Astrex coated meat mutt project

[shazza]

as stated a few pages ago, there was a movement to create astrex as a breed a few years ago, but there are some heath issues associated with selecting for it within a few generations. liver issues, i think, as well as general unthriftiness. it doesn't seem to be much of a problem to have one or two, but actively breeding several generations of astrex can have problems, so it hasn't really taken off.

 

[2CrazyFools]

Boy... Alice sure is a pill when she's prego! Talk about a royal diva gone bad! :shock: I still love her

So for the last few days Poker Alice has been working really hard on her nest. AKA hole in the ground. She's not staching or anything (I'd be concerned about a false pregnancy) but she's very serious about getting this hole dug and keeping me and everyone else OUT OF IT. I'll pull her down out of her cage and set her on the ground for some exercise and she races over to "her" hole and goes to town, It wasn't there three days ago. I took some video, lol, dirty girl.

Then I put her up and let the cutie pie kits down to stretch their legs (and cuddles for me..) and Alice goes nuts! Racing around in her cage eyeing those babies on the ground with a sourpuss look. "Little RATS are going to RUIN MY HOLE." :| She was so mad, lol. (See video at 1:30)

I feel very confident she's pregnant as she is certainly acting different!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j53vXhcoQ0o[/youtube]

Hopefully the next update will be around the 23rd and will have pictures of naked bald kits! .. If she'll let me close enough with my camera :lol: And NO, I will not let her kindle in her "den" no matter how delux she makes it.

 

[LittleFluffyBunnies]

Oh Alice :lol: Reminds me of my doe, she does the same thing. When she was pregnant she dug a huge hole in her run and was obsessed with it. My favorite thing as well is when they are serious about burrowing and do what we call "the pushy-dirt-thing" :lol: It's when they push away the dug out dirt with their front paws. It's adorable. Then when I went to get her out she folded herself into the hole and when I tried to pick her up she flopped and slithered like a snake to stay in it.

It sure sounds like Alice is preggo! Fingers crossed for some adorable popples

 

[Nymphadora]

"Little RATS are going to RUIN MY HOLE." :| She was so mad, lol.

:rotfl:
Woooohoo, go Alice, go! Hahaha, you’ve got Alice’s voice down pat, Crazy! Guess that’s what happens when you spend so much time with them and play favorites. She sure does look peeved to have you anywhere near that little burrow, though!

“I am NOT making this nursery nice just so you people can destroy it with your big clumsy shoes and those little lintballs [aka kits] flying around! Shoo! Shoo, I say!”

Hopefully the next update will be around the 23rd and will have pictures of naked bald kits! .. If she'll let me close enough with my camera :lol: And NO, I will not let her kindle in her "den" no matter how delux she makes it.

:lol:
Wonder if she’ll even be interested in her nestbox since she’s obviously charmed with her hole in the ground. Which, I have to admit, does looks like she’s put a good bit of effort into. Good little mama Alice! I can’t wait to see her kits… :in_love:

 

[2CrazyFools]

Well it ended up raining off an on after that week that Alice went to town digging her den under that tree, so it's been filled with water ever since! Therefore she quickly lost interest with it.

Also, I'm happy to note, she stopped being such a pill after the first few weeks of pregnancy. She was still slightly temperamental and occasionally attacked the trespassing mulberry branches that I put into her cage but stopped threatening me :lol:

Yesterday was day 31 for Alice and it got to the 90s, not only that but it was incredibly muggy and sticky... so I brought Alice into the indoor quarantine hutch for some AC treatment. She was pretty jazzed. Later that evening I put her back outside but when I checked on her a few hours later and the night was STILL hot and muggy, she just looked miserable so I went, "Looks like you're sleeping indoors tonight girl."

She started pulling fur at 3:15am and kindled at 3:30am! 7 brand new poppies! From initial inspection we have 1 heavy broken kit, 1 black kit, and 5 white kits. One of the white kits is definitely a runt so I'll need to keep an eye on that one. Unfortunately she didn't pull much fur, I mean it was adequate but I suppose I'm used to my does pulling enough for two separate nests, lol.

Such a good girl! (You can see the runt in the front)


All shelved away!


Proud Momma with her war paint on!


And because she's a spoiled brat I let her run around the room and do a happy dash. :lol: How does she have this much energy post kindle?!


