There are three big milestones in the life of a kit.  Being born alive.  Thriving until about ten to twelve days old when the eyes open and ears start lifting— so  very cute!    Weaning at around six to eight weeks.  Of course, the first one is very important, and all of them are wonderful, but I think I am partial to day when we can see each other eye-to-eye  and they begin to look and move around more bunny-like with their quick and not so controlled hops. It is kind of like the day a baby begins to walk. I am fairly confident in the colors I am seeing now, so here is my list of their phenotypes (how they appear so far): BMB1 - Chinchilla Agouti BMB2 - Chestnut Agouti BMB3 - Black Gold-Tipped Steel BMB4 - Solid Black  BMB5 - Solid Black with SF fur This is the first time I have had Agoutis, so it was fun to find tiny kits with white ears and bellies, but it was not what I was hoping to see thrown from NZW-B for my...

NZW-B is going to a new home in two to three weeks and I have bred him twice successfully. I cannot provide a pedigree on him but I can give his new owner what I know about his genotype, even if that is not really something that he will need if he only breeds New Zealand Whites as planned. However, plans change and now I wish I had kept more detailed records previously because I might have noticed some things far sooner and made different choices with breeding, but it was not our focus at the time. As I wrote, things change. NZW-B is a New Zealand White, which means that he has hidden alleles, with the exception of the ones on the C-locus, until bred and the phenotypes (the colors seen) in the offspring provide information. This works best if the genotype of the partner is known also (but I just learned what one thinks she knows about genotypes of her older does might not be completely accurate even then). This is the short answer about what I do know with certainty so far: ...

BMB-5 has been quite surprising. I was hoping to discover more about NZW-B's genotype, but I did not expect to find out something hidden in the genotype of my Blue Silver Fox, Misty Blue. However, seeing is believing. These two of the BMB-5 kindle are Agoutis. The one on the right is a Chestnut and the other is a Chinchilla. A Chestnut Agouti has this genotype: A_ B_ C_ D_ E_ Because the sire has "cc" and the dam has "aa" and "dd," this Chestnut must have: Aa B_ Cc Dd E_ A Chinchilla Agouti has this genotype with "c chd " for dark (c chl  is for light): A_ B_ c chd _ D_ E_ Because the sire has "cc" and the dam has "aa" and "dd," this Chinchilla must have: Aa B_ c chd c Dd E_ As you can see, the Chinchilla allele removes almost all the yellow, which is the base color on the hair shaft so where the yellow shows on the Chestnut, silver (white) shows on the Chinchilla. Lovely colorin...

I was kind of concerned about Black Ivy. She came to me with ear mites and sore hocks. We saw the ear mites, although it was a mild case in deep inside of one ear, but we missed the sore hocks. Honestly, as a breeder, I will not sell any rabbit in this condition and I am rather trusting that other established breeders advertising a rabbit would also have that same policy. I should not be, obviously. Black Ivy's ear mites were treated and she was good on that point throughout her quarantine. Her sore hocks, also called pododermatitis, are healing slowly. They are not oozing or bleeding anymore. They are still raw and red but becoming more pink and they are smaller. Actually the sores were really not that large when we saw them later the day we got her and if they had been bigger, we probably would have noticed them at the time of pick up. It just takes so long for them heal once they have gotten that bad.  To get the pictures of how one looks now, I had to move ...

My plan was to breed NZW-B with Misty Blue and see what I got. I was hoping to get self colored kits (solids) and I might have gotten one or two, but I also got Agoutis and at least one steel, maybe two. I am still perplexed by the fur coloring on one. I do not want any steels or Agoutis for my Silver Fox hybrid line so that answered the question of whether or not we would keep him. I made him available as well as my NZW/SF junior buck BGG-1, who has a very firm body and would be a good brood buck. I did get an inquiry on the junior but after talking with the prospective new owner, I decided to offer him Whoops and NZW-B. Whoops should be two weeks along in her pregnancy, which would have been okay for her to make a move to someone set up and with experience, but this was a buyer just starting out with rabbits and he did not have cages yet. With the temperature swings we have had, I wanted to make sure the kindle would survive and thrive. I made the proposal that we would keep NZW...

