Rabbit & Cavy News

Now that our last two French Lops are gone, I decided this is an excellent time to powerwash all our cages - our currently low rabbit population will make powerwashing cages a whole lot easier - for once I won’t have to figure out where to put all the rabbits when we clean the cages - with the French Lops gone, I now have enough carriers for everyone!

Powerwashing is such a huge task - I really don’t look forward to it - but it surely is needed.  Since we feed hay everynight, our cages sides seem to have more of a hay/dirt build up than those who don’t feed hay - and the powerwashing really cleans them up nicely. 

Time to rearrange the rabbitry too - since I’ve decided to sell two of our larger stackers, I’ll be able to rearrange the rest into a more easily accessible design - right now things are tight in some spaces and pan cleaning of a few cages is a feat of physical acrobatics, so I can’t wait to make that all easier.

Beautiful weather finally…cooler….yesterday my rabbitry gauge showed only about 35 percent humidity inside!  How nice!!!  I wish it could stay like this year round.

After I get all my cages cleaned, and the sale cages out, the rearranging done - then I’ll move rabbits around.  Now my Hollands will be in the larger French Lop cages - I am sure these active little rabbits will just love it!  My Polish will go into the cages I currently use for my Hollands - they are all 24×30 and 24×24.  I decided to keep my two stackers of 6-hole cages.  I’ve never liked these smaller cages for my Hollands, (24×18)  and in fact haven’t even used many of the cages in these stacks - but they are plenty big enough for Polish, even full grown Polish, so they will stay here!

Oh….if you are looking for some nice cages, I do have the two stackers for sale - read about it on our French Lops For Sale page at our website.

Well…..enjoy your weekend, I certainly will!

Cathy LaReau

Friday Madelyn is coming down from Minnesota to pick up our last two French Lops; Amber and Bacon.  We’ll try breeding Thunder to Amber in hopes that this cross will give Madelyn some nice rabbits - she’s had good luck with others from Thunder’s lineage….

After these two leave we will only have Thunder and Star left - well, I guess I should be clearer, they aren’t going anywhere! 

This will be an excellent time to powerwash cages and rearrange the rabbitry.  I’ll be selling two of the larger cages to free up some much-needed space - but I’d like to powerwash them first.

Signing off to do chores.  Can’t wait for some cooler weather!

Cathy

Yesterday, the first day of summer, I lingered in my rabbitry after I finished chores.  I looked around to the many empty cages and thought of all the different French Lops that had once inhabitated them.

Those very first rabbits from Creek Haven Lops - how Kelly was so excited when we brought them home!  Our first litter, which Kelly took out and played with for hours- feeling sure that every one of them was a grand champion!  Kelly’s first win with Creek Haven Janet.

Breeding, learning to identify faults and buying rabbits to correct those faults.  Kelly developed a natural eye for these large rabbits and became very accomplished at producing her own quality French Lops.

Our first significant win with her own-bred rabbit, Thunder, was memorable and so worth all the hard work that brought us that far!   The subsequent wins…rise in the points…more litters born….producing several more grand champions.

I never thought it would end so suddenly with Kelly!  She had always been such an ‘animal person’ and I never thought she would pass by her rabbits, so readily, for other interests!   She has decided to move ahead though and seems to have the ability to simply move on without looking back.  I wish I could do that so easily!

So here we are, with only Thunder and Star left as permanent residents, and only two more French Lops to sell.  Tons of empty cages.

After I get over the ‘finality’ of it all and get moving,  LaReau Lops & Cavies will go through another transformation.  I am not sure exactly which direction I’ll take, but I have no intentions of getting out of rabbits myself. 

I will always have the Hollands - no bones about it, they are permanent here and I’ll continue to breed but with more gusto, now that I have a lot of cages to play with!  My Polish endevour is still new to me, and I’ll keep trying with that breed to.  I may decide to pick up a new breed, perhaps a rarer breed.  Not sure. 

Our website will need a major overhaul too.  It is still painful for me to look at, so many memories and rabbits that were once here.  I’ll have to redo a lot.

Well, the one thing I am really looking forward to is getting back to rabbit shows, beginning this fall.  Now I can just pick up and go without so much work!  I really am excited about this…….

Well, have a great weekend everyone

Cathy LaReau 

Hi everyone, here is a quick update about LaReau Lops & Cavies.

It is finally going to happen - Kelly is selling out of her French Lops!  A few years ago I would have never thought this could happen, with the way she loved those big ole rabbits, but high school has really been a busy time for Kelly, plus she is making plans for college next year.  We knew the rabbits were going to go next year for certain, but I was a little dismayed when she decided to sell out now instead of waiting another year.

I will be keeping at least a few of these large creatures; Thunder is staying for sure - he is retired now and I can’t imagine our rabbitry without the ‘big gouti’ there.  There are a couple more I am thinking of keeping, and perhaps I’ll show a few down the road. 

Kelly has two litters from this past winter that haven’t even been shown yet and many look pretty nice.  

We’ll be getting pictures and info posted to our website by the end of June.  It was our wish to be able to attend a rabbit show or two in June, to bring along and sell her herd, but with my son’s graduation, other family graduations and all the other end-of-year stuff going on, we can’t get away!

Because of this busy schedule, I will be unable to meet with people or even respond to emails in detail, until the third week in June or even later.  Sorry!

It looks like I will be the only family member showing rabbits from now on - oh well, I think this will be a lifelong hobby for me; I can see myself doing this for years and years! 

My recent Polish litters are so funny - the youngsters are quick little characters.  I let each out on our large carpeted table so they can run around and just get used to handling.  Each younster is quite a show off!  They buck, run, and all do the ’scared bunny’ thing, you know- where they run really fast, darting back and forth on the table as if they are being chased!  All the sudden they stop and for a brief moment they are statue-still before darting off bucking - I just love watching them!

I’ve only got two Holland babies right now, one seems to have some show potential, but the other already appears to be a larger brood type rabbit, hopefully it is a doe!  I’ll be breeding more Hollands this week hoping for litters before any bad heat spells hit.

Well that is all for now.  After graduations this June, I’ll be updating our main website within info on our sale French Lops, then I’ll begin working on all my other website projects again!

Cathy