New website / Rabbitry name

Well I'm still waiting on something for the website but I figured I would go ahead and release it today so I can get some opinions on it. Please let me know if you see any typos or have any recommendations! (Especially the sales policy...)

The reason behind marketing "Astrex Rabbits" is because I didn't want to write, "Meat mutts; the rabbit mixes we dispatch and consume." :roll: Plus, I feel it's really quite neat and a lot of people haven't heard of it before. And it sounds better publicly than meat mutts do. Anyone come up with a more eloquent term for meat mutt?

I really like Wix's free website templates but man is that URL a mouthful, and I had to figure out something to put at the start of it and finally settled on "European Rabbits" because they are all technically european breeds. I wish I didn't have to have anything there at all as it makes it sort of long. Rabbits, rabbit, bunny, bunnies, rabbitry were already taken so I had to get a little more creative.

https://europeanrabbits.wixsite.com/rattlercreek
(Also FB page: https://www.facebook.com/RattlerCreek/)

Yeah, we chose Rattler Creek as the new rabbitry name. I like it because it reminds me of growing up in the boonies and needing to watch out for rattlesnakes as we traipsed around the acreage and down to the creek. My husband likes it because it sounds "Bad A**" lmao. It's not a "great" name or anything, but I do enjoy it and it brings back childhood memories of the good 'ol days.

So check it out! It looks really pretty on the desktop but it does have a nice mobile view as well, though the background disappears in mobile.

(Logos were $5 off Fiverr.com)

I love your website!!! Your sales policy is very similar to mine. I just however do not sell beyond local unless at a show, and I give them 2 weeks for if the rabbit gets sick or dies. I will either replace the rabbit at no charge, taking the sick ones back, or I will offer to pay for the vet exam and medication if needed. Though if it is found that the buyer/adapter has changed feed without transitioning properly, they are responsible for all vet care.

(Edited to add that I send home with buyer a 3 week supply of pellets and hay for transition.)

I did search for sales policies on the forum to see what others had suggested, and I did a google search for "rabbitry" and then dug around in other people's sales policies to get a general idea of what I wanted to do. So some things may indeed be really similar if you had posted it on the forum but I tried not to use the same wording.

I was reading that any longer than 48-72 hours and there are so many different factors in effect in the new home such as the owner free feeding the rabbit just carrots or something and then if it dies in a week you're just replacing it with another rabbit that may not last due to their neglect. I mean you're really running off an honor system and it's up to them to tell you if they did something wrong... =\

i set mine at two weeks with the caveat that if the rabbit has died of obvious neglect or mishandling etc. if the person told me the rabbit died and i asked the standard questions (what did you feed it? did you transition slowly? did you feed it something from the yard? dis you chase it around the house for no reason? etc) and they told me it was because they fed it nothing but carrots...no you aren't getting another rabbit or your money back lol. maybe that's too lenient or too much trouble, though. it's still a work in progress considering i haven't ACTUALLY sold any rabbits yet lol.

I only ever had one rabbit that died of suspicious circumstances right at the 2 week mark. However, the buyer was not refunded. Nor was it replaced. I however will be restructuring my sales/adoption policy to hopefully prevent someone taking advantage of the situation in the future.

Your website looks really really good and I especially like the write-up you have done for your hand raised kits.

If you want something with a smaller URL I'd suggest jimdo, that is what I use. My rabbitry name is "Easy Ears Rabbitry" and the URL for my site is http://easyearsrabbitry.jimdo.com/

But I do love your site! Not sure it would be worth it to switch platforms just for a smaller URL because I think your website looks amazing! Love the woodsy background!

shazza":3631lt1k said:

i set mine at two weeks with the caveat that if the rabbit has died of obvious neglect or mishandling etc...... ......and they told me it was because they fed it nothing but carrots...no you aren't getting another rabbit or your money back lol.

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See, that's what I mean. Especially if you had something in your policy about not refunding or replacing if it were due to their neglect I feel (some) people would make sure NOT to tell you that they only fed it carrots instead of feeding it the food you sent with it. "No! I followed everything you specified to the T!"

alforddm":3631lt1k said:

Your website looks really really good and I especially like the write-up you have done for your hand raised kits.

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Thanks Aldorddm! Can you think of any other questions people might have about the kits? I tried to cover everything there so hopefully it can be helpful to someone in the future.

Easy Ears":3631lt1k said:

If you want something with a smaller URL I'd suggest jimdo, that is what I use. My rabbitry name is "Easy Ears Rabbitry" and the URL for my site is http://easyearsrabbitry.jimdo.com/

But I do love your site! Not sure it would be worth it to switch platforms just for a smaller URL because I think your website looks amazing! Love the woodsy background!

