Shimo has all signs of not being self so she cannot be sallander. I thought maybe tan/otter but now it's believed she's A-agouti. You can see it in the eye rings, there's a throat line, and ear lacing along with a white belly. She also can't just be the agouti version of sallander because sallander is aa cchd ee and if we make it A- cchd ee we get ermine which she is too dark for. Best guess right now is A*B*dd cchl*(probably cchl) E*(possibly ee) which is smoke pearl but with an agouti gene making it a smoke pearl light chin aka blue seal/sable agouti siamese instead of a standard smoke pearl sable. With ee she would be blue seal or sable (depends if there's one or 2 cchl genes) agouti point.
Shimo is an indoor rabbit. She will not shed by temperature if that's what you mean.
__________ Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:53 am __________
Impatiently waiting for mini shimo's. Although I think Shimo is more impatient. I had to cover her cage because she has been digging digging digging and I was sweeping several inches of bedding off that area of the floor every day. Now it's down to a little pile trickling out as it hits the barrier. The sugar glider and parakeets are starting to get annoyed and yell about all her scrambling, bedding flying, hitting the floor of the cage and continuing anyway. I'm sure Amako underneath doesn't appreciate it either.
Upon finding digging wasn't working she tried to use a box as a tunnel but finding that too short she decided the best way to make a tunnel for her kits is to eat through her cage (first one I've had chew on a cage) and I have her in my weakest cage. So I had to line the coroplast frame with metal bars on the inside and she still got to some of it. Being blocked from that she has taken to just digging madly under her feeder for hours at a time. I think I will bring her the really big nest box instead of the mini size one and let her have it early so she can empty it repeatedly and I can fill it repeatedly rather than cage destruction and noise that is driving everyone insane. That is one hormonal rabbit and she's determined her kits will have a nest tunnel not box even though she's not due for another week and she's been at this for more than a week. I threatened to throw her in the little wire bottom quarantine cage last week.
__________ Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:55 pm __________
Finally after 2 weeks of nonstop digging, chewing, destruction.... I believe in an attempt to make a tunnel for her kits I gave Shimo the biggest box we have. I had to line her cage floor in metal strips and the side of her cage in vinyl flooring pieces because she was trying to chew through her cage to build her tunnel and throwing bedding everywhere. I layered in pine pellets, a thin layer of pine shavings, and hay. She of course rearranged the box, dug it all to the front, filled it back in, put a deep indent in the back, and for the first time in 2 weeks she is sitting still.
For the future pregnant Shimo rabbits must go in very durable cages with high sides and be given a big nest box very early. I think the long box and being able to go down a lot makes her think she finally dug her tunnel.