I started giving her a daily tablespoon of both calf-manna and BOSS about 5 days ago, and after she kindled this morning I mixed up some oats and molasses for her to help with the iron from blood loss. She liked the oats BEFORE I added the drizzle of molasses. :roll: But happily accepted the dandelion.

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

Awesome gratz! bet you're exited to see if any of em will pop up as astrex also!

 

[2CrazyFools]

I sure am! But at this point I'm just glad they are all alive and wiggly :in_love: Also, I thought it was a broken black kit and I just looked again, nope! It's a broken BLUE kit! I've never produced a blue before so I'm excited! I've had quite a few broken black so I just assumed "Oh, yeah, that makes sense with that line."

They definitely seem a little smaller than normal, but I guess that may make sense because they came from a first time mother? Really only one looks to be the size I'm accustomed to seeing.

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

It might still be a broken black, give time for the fur to grow.

For some reason tinypic isnt letting me upload a picture tonight, my internet must be lagging or something.
Take a look on my website insted : http://kimitsukouseki.wixsite.com/bunbun-stories/2017-05-05-onyxdatenshi
That page is my page for the litter I got my astrex from. Notice how one of the newborns is much paler then the others? You'd think it was blue, at least I did. I was like wow a double mane blue lucky! yeah right :/
That pale baby, that's the one who became the black astrex you've seen in my post. Seams the astrex gene did something to make the skin at birth look like blue insted. By the time the others had almost full fur she was still naked and her skin had darkened to black. Took a few more days before the curly fur showed up. It's why I hadn't realised she was astrex until day 14.

So wait and see, maybe its a broken blue or maybe its a broken black astrex.

 

[2CrazyFools]

It might still be a broken black, give time for the fur to grow.

You're probably right, I really think it must have been the lighting when I looked at them because I swear it was grey skin and the black kit had DARK grey. I've had broken black kits before and it really looked blue! However when I weighed them this morning it was pretty obvious it was going to be black, lol.

So wait and see, maybe its a broken blue or maybe its a broken black astrex.

That'd be really cool if it turned out to be a broken black astrex kit... it certainly would have been a keeper if that were the case.

Kit pics! I couldn't get Alice to feed them yesterday evening but they weren't acting super hungry either so I didn't worry about it, but this morning they were mewling like crazy when I grabbed the shelf to take outside. I put them into Alice's nest box and she hopped right! All pissy pregnancy attitude has evaporated and she had no problem with my hands reaching in and out of the nest box moving kits over to her to eat. I went back 5 minutes later to see her outside of the box and I checked the kits. All were nice and round!







Weights: 5/29/17

Alpha – 2.95 (black)
Bravo – 2.5 (broken)
Charlie – 2.8
Delta – 2.6
Echo – 2.2
Foxtrot – 1.9
India – 1.6 (runt)

Oh! And they are not popcorning to my touch or smell, so my theory is that because I shelved them 30 minutes after birth, and picked them up practically immediately they aren't even mildly fearful of my scent. I usually shelve right away when I see the rabbit has kindled but that can be quite a few hours after birth and they've always been little popcorn kernels when I pick them up to take them in or out for feeding. Not this time. Not one popcorn. Kind of neat! <br /><br /> __________ Sun May 28, 2017 4:34 pm __________ <br /><br /> Just thought, "Their fur isn't in yet but I could check and see if any whiskers are curly..."

I'm 70% sure the broken has curly whiskers! I checked the black and three whites and they all looked straight as arrows but the broken... I think they're curly!

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

They're adorable.

I'm 70% sure the broken has curly whiskers! I checked the black and three whites and they all looked straight as arrows but the broken... I think they're curly!

See I told you to wait and see. I think astrex acts similarly to how double mane lionheads are affected at birth. Double mane causes the V pattern where the sides remain pink at birth even if it's a full black. Seems astrex does the same thing to the whole body to a lesser extent.

I know you're worried about snuffles but give them a chance, maybe they wont catch it and that way you could keep the broken if it's an astrex. But I understand wanting to be safe.

 

[alforddm]

Those are some well fed kits. I think they are not popcorning because they are too full :lol:

 

[2CrazyFools]

Those are some well fed kits. I think they are not popcorning because they are too full :lol:

Hahaha, you may be right! Alice fed them this evening so they are again little butterballs!