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Thanks Easy Ears! I'm pretty pleased how it turned out, and for free? Excellent.
I used to go with Webs.com for all my free website needs (they have a super simple URL process, it's just webs.com/yourwebsite) but frankly, they just aren't as pretty as Wix! I couldn't believe all the bells and whistles I kept running into with building it out with Wix, they even have a spot where you customize the mobile view and it doesn't effect the desktop view. Really snazzy. So yeah, I'll probably stick with them even though the URL is lengthy. People tend to click on links these days more than they type them in so I think I'm okay, :lol:

Nice website Easy Ears! Jimbo does look to be a nice platform for hosting.

2CrazyFools":j0ci5udd said:

shazza":j0ci5udd said:

i set mine at two weeks with the caveat that if the rabbit has died of obvious neglect or mishandling etc...... ......and they told me it was because they fed it nothing but carrots...no you aren't getting another rabbit or your money back lol.

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See, that's what I mean. Especially if you had something in your policy about not refunding or replacing if it were due to their neglect I feel (some) people would make sure NOT to tell you that they only fed it carrots instead of feeding it the food you sent with it. "No! I followed everything you specified to the T!"

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yeahhh that's why i said it might be a work in progress type deal. if i end up with issues i'll change it but for now we'll see how it goes. like i said i haven't even actually sold a rabbit alive yet, haha.

i kinda plan to skirt it by just not really selling pets tbh. it seems like it's always the pet people that do stuff like feed a rabbit only carrots and kill it then refuse to fess up...and i've worked in animal shelters too long to trust ANYONE in the general public to take proper care of an animal that is generally considered "disposable". i won't say i'll never sell a pet, but i will be incredibly picky about it. At least the meat/show people usually know what to feed a rabbit anyway lol

I love the rabbitry name, Crazy!!!

And the website is super easy to navigate... loved the page about your bottle babies!

:greatjob:

The site looks great and your husband is correct about the name. LOL

shazza":1yur2ojw said:

i kinda plan to skirt it by just not really selling pets tbh. it seems like it's always the pet people that do stuff like feed a rabbit only carrots and kill it then refuse to fess up...and i've worked in animal shelters too long to trust ANYONE in the general public to take proper care of an animal that is generally considered "disposable". i won't say i'll never sell a pet, but i will be incredibly picky about it. At least the meat/show people usually know what to feed a rabbit anyway lol

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This makes me uncomfortable too, I've really toyed with not selling the kits at all since I truly don't know what sort of home they are going to and it may be more humane just to give them a super happy and healthy 8-12 weeks of life, then a quick dispatch. Instead of, I don't know, getting squished by a kid, ears pulled, nip at them in defense and then get stuck in a cage without interacted until it eventually dies from a sickly cage not getting cleaned. There's so many worse-case-scenarios that could occur for these poor guys I'm really not jazzed about selling them. Maybe just don't sell to pet homes is a good idea, at least meat and show people take care of them. :|

Nymphadora":1yur2ojw said:

I love the rabbitry name, Crazy!!!

And the website is super easy to navigate... loved the page about your bottle babies!

:greatjob:

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Thanks girl! I couldn't help but give them their own page... :in_love:

TheChad":1yur2ojw said:

The site looks great and your husband is correct about the name. LOL

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Lol! Thanks Chad ^_^ the other name he wanted was Fury Creek, but there wasn't any attachment to that name for me so I finally nixed it, lol.

How much does Wix charge to have a custom domain name? If you register your own they are only about $12/yr. The dot com names are a bit limited anymore but rattlercreekrabbitry.com is available :lol: Even if you don't plan to use it right away you may want to go ahead and register it so that no one else takes it. Not an extremely high possibility given that particular name but you never know.

It's not important enough to pay for it each year, and the hubby wants to purchase a domain name here soon anyway so I may piggyback off his later, but more than likely I'll just stick with a nice free domain that can't be easily linked to me. (I don't like how easy it is to look up who owns a domain name as well as their address.) I mean sure, I put a lot of information out on the web publicly, but my legal name? Address? Nope.

I wonder if you can register a domain under an alias... maybe everyone just uses their real name because the don't know how easy it is to see it? I mean, I could always pay to hide that information, but then I'm paying two fees when it could be "free" just because the URL is a mouthful, lol.

#Paraniod. it's my husband's fault, I wasn't this paranoid before I met him and started going to cyber security conferences with him. Good idea though!

Depending on who you register with domain privacy can be free. It's free with google domains. GoDaddy charges I think an extra $4 per yr.

The $12 a yr is just to register the domain though. It doesn't include hosting. To me it's worth it. I have several domains :lol: Some of them I don't do anything with but may eventually. :lol:

I'm late to the party here . . . Our Internet connection has been cutting in and out for the past two days.

