Kits and Kids

Kits

All 5 does that were due to have babies yesterday, have had their babies.  Jonica had three and Magic had four when I went out and checked again at 8:00 am this morning.  All warm.  All alive.  Whew.

Jonica is a true Lynx (A_bbC_ddE_).  I bred her to GBF’s Indigo (aaB_C_D_Ee) to create some lilac carriers.  They are all probably Chestnuts, unless Indigo is carrying something I don’t know about.

Magic is Black (aaB_C_DdEe).  I bred her to ARR’s CVSoul, a Chocolate Agouti (AabbC_DdEe) to create some more chocolate carriers for my Chocolate project.  Two kits appear to be black.  One of the broken kits looks like a broken black, and the other broken looks to be Agouti – again, probably a Chestnut, but suppose it could be an Opal.

My nest boxes are filling up quickly.  I’m going to have to get Stan busy building me some more (he’ll LOVE that!).  Each time I tell him I have more babies, he’s like, “You’re STILL breeding?!”  Well, of course!

Kids

Last Saturday was ‘pick out the market goats’ day for us at Crazy Chad’s Goat Farm.  It’s always so hard.  Here are a few pix I snapped before we got totally engrossed in trying to pick the best ones in the barn!

Narrowed it down to these 3 in the one barn.

Abby with her favorite.

Haley working on setting hers up. They are wild at this point because they've not been handled much at all.

Abby looking like a true farmer - orange hat, carhartt coat and winter barn boots.

Color Surprise

Many people already know all of this, but others don’t.  Here’s my take on ‘teaching’ a bit about Sable Points vs Siamese Sables.

I love them both.  Such pretty colors.  Not terribly common on the show table, but not uncommon either.

So, what do you think you should get when you breed a Black buck to a Tort doe?  I was expecting a litter of black kits, maybe a tort.  Well, low and behold, there was one black kit (a peanut) AND a Sable Point AND a Siamese Sable.  How cool is that?  Totally unexpected.  So, one of the parents carries the sable gene and one carries a gene more recessive then the sable.  In my herd that would be the REW gene, since I have no Himi’s – c(h).

These two kits are 4 days old now.  The darker is the Siamese Sable, the lighter is the Sable Point.  I’ll try to click pictures over the next several weeks to show how the colors change.

The only difference between a Sable Point (SP)and a Siamese Sable (SS) is the Extension gene. The basic genotype of a SP is aaB_c(chl)_D_ee.  A SS is aaB_c(chl)_D_E_.

If you hear reference to a rabbit color that ends in “Point”, then you know that genetically it is ‘ee’.  For example Blue Point, Chocolate Point, Lilac Point, Seal Point – non of which are showable colors in Holland Lops.  There is a COD out for Blue Points though.

If you hear reference to Pointed White, that is a completely different looking rabbit.  Pointed Whites are Himalayan colored rabbits; their points are colored and their body is white.   This is caused by a different C-series gene, c(h), which restricts color to the points of the rabbit.  It is also temperature sensitive.  A Pointed White Blue, is a white rabbit with blue points, and so forth.

You can tell the dark kit is a SS and NOT a tort because there is no visible shading on him.  At this age, a tort would have a lighter colored back (more orange), with darker shading along his sides.  SS’s are a dark sepia all over at this age.  I’ve had other SS kits that I swore were blue, but as they got older, the color changed.

By George, I Believe It’s a Seal Point

White River’s Bella has two  kits in the box.  One is a dark tort.  The other has been intriguing me for 12 days now.  I bred Bella to thf Saynora’s Zorion – also a tort – so hard can it be?!  Tort + Tort = Tort.  Right?  Oh, the fun of the color gene.

So, two torts can only equal aa __ __ __ ee.  The kit is not chocolate and definitely is not dilute.  So, we can fill in the B and D genes now:   aa B_ __ D_ ee.  That only leaves the color gene to ponder.

Zorion DOES carry shaded.   Bella had a Sable Point in her last litter, so I know she has to carry shaded or REW.   This little stinker is not a Sable Point (they are much lighter), so that leads me to believe that he is a Seal Point – aaB_c(chl)c(chl)D_ee.     A non-showable color, but interesting at the least.  I’m anxious to watch him/her grow up so I can see how the color changes.

Very dark, similar to a Siamese Sable.

I can't see where I'm going, but I'm going there fast!

Aren't I cute?

He is not light over the back like a tort would be.

Junior Photo’s

As I continued cleaning cages yesterday, I stopped occasionally to take a break and snap some pictures of my upcoming juniors.  The one I am most excited about is GBF’s Taber (GBF’s Tyraid x L&R Donna):

He has just an excellent head and thick, rounded SHORT ears.  His crown has really nice side to side width, and front to back width.  Hopefully, as he matures, he will gain some height to it.  He is naturally upright and has splendid short, heavy boned legs.  He also has the smoothest body.  He reminds me of how Caden and Cadee felt as young juniors – plush.

