Most of the country experienced a rabbit-killing heat wave last week and in my area, there was no breeze at all. Temperature predictions for this week were as high to higher, but this week most of the southeast will have lower humidity, also lowering the heat index. The result would be the rabbits could feel a bit cooler at 85 degrees this week than last week.  We have seen several posts about breeders throughout the country losing rabbits and kits to heat or seeing some oddities showing up in their nest boxes that are usually not common but should be expected in these conditions: fever coats. ( You can read an article about my past experience with fever coats by clicking here. ) I have been fortunate that in the 12 years we have had rabbits we have not lost one to heat. However, in the beginning, we may have just been fortunate due to several contributing factors that we were unaware of at the time. Typically, that does not just happen and requires planning and adapting as necessa...

Tale of Tails Tirza Reserve in Show! Once upon a time, there was a kindle of three does and the rabbit keeper could not keep all three, so she contacted a breeder east of her and another west of her to promise them one doe each, keeping one for herself. She had a very hard choice to make because all three were very similar in their beauty, but each doe would have her own tale to be told... The Tale of Josea Josea was one of my most loving of rabbits. I like to give my rabbits names with meaning, some to honor God and some as a blessing. Josea means "God will increase" and I hoped it would be a blessing of increase for the rabbitry that would be Josea's new home with the breeder to the west.   I entered Josea in the May show in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Because of a conflict with a family event, I was not able to attend, but my friend still planned to go so I delivered Josea to her new home a few days before the show. Josea then won Best of Breed in the first two shows for h...

I wanted to share something I feel is very special about my rabbitry. It is not how it is constructed or how many of my rabbits are Grand Champions. Like most others, my rabbitry has suffered unexpected losses; it gets messy in between cleanings; and there have been disappointing breeding outcomes—although I still learned something important from them. There are days when I feel it is too cold, too wet, and too hot or that I feel too tired, achy, or truly in pain to want to go out to feed, water, clean, carry 40 to 50 pounds bags of feed, move hay bales, carry water in gallon jugs, or painstakingly measure out supplements. I have nursed rabbits that would have surely died had I not intervened and was cautiously thankful as I watched some improve, and I have cried with the few dying in my lap as I realized they were too far gone to be saved. Being a rabbit keeper is a life of love, tragedy, births, deaths, enjoyment, sorrow, and lots of soil-enriching bunny berries (poop)—and in my case...

This weekend I completed the update of all my show records, including each rabbits' records online. However, seeing it in summary form is a good reminder to me how my rabbitry stands and how it got to where it is.  I posted this to offer perspective for my readers as well. I am hoping you will understand that earning legs and sweeps points, and winning at rabbit shows would not have happened at all if I had not actually attended shows... many shows and some when my rabbits did not win anything. I had to attend to have the opportunity to win, but going to any show is never a guarantee of winning. What you will not see in these statistics is how many times each rabbit did not win as each one was in the process of earning its legs and points. Astro Man and Starry Knight are the only two left that started with me in the fall of 2018 and two grand champion senior does from that first show season had been culled. These records also do not include the rabbits, juniors to seniors, I e...

When I first started showing, my goal was to grand all my breeders (or have only breeders that were grand champions) and once a rabbit was granded, I would stop showing it. The idea was to give others a chance to win and build that excitement about showing so more people would get involved with it as there were so few Silver Fox breeders in the region. Then I had hardly any rabbits to show unless I showed the ones that were already granded. If I did not show those rabbits, there would likely not have been enough to earn legs so why would others bother to show and—well, what fun would it have been for me to breed towards show quality rabbits, keeping my best rabbits home in their cages forever after, and then just  not  go to shows? There was a combination of circumstances my first year showing that contributed to reaching my goal faster than I thought I would. I had only a few rabbits as I was starting out. There were so few Silver Foxes breeders and rabbits being shown in the...

I just received my show reports for Shows B and C from the Northwest Georgia Cavy and Rabbit Club, so I now have all five show reports in front of me to analyze from the Dalton shows held on March 6-7, 2021. If you read the previous post I did know the outcome for some of my rabbits in the NSFRC National and the GSFRB Specialty Shows, but Shows B and C ran at the same time and I was talking with buyers, so I did not write down my placements at all for any of the shows and I just gave up for the rest.   Now I have the chance to fill in all the blanks—Well, actually, the entire  page of my show journal as it was all blank except for rabbit names! In the order of class and ages... Senior Bucks GC Carrot Garden's Astro Man - He has been my biggest and most consistent prizewinner until his son Yanish hit the show scene and now that they are both in the senior class, it seems Yanish is a contender for the Tale of Tails Top Buck Throne, although not every judge there saw it tha...