Like every rabbit, GC Funck's Zinfandel has her quirks. I had bred her with GC Carrot Garden's Starry Knight right after the Silver Fox National show. She lifted readily and two weeks after the breeding she began to make a nest and stopped eating much of anything. I put in a nesting box because and she made a nice nest that she kept clean to be used only as a nest even though she was making it so early. However, it was pretty obvious to me a week later that she was not pregnant. I waited to be sure past her due date, because I have had a doe fool me before, but no kits. Then I had a dilemma. I wanted to breed Zin before she turned a year old, which she would do in mid September and it would be too hot to breed her in the summer. It was already hot enough to be a concern to breed her again so late in May, but we decided to try and place her in a smaller buck cage to bring into the garage. Our garage is part of the basement and even though it is well insulated, it usually stay...

The first time Zinfandel was bred, she was just about two weeks before her due date when she started showing signs she was interested in building a nest and she did build one, even pulled fur. She kept it as a nest, nice and clean, but as much as she seem to think she was ready to be a mother, the week before her due date, I was pretty sure it would not be that time. Although I have been wrong and caught off guard before, her due date came and went, to our disappointment. I bred her again to the same proven buck and she readily lifted. However, as I had written in previous posts, it was rather late in the season so we prepared a place for her in the garage. Yesterday, she started picking up her hay and trying to prepare a nest. Like before, she began this two weeks before her due date. In hopes that she would again keep the nest clean, I gave her a nesting box. This morning I found she had pulled fur so she is ready. But, the question: is she actually pregnant? I palpated ...

Living in the southeast has its challenges with raising Silver Foxes. At the top of the list is keeping them cool and healthy during the hottest and most humid time of the year. As meat breeders, we would have our last breedings in April and no breedings until September. The only schedule I had to consider was my own and cage space.  As a show breeder, I still quite strongly believe in not breeding in the summer, particularly when I have invested so much in my rabbits. However, working around show schedules has been a new challenge for me this past year. For instance, I put off breeding Luna last fall until she earned three legs as she was my best doe to show at the time and I had other does that could be bred. Still, there were gaps I would like to avoid this coming breeding season, if the rabbits cooperate. This spring I was faced with another breeding schedule dilemma with Zinfandel. I bred her to GC Starry Knight after we returned from the Silver Fox National Show in Apr...

This week was busy! We butchered eleven rabbits, which are aging presently and should be ready for making dinner with vacuum sealing and freezing the rest. This freed up some cage space and lowered feed consumption, but only temporarily. Luna kindled three, but two were DOA fetal giants, so only one black survivor. Still, I am very hopeful this one will have the fur quality I got the first of this pairing, and a better type this time around would be nice also. Misty Blue Too surprised us with five out of Leon. I had not seen a fall off, but the old man is still quite fertile and even with his old weak legs, so apparently able to still impregnate a willing doe even when I cannot detect a fall off. Under all that blue fur are five healthy sleeping black kits, and she even pulled more fur! Misty's surprise newborns meant we urgently needed to prep a cage with baby wire yesterday evening because Luna was still in the kindling suite. None of our cages had b...

Plan: Breed Comet x Black Ivy using an introduction approach. Goal: Change Comet's and Black Ivy's status to proven; testing Comet to see if he carries white or any other recessives on the C-locus; testing Black Ivy to see if she carries Blue; offspring with even silvering inherited from both parents. Conclusion: Black Ivy lifted for Comet as one fall-off was witnessed. About an hour later, she again was receptive and one fall-off was witnessed. We scheduled Sunday for cleaning cages, culling, breeding, and moving rabbits to different cages, but it was a rainy morning, staying wet and breezy with temperatures again taking a dive to freezing! The temperature swings in April alone have been from freezing to 80°F! Last night it went to 31°F and today it is suppose to reach 70°F. That is nearly a 40°swing! I decided to put off moving Canyon and her XCY-3 kindle to another cage until the tomorrow. Misty Blue is due on the 25th so that will give her at least a week in the ...

Canyon kindled my first purebred Silver Fox kindle in a couple of years! I found Canyon in the nesting box after I went to check on her. I thought she might be kindling, but when she emerged from the nest it still looked empty and she was still pulling fur, so I did not feel around in the nest. However, she might have kindled then, because when I checked the nest about an hour later, it still looked flat, but I felt one and then two and then three...and only three. All are black even though the sire carried blue and the dam is blue. Of course, I was hoping for 6-9, but she was not receptive to either buck to which we introduced her, so her breeding was assisted. Typically, assisted breedings result in smaller kindles, because even though does are induced ovulators, they do have cycles and apparently we caught Canyon on the off side of that cycle. However, I wanted to see her for myself before I committed to buying her, so that is just how it worked out. I was not surprised...