Let me start off with how crazy cold it has been here this week with wind chill factors around zero! So cold that my fingers hurt within minutes of being outside even though I had gloves on. That is not the kind of temperatures to which I ever want to expose my newborn kits just to get a good look at them. I knew there were five and that they all were alive. I would put one cold hand into their warm nest blindly feeling around and counting them. For those who have not yet had the experience, baby rabbits do not lay still for this procedure. They constantly are flipping and squirming and are impossible to hold on to for long if you are trying to place more than two in your hand. Yes, that makes counting them very difficult, especially when there are more than four...and usually there are always more than four. At first glance on their first day, I thought I had three blacks and two blues as they squirmed around but some how they looked different than a blue should look. A couple ...

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...

I was cautiously hopeful about getting at least one SF purebred kindle from Misty Blue in a couple of months with one of the SF bucks as I wanted a Lilac that would be related to only one buck, but I bred Misty Blue twice and she did not take either time. The first one time was with an unproven NZW buck who might have been too young so it might not have been her fault, but the second was with another NZW buck that was still young but had been proven. Many rabbit breeders have a three strikes rule; bad mothering, not taking care of a kindle, an aggressive action, health issue, or whatever will add a strike for each disappointment. Any young or stressed out doe can make a mistake of not caring for her kits properly once, which is why breeders give a doe three strikes. However, Misty Blue already had some things that are adding up for me. She has always been difficult to accept a breeding and now she is four years old so fertility is a concern, seemingly justified at this point. ...

Our weather has been unusually cold for the Southeast, actually the entire country. Here it has been dipping into the teens at night and hung in the 20s to 30s during the day, so we placed various materials around the cages as wind breaks, which also reduced the available light in the rabbitry. That is why I did not see, until this week that BGG4 was not just black any more, but it seems she is beginning to show a color on the tips of her fur on her sides. I thought silvering that would be highly unlikely because most sources claim that two recessive "si" genes are required. Her father was a NZW that would hide all such genetic markers, however I have learned since that there is far more to the silvering gene concept that I might address later. Anyway, when I first saw it, I was thinking I was seeing steel. That did not make any sense to me, because I thought steel would show immediately, while silvering can begin to appear as early as four weeks and can take m...

Thirty-two days ago, I acquired two rabbits, Lancelot - a double heterozygous black buck and Denim - a blue, from Renaissance Farmstead . They remained as healthy as they looked that day so they are now out of quarantine. Since I got them from the same breeder, we had them in cages next to each other and they seem to prefer being close to each other. They are half-siblings that were born three weeks apart, but both of them seem to be highly interested in all goings-on with the other. Now I have only one left in quarantine! During quarantine, I keep all their things separate from the other rabbits. When we had to bring in their water bottles to thaw, we kept their water bottles separate or we washed them thoroughly. I like to try to handle my rabbits every day that I can, so my quarantined rabbits get handled last and then I wash up. During this season I have had seven rabbits in quarantine at differing times, three New Zealand White bucks, two Silver Fox bucks, and two Silver F...

Plan: Weigh the BGG kindle and Misty Blue Goals: To update records on BGG and compare progress, decide on BGG4, to determine if Misty Blue is pregnant by weight gain. Conclusion: All of BGG kindle gained weight by more than 20%. Still cannot decide about BGG4. Misty Blue did not gain any weight in the past week. I LOVE bunny weighing days! I like to take a good look at each bunny to see how it is progressing in growth, structure, and temperament. Today I hoped to make a decision about BGG4. I think I would like to keep her, but cage space.... If we actually do start having breedings that take with consistency, I may not really have the room until we phase out the NZWs. If space was not an issue, I would probably keep her. It has been particularly cold here in the Southeast, dipping well below freezing which is a problem with making sure all the rabbits have access to water. Lately in the mornings, I have to bring in all the water bottles, place them in my sink fille...

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. ...