The best-laid plans

[dragonladyleanne]

I went to a small livestock swap yesterday, hoping to swap one or both of my spotted boys for a silver (Argent-like)doe, but instead did the "buy a cage, get a free rabbit" deal again. She has the eye circles and solid ears with a backbone stripe (in light brown rather than black) that Patches and George have, but no nose color or spots down her sides. She is also a little "racier" body shape than either of them. We had debated what to call her: Stripe was considered, but it doesn't have the same "ring" to it as a name that Spot and Patches do. This morning, I was thinking about the "mole" spot she has next to her nose on one side, and toying with the name Star as I walked out to gather spiderwort. The church bells were ringing, and my dog came dancing up to me and running back and forth trying to get me to go to the rabbit garage. I think she believes the rabbits are HERS, she definitely wanted me to "come see the new baby"! So I did, and I said "good morning Stripe" . . . nothing. "Hello Star" . . . no reaction. "Belle"? She hopped over and sniffed me! So her name is Belle! Pix soon.

Oh, and she has the same "rex" fur as George, so I guess she is his G/F once I get more organized. I am determined to have NO MORE UNPLANNED pregnancies! I took Quartz (my 3/4 Argent, 1/4 SF doe) back to her breeder to get rebred, since she was sold to me as pregnant, and didn't kindle. It was rainy and they live on a hill (not much of one, it's Flat Florida), so the man and my husband took Quartz up to the barns while I chatted with Tara, as my shoes weren't up to the trek. While chatting, we heard gunfire rather near, a frequent problem in areas like that ("we always hunted in these woods", but the woods are now only a half acre surrounded by mini-farms and new subdevelopments), and the fellow comes down saying "bad news" with my rabbit tucked head hidden under his arm like a football. I thought he was going to say she'd been shot! But it seems that is just how he holds rabbits. The "bad news" was that she was open, and even very interested in their youngest Argent buck, but HE "didn't know what to do" and all the other bucks said it was toooooo hot! So they said "leave her here for a wild weekend in sin, we'll get her bred by one of them"! :lol: She'll have a new apartment when I pick her up, as we are almost done with the new hutches.

 

[5dognightfarm]

Sounds like she may be a charlie-marked Spot or Checkered cross? Congrats on the new bun! Pictures?

 

[dragonladyleanne]

Charlie-marked? So many terms to learn! All my rabbits are unpedigreed (I am not going to show), with only the word of the breeder on the pure Argent and 2 crossbred with Silver Fox. No reason to DOUBT her word though, as I am sure she'd have gladly charged me extra for the pedigrees if I wanted them. So when I said my "spotted boys", I was strictly describing their looks! I will try to upload photos in just a moment, hubby just handed me the flash drive!

__________ Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:33 pm __________

Urf, I keep having to resize my pix. Be a while longer.

__________ Sun Aug 12, 2012 5:13 pm __________

:angry: Ok, let's try this again! Doesn't help that IE keeps crashing lately!First, the new bunny: Hmmm, seems the photos all go below ALL the text, regardless of when you post which - so the new bunny is the photo called Belle.

__________ Sun Aug 12, 2012 5:24 pm __________

Here's the first pair of rabbits I got on May 26. The male has been seen by an experienced breeder who said he looks like a cross between a checkered giant and a lionhead. He's about twice the size of the female, which I can only describe as "speckled", since she has no eye or nose patches, nor stripe down her back. Even her ears are speckled! Guess I should have named her Speck instead of Spot, but I always loved that Star Trek episode where Data named his cat Spot. They are both about 8 or 9 months old now, and have 5-week-old babies, 2 of whom look like Patches with more white, and one which is REW and rapidly outsizing her siblings (that's her in my avatar photo).

 

[luvabunny]

She's a broken color mini rex. Can't tell what color from the pic. Her toenails give it away.

 

[dragonladyleanne]

I had just noticed her toenails were like George's (and look to need trimming)! I didn't mean to raise mini Rexes, but it seems I am going to! I am going for "multipurpose" rabbits of meat AND fur, not just fur - but I suppose even minis are edible, just you might want to wait til they're older? I am not planning on SELLING for meat purposes, so there's no "cost to weight" returns to consider.

 

[skysthelimit]

but I suppose even minis are edible, just you might want to wait til they're older? I am not planning on SELLING for meat purposes, so there's no "cost to weight" returns to consider.

They will still max out about the same age as standard rex, 16 weeks, they just stop growing and standards continue. My minis and standards look about the same weight wise, until they get to about 12 weeks, and the standards begin to outgrow them.

 

[ZRabbits]

Nice start with your meat and fur herd. Can see the Lion head in your male. Plus your doe looks like she has some lion head in her. Singles have that shaggy look to them. Love Spot and her coloring. Definitely so unique.

