Rabbit & Cavy News

I am hoping to go to the Misty Hill’s Fall Frolic rabbit show tomorrow.  Everything will depend upon whether or not I get all my other chores done today or not - you know…the fun stuff like laundry, cleaning and food shopping…aaarrgghhh.

My small show string of only one Holland and three Polish are all molting, of course, so I can’t expect to be there for any reason other than to increase class sizes so others can win legs. 

It will be good for my Holland doe - she acted so crazy at her first show despite me working with her a lot at home.  I am hoping she gets used to the show routine so I can send her to convention this October. 

This show is held in Dodgeville, WI at the Harris Pavilion (name?); the drive is less than an hour long, making it one of the closest rabbit shows for me.  At less than 5 years old, this building is very large and offers exhibitors a lot of room to spread out and get comfy- I don’t have to rush there just to get a spot, like at some croweded shows. 

What crazy weather around here!  Frost warnings last night, very windy and chilly - reminicent of late fall, and the weather forcast for next week jumps us back into the +80’s.  Only in Wisconsin - heat and air conditioning within a day’s span!  Impossible to expect good rabbit fur right now.

Hope to see you there, signing off to start all the fun stuff……

Cathy

Since I still can’t update or change my website, I guess I’ll post a little bit about convention here at my blog:

What a fun time!  This was the first time I’d ever been to the Eau Claire County Fairgrounds - what a great place - large buildings and lots of green space surrounded by woods. 

The open building was large enough to easily house us all plus two vendors, and the youth building seemed roomy enough also. 

Because I had procrastinated early in the week, getting ready on Friday afternoon was a rushed event, filled with frustration, but I did manage to leave home around 3:30 pm, only a little later than I originally planned on leaving.

The interstate drive was easy and I had no problems finding the fairgrounds when I arrived in Eau Claire around 6:30 pm.

Nice fairgrounds!  Newer, roomy buildings, nice grounds, and best of all, wonderful cooler weather and no mosquitos!

After I set up my few rabbits, I spent some time visiting with other breeders and checking out the facilities.  How nice to see everyone again, but I have to mention how strange it felt to be in the OPEN building, when for the past several years I had been with the YOUTH group! 

Despite all my efforts to become a proficient camper, I always fail miserably………  Again, as at previous rabbit shows, I slept in my van.  I was grateful that my air mattress stayed inflated this time; but Mother Nature still got me good when she dropped the thermostat close to the 50 degree mark.  I woke up around 1:30 that night shivering and remained frozen until about 5 am when I decided to scrap the crazy idea of getting any meaningful sleep. 

Saturday 4-class showing in Open was exciting - first I showed my Polish.  I only had three to show and I was pleased when one of my bucks placed 2nd out of the five black junior bucks.  My other buck placed 4/5, and my black junior doe placed 4/8.  I learned a lot from watching the other rabbits get judged and from talking to all the nice Polish breeders!

With intentions of buying a new Holland Lop breeding doe or two, I looked at several from the Open breeders.  I saw many nice does of which any/all would of probably worked well for me, but I settled on one from Laini’s Lovables - a nice brood doe with Swandt’s, Sarah’s, Swade’s and others in the background.  I really like this doe - she’s got a nice body and bone, and a good crown with should help with my herd.  I forgot to look at some breeders’ rabbits because I was kind of a zombie from lack of sleep……

I felt kind of strange bringing only one Holland Lop of my own to show but this spring I just didn’t breed much - then when my daughter decided to sell out of her French Lops in June, that threw a wrench of uncertainty into my rabbitry plans so I didn’t breed for summer litters either.  This one solid junior doe is out of a litter of two - and her brother turned out to be a normal sized rabbit.

I was pretty happy to hear that Allan Ormond was going to judge Hollands - he’s an excellent, high quality Holland judge and you can take to the bank any comments he makes about your Holland Lops………

Despite my doe acting like a psycho on the show table, judge Ormond did get some good poses from her and she showed off a bit.  She won her large class, then Best of Variety- and with some awesome comments from the judge!   I guess she’ll go to ARBA Convention even if I don’t go.

Patrick Reilly won BOB with his broken black buck, and I didn’t see who won BOS - but it was one of the broken does.  Congrats!!  Really nice Hollands everyone has! 

After the Holland judging was over, I left for home - I debated on whether or not to stick around and visit longer, but knew I had so much to still do at home so I ended up leaving at about 3:30.     

