head female Natasha together. 

However, Zeus was unable to successfully breed her.  So then I put her in with Phantom, who was also unsuccessful.  Then I put her in with Napoleon.  But he wasn't interested.  So I put all the bunnies back into their own cages.  Then yesterday I put her back in with Napoleon.  I'm not sure if he was able to breed her or not.  However, I put her on my calendar just in case she was bred. 

Slowing Down

My male Phantom is the second Lionhead male I've ever owned.  The first male was Piccolo, who sadly, has since passed away.  But when I got Phantom, he was already a few years old.  The woman who sold him to me was using newer males for her breeding program. 

So I've had him ever since and he's been my go-to male for all my Lionhead breedings. 

Plus his beautiful blue eyes always go through to some of his offspring and his nice double coat as well. 

But the past few weeks I've noticed him slowing down tremendously.  He was always a spunky rabbit.  He'd try to attack if you moved anything in his cage or even when you'd try to fill up his food bowl.  But the past few weeks he hasn't gotten upset at anything.  For a few days last week he had diarrhea, however with some essential oil drops added to his water, that seemed to clear up. 

He's a beautiful rabbit with a lot of life left in him, but you can definitely tell he's beginning to slow down.  Hopefully with the weather getting warmer he'll get a little more pep back in his step.  

Rabbit Breedings

Even though this is only the third week I've bred rabbits, I've already gone off track.  I had planned on always breeding on Tuesdays.  However, yesterday was rainy and cold the entire day.  But today the sun was out and made it into the high fifties, low sixties. 

So I put my Lionhead male Napoleon with my Lionhead female Marshmallow II. 

Napoleon did a great job, and had successfully bred Marshmallow multiple times within five minutes. 

Marshmallow, even though this was her first time being bred, was very eager to be bred. 

Then I put my Holland Lop female Cupcake in with my Holland Lop male, Gorman. 

Cupcake's been ready a few weeks now with the weather getting warmer to be bred.  So she laid right down for Gorman. 

And Gorman had been very anxious to breed as well, so they bred and were done in no time. 

Then I put my Flemish Giant female Cottontail in with my Flemish Giant male, Mad Hatter. 

This was Mad Hatters first time breeding, and consequently, he was a little slow and clumsy. 

However, since Cottontail's an old pro, she made it extremely easy for Mad Hatter. 

It took a little bit, however in the end, they were able to successfully breed. 

I put my Holland Lop female Olive in with my Holland Lop male, Bubba. 

They're currently still together. 

While this is a first for Olive, Bubba's had a few litters in the past.  But while they were enjoying each other's company, they weren't doing a lot of actual breeding.  And so, they're currently still together. 

Then, because Napoleon had breed Marshmallow so quickly and still had tons of energy left, I put my Lionhead female Koko (who's also Marshmallow's sister) in with him. 

Within no time at all, he had successfully bred with Koko as well. 

This was a first time breeding for Koko. 

It's really nice how small Napoleon is, as a lot of my females that I've raised up seem to be on the smaller side. 

Then I put my Lionhead male Zeus with my Lionhead female Misty. 

Since she's a magpie and he's a harlequin, I'm really excited to see the color offspring they'll have.

Zeus seems to be getting in the groove and did a good job breeding with Misty.  Hopefully the females he's bred up until this point were successful. 

Then even though I've been trying to restrict each breeding to 6 pairs of rabbits, I did 7 pairs today. 

I put my Lionhead female Pebbles in with my Lionhead male Phantom. 

While she's slightly smaller than him, I couldn't put her in with Napoleon as they're siblings.  And my male Zeus is way to big.  So I put her in with Phantom, who's the best option.  Since they both have blue eyes, I'm sure that the majority of Pebbles' litter will have blue eyes as well. 

Breeding

While today wasn't as sunny out, the temperature made it into the low 60's and the rain seemed to hold off.  So I was able to breed another set of six bunnies. 

I bred Francis, my Velveteen Lop male with my other Velveteen Lop female, Lily. 

Then I put my very experienced Lionhead female Kayla in with my Lionhead male Napoleon.  This was Napoleon's first time breeding. 

I'm not sure with how well he actually did, as I only noticed one definite successful breeding. 

Then for my Mini Lops, I put my female Valentine in with my male, Bruce. 

They did a beautiful job.  They've thrown some really nice kits together in the past.  I'm hoping for a nice Grey or Chocolate female to raise up and allow Valentine to retire as a breeder. 

For my Holland Lops, I put my female Charity in with my male Bubba.  This was Charity's first breeding.  She did a good job and is happily relaxing back with her sisters.  It will be interesting to see the color variations from these two since they're both Blue, although Charity has some really pretty blue eyes. 

For my Flemish Giants I put my female Dadooshka in with my male Jr. 

I'm guessing their litter will be completely Brown and Black, although I could be wrong, but that appears to be the pattern from past litters that I've noticed. 

When I get ready to breed rabbits, I always bring out a piece of paper with the names of the females already bred, just to make 100% sure that they aren't accidentally bred again.  Then I also list the rabbits I do breed with the date.  I add stars to the side of each one so I know which ones I've already gotten pictures of. 

And of course, after each breeding, I make sure to give both my males and females a yogie treat.

Then last but not least, I put my Lionheads Rosie II and Zeus together. 

Zeus is still new at this, as today was his second time breeding.  And this was Rosie's first breeding, so I'm really hoping it was successful.  Zeus seems to have a very slow technique, which isn't necessarily a good thing when it comes to an impatient female. 

However, I'm excited that the bunny season has come back and that pretty soon I'll be having lots of little bunnies hopping around!