His littermate sister, Courtenay, also has a very nice head package.  She isn’t as nice in the body as he is, but still a very pretty doe:

GBF's Courtenay

 

"What's over there?"

"Ooh. A yummy leaf."

 

 

LL Avalanche has a cute doe also, GBF’s Apropos sired by GBF’s Tobias, 1/2 brother to GBF’s Tyraid.  She is molting out of her baby coat right now, so she’s got the scruffies going on.  She too has a nice thick, well-rounded, short ear that I really like.  I also like her depth of shoulder.

 

GBF's Apropos at 11 weeks.

This is Apropos’ littermate brother, Hinrik.  He is cute, but doesn’t ‘have it going on’ like Taber does.  He is still young, so I’m going to hold on to him for a bit to see how he fills out.  At 11 weeks, he could still be doing the teen-ager thing.

 

GBF's Hinrik

 

 

Golden Prairie RBA Show Results

Saturday was the show in Lafayette, IN hosted by the GPRBA.  They had a very nice turn out – close to 2900 rabbits is the number I heard floating around.

Abby and I were up at 4:00 am and on the road by 4:30.  Ugh.  Abby was my number one right-hand-gal.  She is such a good helper.  We only took 2 senior animals – both SSB’s.  The other 13 were all juniors.  All my senior does are bred or have litters.  We took two of Ki’s juniors with us since she wasn’t able to attend and Abby put them on the table for her.  Tony Cox was there – we don’t get to see him very often, so chatting with him was nice.  He is a well known and respected Holland breeder so I was hanging on his every word.

We didn’t do so hot in the HHLC Specialty show, winning only one class – BJD with KKR’s Izabelle.  That gave Iz her 2nd junior leg.

The show-proper went much better!  GBF’s Caden won the SSB class.   GBF’s Taber earned his 2nd leg by winning the SJB class.  And Karrot Kreek’s Quay won the SJD class for us and Taber’s littermate sister, Courtenay, took 2nd.  It’s so nice to have three of the four animals up for group!  Caden won BOG and Quay was BOSG.

In the brokens, we had no senior animals.  We took 2nd BJB with GBF’s Chip Shot.  And then 1st and 2nd in the BJD class with KKR’s Izabelle and Dowling’s Calla.  Izabelle was chosen as BOSG.  Slight tangent here…

It’s kinda nice…. I purchased Calla from Scott Dowling up at the Ann Arbor show.  Scott is a color breeder and just “doesn’t do” torts.  I kept thinking she was a pretty nice looking little doe and couldn’t believe he was going to sell her.  I snatched her up,  not only because she was nice, but because she also carries dilute and chocolate.   Fun, fun.  I was thinking I would show her until she was old enough to breed.  But, she has been consistently pulling 2nd places in the shows I’ve taken her to, so maybe the breeding will have to hold off for a bit!

Once again, it was nice to have 3 of the 4 rabbits up for BOB/BOS!  Caden won BOB and Quay took BOS.  That was nice!

I don’t think we were out of there until 6:30 pm since we had to stick around for 4-Class.  It sure made for a long day.  But, Abby and I had a good time.

Net 10

New Litters Update:

Little Bit continues to do well.  He is 7 weeks today and has gained a whopping 1.5 ounces since last week.  At least, he is putting on some weight.

Of the 8 does I had due this past week, results were slim:

GBF’s Tahlia x Emmet – 5 kits on the wire.  This was the first time she had ever been bred and her first delivery, so I knew the odd’s a having a live litter (or any litter for that matter) were if’y.

ARR’s Shmadzu x GBF’s Pistol Pete – 3 chestnut kits doing well.  Finally!  She missed the last 2 times I bred her.  So, I’m happy to have these 3 kits out of her.

GBF’s Triskit x GBF’s Tyraid  – 4 kits in a huge fluff of wool, 1 is a peanut though.  2 orange, 1 tort.  Reliable Triskit!

ARR’s Supersymetry (Suzy) x White River’s Troy* – 2 kits, 1 was DOA.  Fostered to Tallie.  Disappointed there were only 2 kits total and only 1 alive, but she also missed the last 2 times I bred her, so I’ll take this one live kit!

White River’s Cora x GBF’s Caden – 3 kits, but 2 peanuts.  Looks black, could be a Siamese Sable.  Fostered to Triskit.  This was the first time I had bred Cora, so I’m at least happy she can produce life.

GBF’s Fianna x White River’s Dino – appears to be a miss.  First time ever bred and he only got her 1 time, so I was not optimistic.

