Just when you think you have about seen it all with rabbits, they show you something new. Zinfandel's kindle has been one of those experiences. It took some time to track down exactly what was going on, because it is rare to happen but not unknown to at the same time, but I finally found my answer. When I first looked in the nest box I found a couple, one worse than the other with this pinkish skin with dark areas on the heads. At first I thought they might be torts! And while I do have a desire to help with the Alaska Red Fox project (another breed that Walter Garland was developing after his Silver Fox), I have absolutely no space or desire to take on that project presently. However, when their fur began to grow in, it was black...well, sort of. The color was off but certainly not tort. All the fur was tipped with white more like a steel chinchilla would be, but they were not steels either (besides the fact that they just should not be) because the coats were too...

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...

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...

This is one of those posts that I hope I don't have to write and yet this is the reality of rabbit keeping...at least, sometimes. I had a difficult start this breeding season, partially because the heat of summer stayed well into the autumn season, which probably contributed to why the first breeding did not take—the bucks must have been heat sterile. Then there was the fact that I only had two does breeding age to start and I wanted to show them both, but especially Luna, who did not do as well as I hoped at first but when the cooler weather came, she finally went into prime condition, won her legs, and was ready to be bred. Finally, I had pregnant does, but.... Twilight, a first time mom, was clueless after she kindled and wanted to lie in the nest, but after separating her from her kits a few days until her milk came in, she was a great mother to her four kits and they are all looking healthy, fast growing, and quite wide. Canyon had three—one black, one blue, and one w...

One of the things I love about Christmas, since we started with rabbits eight years ago, is Christmas bunnies! This year it is more fun because I look forward to showing them and I have I have a doe due on Christmas, (but if you have read previous posts you already know that my rabbits often like to mess with my brilliant breeding plans, so we shall see). The doe that is due on Christmas is  GC Luna .   Three days after Thanksgiving, Twilight  kindled four from her breeding with her grandfather GC Leon , all black and carrying blue blue from their mother. I suspect that Leon does not carry dilute, so all his offspring will be black. Twilight was a bit clueless being a first-time mother, which makes me thankful that my husband was home to watch her while I was away for the event. Of course, she was a day past her due date... rabbits love to mess with me and my brilliant breeding plans! Twilight did not make a nest and did not pull any fur... none at all ...

My husband is so cute sometimes. Last night he was asking me why I needed to buy any more rabbits at all, just breed the ones I had and let the young ones grow out to see what we had. I explained why, obviously in more detail than he wanted to really know.  This morning he helped prepare our van with one of the transport cages that had been delivered yesterday and to make the hour long drive to Silver Lox , but he had decided to go with me because at least we would be spending time together, which admittedly is not something we get to do much. I suppose he thought he would keep me from buying the more than I should, but we only had two holes in the one carrier we were taking with us and that is my limit for cages in my rabbitry currently. When we got there, however....the impulse buyer side of him came out... as usual . I was specifically looking for a doe to fill the breeding gap I was going to have in the fall with culling of two does after weaning, one is just old and t...

Today I weighed XCY-3 and they seem to be showing that "wow" factor I was hoping to see with this kindle. If they grow out with show quality as I am expecting, I am planning to keep the buck and a doe. I might keep the other doe as well or do a swap with her. I have been handling each one every day and working on them to relax when picked up. The XCY3 doe is the smallest, but she is also the one who relaxes the best when being picked up, if not the first time, then the second. The others are better about it when they are a bit sleepy, but they are starting to get it. I am going for that ragdoll trait that I had in a SF x NZW that I sold months ago to a meat breeder, who just loved how she relaxed when being carried.  Being a ground animal whose only defense is running and powerful kicks, rabbits do not like being off a surface or without traction. Being carried is something they tolerate and some tolerate it better than others. I want my rabbits to tolerate being han...

I can hardly believe that XCY-3 is already three weeks old. Sunday I weighed them and set up their page on the top menu. I am particularly excited because they are in the weight ranges of my last kindle at four weeks old! I know that kits tend to be larger in general when the kindle is small, but still it is very exciting! Just looking at the size of XCY2 makes me smile.  I have been waiting impatiently for Misty Blue to kindle because I had it in my head that she was due on last Friday. Actually, her 31st day is today, but she had her last kindle on the 33rd day. I have been palpitating her for the last week and I can feel those babies. She has been more tolerant about that the last couple of days also, so I think she is feeling the time is close too. She has quite a nice nest ready and waiting, but has not pulled fur yet. She usually pulls fur just before kindling.  This is our first purebred Silver Fox in house breeding and I am hoping to see kits...

I have been wanting to do a daily photo journal of a kindle from birth to the eye opening event, but most kindles have so many kits that it is not an easy project to wrangle them all. However, being that XCY-3 is my first Silver Fox purebred kindle and there are only three, I decided to turn my disappointment in the small size of the kindle to an opportunity to do the photo journal on Facebook and Instagram and then collect them all together in one blog post here. They are all black, but they all are also blue carriers.  A few hours after birth, the kits are hairless and blind. The doe pulls hair from her body, mostly from her dew lap and around nipples to make a nest that will keep the hairless kits warm. They rely on the body heat of each other and the pulled fur in the nest to achieve this. Otherwise a kit can die of hypothermia quickly in the winter, but even in the summer. At a day old, the kits are just starting to grow hair. The reason these black kits look...