I really like your rabbitry name and website . . . and especially the hand-fed kits' page.

BUT . . . What's with your avatar? Your username is 2CrazyFools and I only see one CF astride that bounding excuse for a cayuse. :lol: Worse, that looks like your hubby. So where the heck are you???

A cayuse? "Cayuse is an archaic term used in the American West, usually referring to a feral or low-quality horse or pony." It's a large rabbit Maggie! :lol: I was always a fan of those old pictures that depicted a cowboy riding a jackrabbit.

For example:


So that's sort of what this is.

As far as who it looks like... how do you know that's not a depiction of me? With my bulging biceps. :mrgreen:

A cayuse? "Cayuse is an archaic term used in the American West, usually referring to a feral or low-quality horse or pony." It's a large rabbit Maggie! :lol: I was always a fan of those old pictures that depicted a cowboy riding a jackrabbit.

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Ahem. I was kidding, calling the rabbit a cayuse. I was going to say "bounding excuse for a horse" but cayuse rhymes and I liked how it sounded.
:rotfl: :rotfl:

As far as who it looks like... how do you know that's not a depiction of me? With my bulging biceps. :mrgreen:

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How did I know? 'Cause I saw your picture on your website. Also saw the caricatures of you and your hubby. That bunny is big enough for the two of you to ride double--why should he have all the fun?

Nice site. I do 24 hours health with feed for three days.

Learned over 10 years selling that 24 hours is sufficient and covers stressy bunnies. Anything longer than three days is asking for people to be lacking in honesty

MaggieJ":1kg4s1od said:

A cayuse? "Cayuse is an archaic term used in the American West, usually referring to a feral or low-quality horse or pony." It's a large rabbit Maggie! :lol: I was always a fan of those old pictures that depicted a cowboy riding a jackrabbit.

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Ahem. I was kidding, calling the rabbit a cayuse. I was going to say "bounding excuse for a horse" but cayuse rhymes and I liked how it sounded.
:rotfl:

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I added the definition just in case anyone else didn't know what that was... because I had to google it!

MaggieJ":1kg4s1od said:

How did I know? 'Cause I saw your picture on your website. Also saw the caricatures of you and your hubby. That bunny is big enough for the two of you to ride double--why should he have all the fun?

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To tell the truth, I actually have vey large biceps for a woman, especially for a 4'11" woman. Bench pressed 180lbs at a competition in 2015 :lol: But I won't show off my flexing muscles here and I'll keep it rabbit related!

You're right, the rabbit IS big enough for two! But they are a bit more fragile than horses right? Perhaps the gentleman astride the bun is nearing the weight limit? Actually I doubt I could have gotten that complex from the Fiverr people for just $5, they would have made me up my price and I didn't want to pay more, lol.

ladysown":1kg4s1od said:

Nice site. I do 24 hours health with feed for three days.

Learned over 10 years selling that 24 hours is sufficient and covers stressy bunnies. Anything longer than three days is asking for people to be lacking in honesty

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Yeah, I've seen health coverages anywhere from "Check it before you take it, no returns or refunds after it leaves my care" to like 3 months I think is the longest I saw, but those were for very, very pricy bunnies. The most common seems to be 24-72 hours, and most don't mention how long the feed will last. I fill up a quart sized baggy for the kits with the brand written on it with permanent marker, I know for sure it lasts more than a week. At that age they might eat a half a cup a day and in that case they have 8 days worth of food for transition. For the hay I just stuff a walmart trash sack full and tie it at the top, and then it depends on the bunny as to how long that will last. I have rabbits that just CHOW DOWN on the hay (Poker Alice) or buns that never touch it (Buffalo Bill). <br /><br /> __________ Tue May 02, 2017 10:17 am __________ <br /><br />

alforddm":1kg4s1od said:

Depending on who you register with domain privacy can be free. It's free with google domains. GoDaddy charges I think an extra $4 per yr.

The $12 a yr is just to register the domain though. It doesn't include hosting. To me it's worth it. I have several domains :lol: Some of them I don't do anything with but may eventually. :lol:

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Just now saw this! It got hidden on the previous page. I could totally see it being free for Google domains, they don't seem to be big on charging the public for things... they just want your information. :shock: Ah, google has all my information already, it's too late for that. :lol:

I think Wix charges $14 normally per month for domain name and a slew of other things (unlimited bandwidth, hosting, more GB, etc...) and they often do 50% off deals but still... it's not that important. Ah, I just looked, they do have a $5 a month where you connect your own domain, and have a little more wiggle room with bandwidth and MB. So $12+$60 (or $30 if it's 50% off) which would be about $42-$72 per year if I wanted to stick with Wix.

I'll stay with free for now, lol. But it's worth thinking about for the future if it gains importance to me.