L&R Sedalia x Broo’s Chase – 4 kits DOA in the box.   This was disappointing since Sedalia is a proven mom.  I’m blaming this on the unseasonably cold weather we have been experiencing.

ELS Tallie x GBF’s Tobias – came home from the show yesterday to find 4 ice cold kits in the box.  I was able to revive 2 of them.  They are also rooming with Triskit’s growing family for the time being.  I will probably put Suzy’s kit with Tallie’s two and keep Cora’s 1 kit with Triskit’s brood.  7 kits is too many for Triskit to take care of.

So, out of 8 bred does,  7 actually delivered kits – so that was pretty good.  However, out of those 7 does I only have 13 live kits, 3 of which are peanuts and will not survive.  So, a net of 10 live kits for the week.  That is a pretty depressing low number.  Oh, well.  Better than none I guess.

NCIRBA Show

Ki and I went to the show in Nappanee yesterday.  The club picked a new venue for this fall show and it was GREAT!  30 minutes from my house (at the most), heated building (and floor!), LARGE building, tons of parking, and home made Amish/Mennonite donuts and goodies at the kitchen.

I had a lot of 2nds in the HHLC Specialty show, including a 2nd with my youngest SJB that I took – GBF’s Taber out of L&R Donna x GBF’s Tyraid.  The head and wrap around crown on this guy in SOOO nice.  KKR’s Izabelle, out of GBF’s Kuala Bear x GBF’s Annabelle earned her 1st leg with a 1st place in the BJD class.

Fared much better in the show proper, winning BOB with GBF’s Caden (his first senior leg to Grand with!) and BOS with GBF’s Mika.  That also gave Mika her senior leg needed to grand with.  Yea!!  GBF’s Taber won his class of 13 to earn his first leg.   Such a cutie!!   I almost didn’t bring him because I thought he was just too little yet.  Now I wish I would have brought his sister GBF’s Courtenay!  She has the same beautiful head and crown but I wasn’t sure she was big enough to warrant taking her.

“Little Bit”, “Mojito” and “Jupiter

Here are a few pictures of Little Bit that we took last night. We had him out on the couch with us (and the dog, and the cat!).

He curled up with Bandit (the cat) and took a little snooze for a while.  It was so cute.

Little Bit resting next to Bandit.

Mojito

I’ve been taking care of “Mojito” since the ISRBA show in mid-September.  He is a Sable Marten Britannia Petite bred by Krista Moe in Chandler, IN.  He is a part of the ‘bunny railroad’ – he is having a layover here at our house, until he is picked up by a transporter (Keith Rockwood) and taken out to Convention in California.  That is where his new owner will be picking him up (Tasia Thomas).

I’ve been very nervous taking care of him – he definately has a more ‘active’ personality then the Hollands or English Angora’s.  But, contrary to what I thought, he is not a biting-machine.  Although, when I was taking these pictures, he allowed me to click off a few before he leaped straight into the air about 4 feet.  That was my sign that the photo-shoot was over!

GBF’s Jupiter

I’ve also been ‘bunny sitting’ for a Chicago gentleman while he has been on vacation in Korea.  He purchased Jupiter from me back in February and needed someone to watch him while he was away.  Jupiter is out of GBF’s Tyraid x GBF’s Swiss Miss.  He was my pick of the litter, but Jupiter was the one for Wonseok.  He has been fixed and is the cutest stinker.

He is used to being a house bunny and running about free as a bird.  However, he has to be in a cage here and he is not very happy about it!

Such a handsome boy!

Babies due this week.

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted.  Where has the time gone?

The little kit I resuscitated, ended up dying the next day.  His single sibling is doing well though.  I take him out to Antigone each day and then bring him and his nestbox in at night.  Since it’s been getting so cold at night, I worry about him being able to keep warm all by himself.

Little Bit is still doing good.  He is 6-weeks old today and only weighs 7 ounces.  He is the tiniest little thing.  But, oh so cute.  He hops all over the place, when given the opportunity.  He would make a great pet for someone and will be available when old enough.  He has been weaned for quite some time now.  He seems to eat and drink well and loves his pieces of carrot.

I have/had 8 does due this week.  It did not start off on a good note.  GBF’s Tahlia was bred to GBF’s Emmet, who has left for his new home at Avis Acres.  She delivered yesterday, a day early – 5 kits on the wire.  I was so bummed.  It was the first time she had ever been bred and Emmet only bred her one time.  Goodness!  At least she can make babies.  I will just have to try again.  She looked so forlorn, sitting in her nestbox with no babies.  I feel bad for her.