Of course I went home and bred some does…….   next show is Dodgeville  - one of my favorites because of the short drive, large building and homemade pie! 

Cathy

This may be the last post I can make for a few weeks or so - the computer I have some of my website stuff on is on the fritz and I need to replace it, or at least replace my hard drive.  I am in the process of transfering all my files over the the newer computer we have…I should of finished doing that when I got the newer computer this past winter, but never had the time.

During July, Reilly’s loaned me a broken chocolate Polish buck to breed to two of my does - so I could get some brokens.  Last week my chocolate doe had a litter of 5; four are broken chocolate, plus one solid chocolate!  She is an attentive mom too - I keep pulling fur off her litter (it is still quite hot around these parts!) and she covers them back up with more pulled fur! 

My black Polish doe finally had her litter - she had only two kits on the 33 day.  One kit is quite large and had more fur than a newborn normally has, so I suspect this was delaying the birth-luckily both came out ok.  The other kit is a normal sized solid chocolate. 

One young Holland from our last litter is looking pretty nice - she poses quite naturally and her timidness actually causes her to ‘freeze’ into a pose when manipulated gently.  Her head is just starting to pop out too - so we’ll have to wait to see how she developes. 

Her brother is appearing to be a ‘normal’ Hollands, but does he have a nice body, nice bone and his head is going to be huge!  Jody named him ‘Big Friendly Guy’, of all things, because he pulls a lot of antics to get attention!  Actually…….if his ears were not so large (they are shaped nicely, just simply large) he’d probably show well given that the standard took out the smaller ideal Holland weight……..

This thick, humid weather has everyone suffering lately - usually our Wisconsin summers don’t get this brutal until August, but this heat spell started at the beginning of July without a let up, and I don’t see any relief anytime soon either. 

All my rabbits are beginning to molt now - so I am constantly battling flying fur in my rabbitry - what a challenge to keep all the fans cleaned and running smootly!  I am sick and tired of inhaling fur, pulling it out of my eye sockets and, by gosh, I can’t even bring a soda out in the rabbitry (unless it is in a capped bottle) or I’d be drinking fur also!

I have to admit, I am getting more and more excited about the start of the fall rabbit show season!  I can’t wait to get back into it all - and see rabbit people again!  I am hoping to not have too many weekend conflicts so I can attend several area rabbit shows, and since Jody and Kelly will not be showing, I will be able to count on them to take care of my bunnies at home while I am gone! 

Off to rabbit chores, stay cool!

Cathy

The two Polish does I bred last month each had their litters over the past few days!  Finally I’ll have some Polish babies - I am so excited!  I was worried that the one doe could have some lilac babies with the coloring in both her and the buck’s backgrounds, but the kits are all black. 

Sweety doe, Jody’s Holland, also had her litter.  She had 5 babies, but crushed two of them and one looks like it was pulled apart at birth (perhaps she had trouble delivering this last one, it looked abnormal) but the two remaining are doing fine.  We should of bred more Hollands along with her, but I wanted to treat all the other rabbits for coccidia last month so no others were bred.

Kelly hasn’t wanted to rebreed any more French Lops.  I truly think she is easing back on her rabbits - and already has a lot of them to care for.  I can’t fault her - she seems to know when she is nearing her limit of animals to care for and refuses to breed more.  She’s got the last two litters still; none of them have been shown yet because we haven’t been able to get to any rabbit shows in April! 

Well I am just excited to actually have my own Polish babies - I’ve always wanted my own rabbits to show myself.  Soon I’ll be able to attend rabbit shows, even when the kids can’t go! 

I suppose I can bring a few Hollands along to show also, since Jody and I ‘merged’ all our Holland stock at the beginning of the year.  Jody and I are now just one ‘open exhibitor’ as far as the Hollands go.  Jody hasn’t much interest in showing anymore, but does not want to give up his funny Hollands - he still cares for them every day without fail.  I have to say, the Hollands are the funniest and most personable rabbits I’ve ever seen - they captivate us daily with new antics. 

Each rabbit has a distinct personally and is so different from the next one; Little Bear is so spastic and never stops running back and forth for attention - if you listen closely to him, you can hear him humming loudly and blowing air out of his open mouth - while he runs back and forth in front of you!  “Prairie Dog”, a younger buck out of Shorty, is always sitting up on his hindlegs while he eats his hay every night, and of course, Wire, or ‘Musso’ as Jody calls him has to have a fresh piece of cardboard every night and he’s specific about it - the cardboard must be approximately 4″ square and we must put a small hole in the center so he has a ‘handle’.  In response to anyone talking to him, Wire picks up his carboard piece and carries it around his cage, whirling in small intricate circles, all the while making sure his audience is watching him.  He is truly insulted if we give him a too-large piece of cardboard, or an awkward-shaped piece and admonishes us by stuffing it in his water bowl instead of carrying it around. 