Plan: Breed Lancelot x Misty Blue using an introduction approach. Goal: Change Lancelot's status to proven; try to get Misty Blue to accept breeding without assistance; testing Misty Blue to see if she carries Chocolate: a Lilac kit. Conclusion: Misty Blue lifted for Lancelot as two fall offs were witnessed. About an hour later, she again was receptive and two fall offs were witnessed. Before the breeding, I cut the nails on Lancelot and Misty Blue as well as weighed them both. I checked Misty Blue's genital area which appeared a deeper color. This suggested that placing her in the cage next to Lancelot a few days before breeding had the desired result, because Misty Blue has been rather difficult about accepting a buck in the past. aa Bb C_ Dd E_ sisi aa B_ Cc chd dd E_ sisi Although Lancelot is the younger of my two bucks by just three weeks, he is also the largest. He is just over six months old so it could be a bit early for him, but judging by the int...

Whoops is turning 4 years old on March 2, 2018 and with age comes some challenges in regards to breeding and kindling: Older does tend to have smaller kindles. This makes it rather difficult to know whether Whoops was actually pregnant or not as rabbits, particularly meat rabbits, really do not show their pregnancies. However, she was rather cranky about me touching her...she even grunted at me this week, which completely out of character for her and common with pregnant does. Older does tend to go past their due dates. I was not too concerned about her not kindling on the 31st day after her breeding, which was Saturday, February 3rd, 2017, but it is still a wait full of anticipation and then impatience. Mostly because Whoops was bred to NZW-A and is promised to start up breeder who is also getting the last of my NZW-B, who is unrelated to the sire of this kindle. That way they could pick a doe or two to develop and breed with NZW-B that would not be related to their brood...

Plan: Bred NZW-B x Misty Blue on December 13th with expected due date of January 12th. Goals: Test breed NZW-B a second time for the Broken gene and to determine if Misty is still fertile by breeding her with a proven buck. Observation:  Misty Blue is four years old and did not take with her first breeding; she may have been too old or the buck too young. Pregnancy this time could not be determine, although there was some weigh gain. Conclusion: Misty Blue kindled January 14, 2018 producing five healthy kits so she is still fertile, although it is a smaller kindle than what she usually produces. NZW-B definitely does not carry Broken as usually half of the kindle would show it. The breeding plan will not need to be changed and a Lilac out of Misty Blue in a few months is still a possibility if she carries Chocolate. What a nice surprise! I know better than to assume a doe is not pregnant. We lost our very first kindle of thirteen NZWs because of our inexperience with h...

Plan: Breed either NZW-A (or NZW-B) x Whoops Goal: Change NWZ-A status to proven (or breed proven NZW-B) Conclusion: Took a risk with NWZ-A and observed two fall-offs, but the unusually low temperatures we are experiencing may be a factor in fertility for the buck. __ __ cc __ __ __ __ cc __ __ En_ Today, I bred our remaining NZW doe, Whoops , with NZW-A, who is now about six months old. We are concerned about her age, but Whoops has always been receptive to breeding and is a good doe for a first time buck. However, she is not the type to want to cuddle after the deed is done and after the second fall off, she wanted nothing to do with NZW-A. In fact, she kept looking for a way out and became aggressive with him. For his safety, I removed her quickly. (White rabbits do not look as pretty when they have been bleeding.) We have kept the practice of observing the breeding since we started with rabbits. I have read that some breeders just leave the doe in with the bu...

Goal: Determine if NWZ-B carries the "En" (broken) gene. Result: No Brokens in the four offspring. Conclusion: Not enough evidence to prove NZW-B does not carry the "En" (broken) gene. Another test breeding with a self (solid colored) doe would be provide more evidence. I knew it was unlikely, but I still tried a breeding with one of our new junior NZW bucks, NZW-B, and our youngest brood doe, Golden Girl, on September 9th. It did not take. The buck may have been too young as he was just three months old at the time, but Golden Girl had an entire year off from breeding, so the fault could have been one or the other or both. Usually, I would not try breeding a buck quite that young, but we have had accidental pregnancies from NZW bucks about that age and I had no bucks older. So, I rebred the same pair on October 9th and got results on November 9th! Golden Girl had not kindled as little as four kits previously, but I was pleased with their sizes and health. ...

My husband was the one who did most of the research on rabbits before and even after we had gotten our first three. It was his plan that we would also get a Californian or two and crossbreed with the NZWs. However, we just could not find a breeder with Californians anywhere near us. The few that had Californians were not breeding for purebreds but NZW crosses. We wanted purebreds to cross and also to have purebreds now and then.  So, as I got involved with trying to find Californians, I began reading about meat rabbits and somehow came across a few websites that gave information about two other rare heritage breeds that interested me. One was the American and the other the Silver Fox, but it was the latter that really intrigued me because I once lived close to where they were developed in Ohio. Although this breed was on the critical list at one time, it has been moved down to threatened, because its popularity has grown. Surprisingly, finding a Silver Fox breeder near us ...