News and baby pictures

So we've received our test results back from Penn State: Cause of Death Inconclusive. They did a few additional tests that required a bit of time and I haven't heard anything else. If it was grossly infectious Rabbit GonasiphaherpalAIDs I'm sure they would have gotten right back to us. So I'm assuming no news is good news. To date, none of our other rabbits have displayed any similar symptoms.

In lighter news, the angora litters are about 7 weeks old now. Most of them are weaned and off to a great start. I still can't believe we made it through everything anf managed to keep all 16!

So far it looks like the English litter consists of 2 lilacs and 6 blues. All are boys save for a little blue whom is featured in the pictures below. The satin litter on the other hand seems to be all girls. From that we've got all reds, 2 broken torts and a broken red.

I took some pictures yesterday for the sale page.

life and death in the rabbitry

We had our first fatality the other day. During my morning feeding rounds I found Van Gogh collapsed with his eyes rolled up and blood coming out of his mouth. We've taken him in for necropsy by Penn State's Animal Diagnostics Lab and should be hearing back within the next day or two.

Van Gogh was of Evan Lea stock and the son of a grand champion, but he had a very pronounced lop ear and very sparce silvering so I don't think we planning to breed him. I still feel bad we've lost an animal, but I feel we were fortunate that we didn't loose a more valuable one. I've been checking the rabbitry more often and so far none of the other rabbits have shown sign of illness. Van Gogh had not shown symptoms either, but I figure paying more attention to our herd is never a bad thing. I'll update when we've heard back from ADL.

On a lighter note the two litters we had earlier in the month have opened their eyes. so far we still have all 16 and the even the runt looks to be in good health. We've got pictures...

Day 2

Put the English back with their mom this morning. She jumped in and fed a few of them, I think once I get a real schedule going things should calm down for both moms. To date we still have all 16. The runt who lost his tail is still holding on. I put him in first every time I put them in with momma.

I also took another look at all the babies and I've come to the conclusion that Hrothgar is probably blue. I'm 75% sure our newest litter contains 2 lilacs and 5 blues and we could only get that result if Hrothgar provided the "B" (black gene) and additional "d" (dilute gene). Bacon's litter seems to be mostly solid reds. We have 3 brokens which look too colored to show, but they have cute little blazes on their foreheads. There is one kit who looks like he could be a tort too. Bacon may not be red after all, but I reserve judgment on that until I see more fur grow in.

Its like Christmas morning!

Wow has it been a long week. This pregnancy was Freya's first and it has really been a nerve racker for us. She carried well, 8 kits in all--unfortunately she didn't really figure out what was required of her until after her first kit popped out on Monday. I rescued it from the cold, but mom was a tad over zealous in cleaning duty and nibbled off his tail. He's doing aright now, a bit of a runt, but he's eating and sleeping like normal.

Ryan stayed up through the night to catch the rest of the litter. They arrived this morning just after he left for the bus. Again Freya had gotten to another kit, but I suspect it was a stillborn anyway (and probably the reason for the prolonged labor). She ended up pulling fur for them all, even fed a few but failed to make anything which at all resembled a nest--which is pretty much what we expected.

Anyway Chili had her kits without issue--she's actually a super mom. She gave birth to 9 and kept all of them. So far Chili has fed all 16 babies while Freya has been occupied. But I'll be giving the first timer another stab at it tonight so cross your fingers for us.

Bunnies in the Sun

Just a photo day. Don't be surprised if these pictures end up elsewhere.

Here's Homer, our Silver Fox herd sire. Going through a bit of a molt, but his coat should clear up and even out soon enough. He's about a month off of senior.




Next up is Banya. She's out of her molt and I'm waiting for her last bit of silvering to come in. She also will be senior in a month; we'll be breeding her for the first time then.





Last up for the foxes is Squirt. She still has a touch of summer ear, but it looks like she is regaining some control in the bum ear. Hoping winter will clear everything up because she's gorgeous otherwise. She seniors in December.




Next Lola got her shot. Hmmm....I need to brush her out.





Finally Bacon got to run around a bit. What a handsome little buck!

Additional Interest

It looks like a lady from Delaware is looking to pick up one of the showable males. That leaves one for us, and 2 others we'll be offering up for sale. The one wooler, by the way, actually has a good coat and type. If his ear carriage improves, we might just include him in the showable group too.

Status update

So, here's what's new and exciting around the rabbitry:

• The litter from Hrothgar and Flour have produced 8 kits. All are still alive to date, and (if we haven't missexed them again) we have a total of 7 males, and 1 female. Of those, there were 2 top-choice males, 2 showable males, 1 showable female, and 3 male woolers. The faults for the woolers were limited to poor ear carriage.
  
• We've sold 1 male wooler as a pet, 1 male wooler for wool production, and 1 showable female to a 4H'er. That leaves all 4 of the top-choice and otherwise showable males, and 1 male wooler unsold. We're planning on taking the showable ones to our next show for judging and subsequent sale, though we're planning on keeping the best of the bunch (I'm guessing either F1H "Blue Dot" or F3H "Black X") for our breeding program.
• We mated Hrothgar to Freya, and also Bacon to Chili. They should be do around the same time--somewhere in the vacinity of 10/6/08. This will be exciting for us, because we'll get to really see the genetics of the parents for the first time. For instance, we will know whether or not Freya is an albino carrier if about 1/2 our litter is REW, or if they are all colored, then we'll know that she doesn't.