Sweety doe (Naragon doe) finally had her first successful litter - 5 were born but two were dead and a third is a peanut - but we are very excited!

Our tort doe out of Little Bear had her litter, but two were on the wire, the third in the box - a blue sired by Zack!  Due to the extreme cold at the time, I put this baby in with Sweety’s surviving kits and all have been doing well.

Our new Camelot doe from Zablers did have one baby on the wire, but this is a young doe with her first litter so we didn’t expect a lot more….

The fourth doe we bred did have one baby but I believe she had a hard time with it and had to pull it out as the baby appeared so and was dead. 

Not much luck this fall with Holland breeding - not sure why, everyone seems very healthy and active - guess it just isn’t in the cards right now.

We are very excited - Kelly has two French Lop litters due this week, although she isn’t sure one of her bucks was quite old enough to produce a litter, so we’ll have to just see if the doe has any.

Jody and I bred 4 Hollands who are all due this week - keeping our fingers crossed - especially since two will be first-time moms.

And of course,  most importantly (hehehe) I have a couple of my new Polish does bred for this week too - I can’t wait for my own Polish bunnies!

If the weather would cooperate here - been pretty cold, blowing wind, temps in the teens all week……

Wow, I just finally scanned over our current Holland Lop pages in our website and realized that over summer I had intended to update the pictures of our own Holland Lop stock…..and never did.

I guess we’ll have to spend some time this week taking pictures!  Our foundation stock pages are pretty current, but I think I was going to try to take replacement pictures of a few of our foundation Hollands, to replace the current poor pictures.

Thinking back, when I decided to take new pics, I believe all our bunnies were in a horrid molt from this crazy Wisconsin weather this summer - you know……90 degrees one day and 50 degrees the next - just been a hard year to keep nice coats going!

Well I’ll post here when we get some nice new pics put in, several of our current rabbits are even missing from our website and I am sure they’d all want to be movie stars if given the chance..you know those Hollands!

Cathy

Last night I bred several of our does:  I bred three of my newer Polish does, two chocolates and one black.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about this breed.  Not only are they the perfect size for both our rabbitry and for me, but I find them to be quite funny little rabbits.  I am really looking forward to these litters and showing my own Polish rabbits in 2007!

We also bred some of Jody’s Holland does.  We bred Shorty to Candycane and the Narragon ’sweety’ doe, and bred Muggins to the doe that Tina Zabler gave us at the last show - this should be a nice cross, with Muggin’s exceptional crown, ears and bone! 

We also bred a doe to Kelly’s only Holland Lop, Zack - he’s not a showable color and he’s about a ounce over the top weight limit for Hollands, but he’s got just an awesome body, ears and head, plus an outstanding personality.  The doe we chose to breed to him produces tiny rabbits, so we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping we don’t create a mess of strange Hollands with this cross.

Last month we went through all our Holland Lops.  We did need to step back and take a serious look at our Hollands and decide which ones can contribute exceptional qualities to our herd. 

It can be difficult to cull with the lines we have - almost all are very slow developers and many don’t mature until they are well into adulthood.  As an example - YRA Shorty;  we got him from Eric Henning when Shorty was just a little guy - probably 3-4 months old at the most.  Other than his obviously short body, he was quite an ugly Holland with major airplane ears and just a plain underdeveloped type to him.  Eric kept promising he’d turn out nice, “be patient” (there’s that evil word again - Patience, this word haunts many Holland breeders)

Well two years after we got Shorty, this rabbit placed 2nd senior broken buck at the 2005 ARBA Convention!  He deserved it too - he is an absolutely gorgeous Holland Lop, but he spent his earlier days as quite a strange looking creature. 

Well I am certain I’ll need another dose of patience for our youngsters and upcoming litters.

Back to work -

Cathy

Last week, we were finally graced with YRA Shorty’s first litter….actually only one kit as one littermate was a peanut, and the other littermate was born dead.

A fat little broken tort, and the doe (LaReau’s 57LL) is being an excellent mom!  Very excited about this baby - can’t wait for more.