Dem whiskers :in_love: (the super long strands are fur from the nest) I will say that a lot of Alice's whiskers have broken off so the curl actually weakened the strands. :|

 

[alforddm]

Oh yes, those are def curly. Can't wait to see what the coat looks like.

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

I'm happy for you ^^ can't wait to see how he gets by day 14 ish

 

[2CrazyFools]

Anyone want to play, "Guess the Astrex?" There's two in this litter Kimitsu, I feel you've got the upper hand on this one as what you had said previously has followed true with these guys. You can even tell in the group picture I had posted previously before they had much fur at all.


I'm very excited about this little guy! I'm really digging his markings and he even has some small spots on his belly! :in_love:


Apparently Alice is a "once-a-day" feeder, I've never had one of those before! My other does always fed once in the morning and once in the evening, but when I put the kits in for the evening she just looks at me all bored like, "Well, that's nice of you to put them in 8 hours early for me," and refuses to even visit them, lol. But at least when she does feed them, my goodness she feeds them well! She hops out and they all look dead. Laying on their sides not moving until I prod one and it kind of rolls over like a Violet from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory :lol: So I guess she nurses until they fall off, "Well my work here is done!"

Since I'm probably going to keep the broken astrex (Bravo) I put him and the runt (India) into the box first to ensure they get first pick of nipples and they always have the biggest bellies, the runt is especially cute with her small little body and big ol' belly.

In oz, post feeding.

Alpha –Black
Bravo – Broken Astrex
Foxtrot – REW Astrex
India – REW Runt

5/28/17
Alpha – 2.95
Bravo – 2.5
Charlie – 2.8
Delta – 2.6
Echo – 2.2
Foxtrot – 1.9
India – 1.6

5/30/17
Alpha – 3.6 (+0.6)
Bravo – 3.1 (+0.6)
Charlie – 3.5 (+0.7)
Delta – 3.5 (+0.9)
Echo – 3.2 (+1)
Foxtrot – 2.8 (+0.9)
India – 2.3 (+0.7)

6/01/17
Alpha – 4.3 (+0.7)
Bravo – 3.8 (+0.7)
Charlie – 4.0 (+0.5)
Delta – 3.9 (+0.4)
Echo – 3.8 (+0.6)
Foxtrot – 3.4 (+0.6)
India – 3.0 (+0.7)

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

That's awesome crazy! Im so hapy for you !
Cute white astrex, but the broken is awesome ^^

 

[Nymphadora]

*swoons*

Those kits are adorable, Crazy! I love them (especially little Bravo). :in_love:

 

[2CrazyFools]

Thank you two!

So I've been out of town these past three days and just got back home tonight. The kits have certainly grown on me! I cannot wait to weight them tomorrow morning to see how many oz they've gained! They are little pudding pies! The white astrex coated kit I'm pretty sure does NOT have ruby colored eyes, so that's neat! Other than that she looks like a fatter version of her momma at that age :lol:

And little Bravo, wowzer, I'm loving this coat! Broken.... gold tipped steel? That's what I originally assumed it was but now I'm thinking perhaps broken chestnut?

Now to pick JUST five pictures to spam y'all with...


Look at those mad scientist whiskers! :in_love:


Cannonball into the pool? :lol:


Little Foxtrot looking mighty tubby.

 

[shazza]

oo bravo is a tough one! my steels usually start looking steely around this age, but i always know which ones are steel when they're born. chestnut will have a white belly/chin and inner ears, a steel will be dark all over. but bravo has white on all the important places, even his ears! he has light fur in his ears, but no eye ring like a chestnut would have. mysterious! you'll know within a week or so though.

ugh they're so cute though so jealous of the astrex haha

 

[2CrazyFools]

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii"

Bravo does have a white chin for sure, however I think he has some dark spots on his belly. Would that rule out chestnut? The people on the Facebook group "Rabbit color genetics" are saying the only possibility is a brassy or smutty silver tipped steel, and that Southern Belle and Pips were both actually silver tipped black steel instead of gold tipped black steel based on their parents.

Well Shazza, you get to live vicariously through these pictures, goodness knows I take enough of them! :shock: