Told You So, Part 2. Ugh.

Well, first off, let me say that by all appearances I was right about the kits.  The change in their droppings was due to the change in diet because of weaning.  All but one of the kits is hopping around and continues to gain weight.  One, the one whose color we can't figure out, continues to struggle a bit, but he has gained weight today.  Unfortunately, he isn't super active.  But now, as I have finished typing that, he is jumping all over me. 

However, Charlotte was also right.  Unfortunately.  Tootsie continued to deteriorate despite Charlotte's best efforts.  She passed away the next day in Charlotte's arms. 

We have no idea what was wrong.  She would not eat, and had not eaten for a few days.  She would drink, gladly, if Charlotte was feeding her with a medicine dropper.  There weren't any droppings strung together in her pan, like one would expect to find with wool block.  She didn't have a temperature, so there should not have been an infection.  I guess we'll never know.

So now Charlotte has a litter of kits that still need something only a mother can provide.  Fortunately, we have Snowball and her litter of kits, and they are all together now.  While the doe cages are a perfect size for one doe and her kits (about 30" x 60"), it looked a little crowded with 13 kits in there.  Each cage has two doors on it, so Charlotte put them together offset so that one door is free on each side and two doors are wired together in the middle.  It looks like a little bunny paradise now.

It's difficult to tell in the picture, but the kits are really zooming around in their paradise.

You can see the twist ties Charlotte used to wire everything together.

Three Weeks Old

Today Snowball's kits are three weeks old.  (So are Tootsie's, but they're not my department.)

Snowball's kits have already started hopping out of the nesting box.  Earlier today, when I went out, all the kits were eating their Magic Mix.  Yesterday, I saw one of the REWs drinking from the water bottle.  When the kits are three weeks old, they usually start getting weaned.  They are getting along nicely and are all furry.  We will move them out to the bunny barn soon. 

 

 

 

The wool colors, or our perceptions of them, have not changed, unlike with Tootsie's kits.  Snowball still has four REWs, two lilacs, and one chocolate.

 

 

Fur Color in Tootsie's Current Litter of Kits

When Tootsie's current litter of kits was born, we thought there were two self blacks, two self chocolates, and three self lilacs.  As they have grown their fur this past week, we have seen some changes.  We have seen that Snowball's self chocolate is a much deeper shade.  Snowball's lilacs are also much lighter than Tootsie's lilacs.  I am beginning to suspect that Tootsie's "lilacs" are actually smoke pearls or chinchillas.  The chinchilla light gene, written in the genotype as cchl, occurs in Tootsie's maternal and paternal grandparents.  If so, this means that Ninja and Tootsie will produce a much wider range of colors in their kits than I previously thought. 

One of the two blacks looks like it is becoming an agouti, which is impossible, so....  The other one just looks black.

Well, actually, the camera makes it look like there are only three colors.

But, trust us, they are very different in color in person.

The two "chocolates" are different colors.

The three "lilacs" are all different colors.

It's all very suspenseful.

Elation!!

We haven't posted in the last week due to extreme computer problems.  The old one was terminal for quite some time and finally bit the dust. 

The new one was rejected by its previous owner, #1 son, shortly after purchase.  Probably because it is a piece of junk.  But that's just a guess on my part. 

Now, on to the reason you're here.  Bunnies.  Lots of bunnies.

Tootsie and Snowball both kindled early Tuesday morning, one day earlier than anticipated.  Honey, the 4-leg grand champion, has not.  Maybe she thinks her good looks are all she needs.

Anyway, back to the kits.  Snowball had eleven kits, seven of which survived.  One was clearly stillborn; she didn't clean it at all.  Two she cleaned partially, but we figure she decided they weren't going to make it and didn't finish cleaning.  One--we figure it was the first--was born outside the nesting box.  We didn't even find it until the next day.  It had been perfectly cleaned up, but it looked like Snowball had bitten both back legs off.  Kinda gruesome.  Snowball did not do anything like this with her previous litter or with any of the other current kits.  My best guess is that because this one was outside the nesting box, she was trying to get it back in, ... and didn't realize the strength of her teeth. 

