Mini Rex Popples!

So surprised by this doe - 6 kits on her first litter! Typically I was a bit too excited and put the wrong lens on the camera, so please excuse the blurriness - hopefully I can get some better ones later on.






Looking like 4 blues, 1 black, and 1 mystery colour. The doe is a black self (carrying blue and orange) - we've recently found that her dam also carries chocolate- and the buck is blue otter carrying chocolate. The skin on the mystery kit is how it shows on the photos, pink bodied with grey on the ears, around the face and rear end. I think it's coming through with a little bit of blue/lilac fuzz, but it's a little difficult to tell just yet... interested to see what colour this one actually is!
Edited to add that they're 2 days old at the moment.

Congrats! Beautiful kits.

Cute! That mystery color one is a tortoise, looks like some of the blue-ish looking ones may be otters too

Thank you both!
And thanks Sable - I'd totally forgotten that tort was a colour. Not that common in rex over here. I'm guessing this may be a blue tort as her sides match the blue kits more than the black? Never considered it from this buck, he's throwing out all sorts of things I didn't expect - all 7 of his littermates were blue otters. I'm thinking the black may be self, and possibly one of the blues too. Enjoying working out his colour profile for sure.

Having never bred a tort before, the clear demarcation from back to belly colour is really unusual.

It could be either, but it looks more like a black tortoise to me, usually the red over the back is more washed-out looking on a blue tort

It looks like black tortise to me you don't see it very much in rex and it is such a pretty color. Congrats

What snuggly little ones you have there, Rosalaun! Congrats on the popples!

Huh, interesting! Thanks, will have to see what shade we end up with as that one grows... and have the debate of 'if it's a doe I might keep it maybe?' lol

And thanks Nymphadora - the nest she's made is ridiculous, I'm surprised she has any fur left and every time I look they're drowning in fluff. Feel a little mean pulling it off to check them xD

Rosalaun":1zcowgvx said:

And thanks Nymphadora - the nest she's made is ridiculous, I'm surprised she has any fur left and every time I look they're drowning in fluff. Feel a little mean pulling it off to check them xD

Click to expand...

I wish my does would take a lesson from her, then! My girls have been content to dig all the nesting material out of the box, and Judy hardly pulled any fur at all last time around... then again, they're not due for another week, so maybe they'll snap to sooner rather than later! :lol:

Real nice popples, Rosalaun!

When a doe pulls more fur than is needed, it's a good idea to remove and save the extra for those times when a doe doesn't pull enough. There are substitutes you can use, but nothing is better than real rabbit fur for popples.

They're such clever critters really! I had another first-timer due at the same time as this girl, she'd been nesting for the last 2 weeks (had to give her a box far too early), made a lovely nest, destroyed it the day before kindling and had her kits in a flat box. Then after I'd removed the dead kits, she was back to making a nest again :? I'm sure yours will get the idea at the last second just to keep you on your toes

And fair point Maggie, I've just been out and taken about half off the top - we're just starting on a cold snap this week so don't want to shock them too much.

Another quick photo-bomb because I could stare at these guys all day. Excuse the black marker pen in the ears! The 'black' has decided to be a bit chocolate-flavoured for today:


The tort is brightening up nicely:


And the blues aren't really doing anything exciting:


One has decided to be self though which is pretty useful! And one consistently shows up on photos as paler than the rest (ohh lilac?), but I will just carry on calling it a blue for now, they all look very similar in life. Had a quick go at the early sexing business, not convinced I'm too accurate as apparently the black/choc is the only doe Will wait and see on that.

AWWW they are soo cute I can't wait to have popples

Been a bit of a break but here they are at 3 weeks and 5 days - always a fun job trying to get them to stay still long enough to get an in-focus photo. Looking at keeping the tort (still not 100% on sex yet) to try and have a play with breeding the colour out, and the chocolate (still looking to be a doe) will be kept to grow on and likely be replacing her dam later in the year. The face of the 2nd rabbit from the left is definitely adorable though.

They are absolutely gorgeous!

:shock:
How long and how many photos did it take for you to get all the buns so perfectly in line?!
:bow:

They look adorable, all of them!!!

Been a while since I've checked on here! Thankfully I had a second pair of hands for the photos haha although said pair of hands kept playing a game of 'stack the bunnies' which didn't really help
Babies are now 7 weeks and all growing nicely, this is probably the last proper photoshoot for most of them as they're all reserved and going off to their pet homes next week.








Now question time - the colouring on the tort is very light at the moment, is this likely to darken off or does it seem like we're stuck with this odd paler version? She's come up a lovely bright orange, but that strange pale-but-sooty shading is really putting me off! The photo from last week shows the colour more accurately:

Awwww the tortie is so cute :in_love:

Although I'm instantly jealous of your ability to get them all to sit like that. Tell me, what's your secret! This year I'm hoping to get some good pictures for my website and it'd be nice to have some bunny pictures like that.
:bunnyhop:

Thanks Guardian!
Honestly just being patient xD Having a somewhat decent DSLR and taking time to play with all the settings helps things look clearer, along with a tiny bit of editing to remove all the bunny-berries. I brought 4 of them into the house and spent nearly 2 hours working with them. I've been doing this weekly with them, so the first few times they pin themselves on the floor looking terrified, but the 2nd or 3rd time they relax a lot quicker and are right back to jumping and grooming. Some of them will let me pose them (tort and choc), but most will move the second I pull my hand away. Usually I set the camera down, pose the rabbit with one hand, focus the camera with the other, and immediately press the shutter as I move away - often that's quick enough to get them before they run off!

Most of the photos today ended up like this though:

I had to wait a while for them to settle