ARR’s Shmadzu x GBF’s Pistol Pete had 3 snuggly kits when I went out to check her at 3:30 am this morning!  Yes – 3:30 am.  I was worried sick that she had a stuck kit or would have them on the wire.  Shmadzu is a tiny doe.  She missed on her last two breedings.   I could feel kits in her and was so hoping all would be OK.  Looks like she has 1 solid Chestnut and 2 broken Chestnuts.  Yea.  Pistol is not necessarily who I wanted to breed her to….but he is a nice buck with a great head and is an assertive breeder who can get the job done. .. and he does have some Tommie lines behind him as, as does Shmadzu.  I don’t get to use Pistol much because he is a ‘false dwarf’ – he must be put with a dwarf doe.  I just wanted to get her bred and get babies out of her.  Mission accomplished.

I have a 4-day break before my next does are due on the 15th:

GBF’s Caden x White River’s Cora.  Cora is beautiful Siamese Sable brood doe (Thank You Roman!).  Caden carries either chl or REW so, we’ll see what we get, if she took.  Hopefully a nice Siamese Sable or Sable Point.

White River’s Troy* x ARR’s Supersymetry.  Suzie has missed her last two breedings.  I really hope she produces something this time.

GBF’s Tyraid x GBF’s Triskit.  Dear Triskit is ready to be a mom again.  She throws the cobbiest babies.  GBF’s Dillinger and GBF’s Annie are both very compact.   If she stays true-to-form, she will only have 2 kits.

Then, GBF’s Fianna (x White River’s Dino) is due 16 Oct 2009.  Breeding Fianna back to her sire.  So hoping the recessive color genes pair up.  Haven’t checked her to see if she has any babies in her though.  This is her first breeding, so I’m not holding my breath.

Broo’s Chase x L&R Sedalia are also due on the 16th. I’m excited about this breeding, as Sedalia is out of L&R Sedgewick x L&R Jurnee.  Chase’s sire, L&R Chad, is from that same cross.  She is an upright doe with great depth over the HQ.  Chase has mass, but could use more depth over the HQ.  You’re supposed to off-set faults, right?

GBF’s Tobias x ELS’s Tallie due 17 Oct 2009.  This is THE doe I’m most apprehensive about.  Tallie has missed or had problems her last 2 litters.  I’m concerned she may have a retained kit – I don’t know.  She produces the most beautiful babies and I would be devastated if her mothering days were over.  She is bred back to her son.

Welp, I have some Angora’s that need grooming and I’m having a hard time convincing myself to get out there and do it.   I have over 20 EA’s right now (including some young juniors that are for sale).  I am going to reduce my herd for the winter and will be posting a For-Sale list soon.  Get with me, if you are interested.

More on “Peanuts”

Candace sent me another picture of GBF’s Swiss Miss’ litter.  For those of you new to breeding dwarf breeds, here is the picture she sent me, showing 4 dwarf kits and 1 peanut kit:

Candace wrote, “My peanut is 15 grams and the rest are 50-56 grams.  He doesn’t look good this afternoon. So so thin and his backside is all yucky.”

I’ve noticed that with peanuts that their stomachs/intestines must not be fully developed as they do tend to get pooy bottoms.  I believe they are pictured at 3 days.  My post on the 25th shows them at 1 day old.  It’s amazing how fast the others grow compared to how the little peanuts just fade away.  Sad though.

Ann Arbor RBA Show

Sooo tired!  Got up at 4:00 am to head up and over to the AARBA Show in Belleville, MI this morning.  I picked up Ki and her mom on the way, so luckily I had company to help keep me awake.  It was a really easy drive there.

I met my friend Keith Becki there who works on Chocolate and Otter Hollands (and Netherlands now).  And of course, as I call them, “The Michigan Ladies” were there – Donna,  Sara, and Bonnie & her sister – and Dan Erz was there also.   Marcus was there with his beautiful EA’s.  (I didn’t take any since it was such an early morning and I knew it would be a long day – I wasn’t up to the challenge.)

In Show A (Judge Joel Marshall), I had lots of 2nds.   Seconds, seconds, seconds.  Ugh.  So close, but no cigar.

In Show B (Judge Pam Jones), White River’s Kenya took 1st SSD – she is the most beautiful black doe!  Then GBF’s Echo earned his first leg as a SJB.  Yea! So, that was more to my liking!

Of course, I brought home a new Junior Doe… from Scott Dowling – a cute broken tort.  She carries chocolate and dilute and has Saynora on the sire side (out of their tri lines), so I’m excited about her.  She is a true tort; she is not a torted tri or anything.

My little Fader bunny was the most active tonight that I’ve seen him.  I opened the door to the bathroom and he took off in a scurry and didn’t want to be caught.  THAT is a first.  He was not interested in any Nutri-cal tonight, but I forced the issue and smooshed some on his face and front paws.  He was not happy with me about that, and promptly set about to clean himself up.  Quite tricky on my part, since I got him to eat it anyway!