Of Snowball's surviving kits, four are REWs.  Two appear to be self lilacs and one appears to be a self chocolate.  They are all pretty quiet, like one would expect of rabbit kits.

Snowball's kits, Day 1

Tootsie had seven kits, and all seven have survived so far.  Two are black, two appear to be chocolate, and three appear to be lilac.  These are the squawkingish bunch of kits ever. 

Tootsie's kits, Day 1


If you would like to be put on the waiting list for purchasing kits, send us an email at blackdiamondbunnies@gmail.com.  They will be ready for new homes January 4, 2015.  We prefer to have buyers come here to our rabbitry in Reno, but we can bring rabbits to rabbit shows as well.  We will be at the California state convention in Turlock February 28.

Preparing for Kits To Arrive

Starting two weeks before the kits are due, turn on a radio or CD player at night to calm rabbits and drown out unwanted noise from cars or coyotes or other predators that could be lurking outside.  If you have neighborhood dogs or children you will definitely want to run the radio all day and night.

One week before the kits are due, you will definitely want to clean and sanitize the doe’s cage, pan, and nesting box.  Hay is expensive, so you will want to use some shredded paper.  Try not to use thicker paper, or paper with sharp edges. 

Pluck, comb, or shear the doe’s wool the week before the kits are due so that there is no wool long enough to wrap around little baby bunny legs or ears.  Also, you can cut the wool the doe pulls herself into small pieces.  One week before the kits are due, do not move the doe any more. 

Two to three days before the kits are due, put the nesting box in.  Do not do this any earlier.  You don’t want it to become a litter box.  

Snowball with a mouthful of hay for rearranging her nest

Finally, start watching for signs of imminent kindling—stuffing hay in mouth, pulling wool, rearranging the nest.  Don’t stress the doe by checking too often, but do check to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Disappointment

Well, this week our public schools are on break.  We homeschool, so this shouldn't make a difference to us, but the girls like to stick with the public school schedule.  So there is a good chance the girls won't post every day, and I will have to fill in.  Like today.

Everyone has finally accepted the fact that of the three bred does, not one kit was born.  Not a single one. 

What happened?

Honestly, we do not know.  We can only guess.

Two of the three does were experienced, or "proven" in the rabbit world.  The lone proven buck was mated with the first-time doe. 

We are pretty sure Snowball was pregnant--she went off her pellets again and would eat only grains and strawberry leaves for a few days. 

In the first two weeks, Tootsie gained a pound.  Porker.

We did experience quite a bit of smoke from the King fire, but I didn't think it was enough to stress them out.  They didn't look stressed.

We took Honey to the Stockton show, so that could have stressed her, but that doesn't explain the other two. 

The girls remembered that last time they played the radio at night so that the does wouldn't be able to hear coyotes prowling outside, and this time they didn't.  But we haven't seen any signs of coyotes around here in quite some time.  Maybe the does just like to listen to music.

The girls are naturally very disappointed.  Hopefully, our next breeding will prove to be a more satisfying experience.

Charlotte re-bred everyone again on Saturday.  Three times.   Same pairings.  The new due date is November 6.

It's all a learning experience. 

Judges and How They Look at Rabbits Differently

I was planning on writing about this after the Gridley show, but I have an English assignment on developing paragraphs by giving examples.

 

As you may recall, we were at the West Coast Classic in May 2014.  That was our first ARBA show and our first experience with multiple shows in a single day.  There we had an eye-opening experience.  

At all our 4-H shows, Snowball was always in the best condition, meaning she always got Best of Breed.  No matter what I did with Ninja or Indy, Snowball always won.  She always had the density and texture.  So I thought that most judges were the same and all was lost for Ninja and Indy.

When we went to the West Coast Classic in May, we all thought Cookie was in the best condition and thought he would win the leg in the youth show.  And indeed, Cookie was favored over Indy in the first show.  The judge detested Indy.  (Indy was a little stressed and it showed, if you know what I mean.)  The next three shows that day, Indy was highly favored over Cookie, to the point where he got the leg in the youth show.  That day I learned that I shouldn’t take only the rabbits I thought were best, but all of them, so I can see what the judges have to say.  The judges all look at rabbits so differently.

At the Truckee Meadows show in July, Snowball won Best of Breed in the first show, beating out her brother Ninja, who still got a leg for Best of Variety.  But surprisingly, in the second show, Ninja trumped and won a second leg for Best of Breed and Snowball got nothing.  

At the Stockton show last month, Muddy was favored in the first show.  He had great wool but lacked a little in density.  He has a great body.  So he got the leg.  However, in the second youth show, Honey got the leg.  The judged was almost drooling over her wool and density.  He was ready to whip out his spinning wheel right then and there.  

So in conclusion, don’t lose heart if your bunny isn’t favored.  He could win a leg in the next show. 

Nesting Boxes

For the first breeding in April 2014, Lydia and I just used some large Rubbermaid clear plastic boxes.  They worked well enough, but Tootsie and Snowball both got stressed and wanted a dark place, like a burrow, to have their kits.  

So we decided the commercial nesting box might be better.   So far, because it is not a Rubbermaid, they have not used them like a litter box, like they did last time.  I like that this one is all metal on the sides and top, and wood on the bottom.   Lydia bought her nesting box (10"x10"x20") for Snowball from KW Cages at the Stockton show earlier this month.  It is all metal, including on the bottom.  I think hers will be easier to sanitize.   And I also think it will be harder for the kits to escape from the nesting box, something they started doing way too early with the Rubbermaid box. The commercial nesting boxes are darker, which new mothers want  when they are going into labor.  Because it’s more enclosed it will hold heat in better, especially important in cooler temperatures.  

Tootsie's thus-far unimproved nesting box

We put shredded newspaper on the bottom of the nesting box to absorb urine.  We then stuffed the nesting boxes full of hay and put them in the does' cages.  This should be done 2-3 days before the kits are due.  (If you put it in too early, the doe will not know why it is there, and she will use it as a litter box.)  At this point the doe will arrange everything just the way she wants it.   

Snowball's improved nest

So far Snowball appears to like her nesting box and has already been working on her nest.  She pulled all the hay out and then put it back in her way.  She has pulled wool and placed it in the darkest corners of the box.  Based on her first experience, we expect that her nest will undergo a few remodels in the next two to three days.

Breeding Fun with a REW (Ruby-Eyed White)

Because you never know what you are going to get

By Lydia

Well, last time we bred Snowball and Cookie, we thought we’d get some brokens and some self chocolates.  Well, if you read some of our early posts, you know how that turned out.  We had a few surprises.  More about that later.

Here are a couple thoughts that might help you in your breedings.

Actually, there are ways to figure out what you might get.  You need to determine your rabbits genotype as best as possible.  But with REWs, this can be hard, because you never know what they might be hiding.  You might a wrong guess, like we did with Snowball.  Actually, it wasn’t us.  The pedigree we got from the breeder indicated she was aa instead of Aa, which she obviously is.  

One way of finding out what colors you may get is using Punnett squares.  It is easy to do, but it can take a long time if your rabbits are very genetically diverse.  

Snowball:  Phenotype--REW; genotype--AaBbccDdE_

The other way is by breeding.  It takes longer to know what your rabbit has, but it’s easier on the brain.  We found out that we should not breed Cookie with Snowball anymore.  Half of their offspring will be unshowable colors, like agouti steels.  Cookie is an absolutely gorgeous broken chocolate.  His parents were both steels.  Cookie is a double steel, but we didn’t realize this--often a double steel cancels out the steel appearance.  It is only by breeding that you can learn whether a rabbit whose parents were both steel is in actuality a double steel. 

Cookie:  Phenotype--broken chocolate; genotype--aabbCCDdEsEs

In this breeding, we also learned that Snowball hides agouti. Since she hides agouti and agouti is dominant, and Cookie is a double steel and steel is dominant, they made steel agouti. Two of their six surviving kits were chocolate steel agouti.  Unshowable.  

Bubbles:  Phenotype--chocolate agouti steel; genotype--AabbCcD_Es_

This go around we are going to identify whether Buddy carries REW.  If he does, half the litter will be REW.  The other colors we are most likely to get are:  agouti, self black, blue agouti, self blue, chocolate agouti, and self chocolate.  The kits are due October 1.