Wishing you all the luck with your meat and fur rabbits.

Karen

 

[dragonladyleanne]

I have to admit, Spot will never be dinner! Not only is she cute and sweet, she is such a GOOD mama! I made BOUCOUP mistakes at first, including thinking she was either pulling fur as a false pregnancy (I palpated and felt no babies, but reading how to do that and knowing how hard to press are two different things), or that I had weeks before they came. They were ALL over my garage floor, and one even got out a second time and I stepped on it She took care of them and trusted me to handle them even after all that. Most days, when I give her an afternoon treat, she drags it off the shelf to share with her babies (not today though, seems APPLE they have to earn - she made them hop up to share).

Here's the rest of my "herd".

 

[trinityoaks]

Beautiful bunnies! I especially love Spot's markings!

 

[MaggieJ]

Lots of colour and pattern in your herd! Very pretty. And yes, you definitely have rabbitosis!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Notsy! :lol:

Spot is really neat looking! I love her speckles.

Poor King George needs a Rex wifey! Better go back to the bunny swap! :mrgreen:

Charlie-marked?

Here is a brief article describing "charlies":

http://www.hlrsc.com/Articles/brokensandsolids.html

 

[dragonladyleanne]

Notsy! :lol:

Spot is really neat looking! I love her speckles.

Poor King George needs a Rex wifey! Better go back to the bunny swap! :mrgreen:

Charlie-marked?

Here is a brief article describing "charlies":

http://www.hlrsc.com/Articles/brokensandsolids.html

Brings back memories of sitting working out tortoiseshell cat ratios when I was 14! Thanks for the article. As for George's wife, the bunny I got at the swap (Belle) IS a mini-rex, and a doe, sooooo . . . I am hoping he'll like her and vice versa. What about that rex fur, is that also recessive? As in, all offspring of Belle and George would have it? Or is there a possibility of there being "normal furred" babies? Before I got Belle, I had figured on breeding George to Spot, as he is more her size than Patches - I still can't believe how big her babies by him were, especially as she seemed unfazed by the whole childbirth thing, hopping about and not seeming tired in the least. But since her babies are most likely destined to be dinners, maybe I should just keep breeding her to Patches. Although for meat purposes, I could breed him to the semi Argents too, I suppose, he's as big as they are. :shock: So many things to think about!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Oops- missed the part about the new bun having Rex fur!

What about that rex fur, is that also recessive? As in, all offspring of Belle and George would have it?

Yes.

is there a possibility of there being "normal furred" babies?

No.

If you breed George or Belle to a normal furred rabbit, all of the kits will have normal fur, but will carry one Rex gene. If you then take those kits and breed to each other or to another Rex, you will get some normal, some Rex, depending on which genes the parents pass to the offspring. Any rabbit showing Rex fur can only pass Rex fur since it has two Rex genes, so when breeding Rex to Rex, you get Rex.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

Spots is AWESOME looking!!!!

 

[dragonladyleanne]

Spot is my favorite, not just because of her pattern, but because she is the good mama, and the most personable rabbit I have ever come across. I had a brief experience over 30 years ago trying to raise rabbits, and I started with a pregnant white doe (probably NZ, though I had no idea of breeds at the time) and 2 of her previous bunnies (both bucks, the guy must have been laughing as I drove off), one white, one golden brown. Well, THAT mama had her babies on the wire on a cold December morning and went back to bed afterwards in her nice warm "birthing box"! Plus she always tried to bite me, and her white son was no friendlier. The gold one)(I called him Honey Bunny) however, was friendly, so I was going to keep him as a pet, and went to slaughter the other rabbits. Found that there was more technique than just "whack them behind the head", and that rabbits scream like a toddler being murdered in a horror movie. I went to get it "put out of its misery" by a neighbor, but it was fine by the time we came back, so I gave the 2 white ones to him for his parents to raise "out in the country". Honey Bunny wound up going up the road to my friend who also had started raising rabbits (more successfully) and became a daddy with her herd.

When I started THIS venture, I had no qualms about killing them, because I thought rabbits were mostly like those white ones, just eat and poop and no personality. But Spot is happy to see me, loves a scrub, is curious about "new stuff" . . . in short, more pet-like than even Honey Bunny was. She will definitely never be slaughtered, but I worry if I will even be able to do in her male offspring!

I have yet to slaughter a rabbit.<br /><br />__________ Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:58 pm __________<br /><br />A little more successful this time round at the swapmeet. I sold Hotsy and Totsy. Sad to see them go, especially as I only realized today that Hotsy had BLUE eyes (shady in their garage, so I assumed they were brown like mama and papa's), but he's going to be "new blood" in a lady's herd, and Totsy is a pet to what seemed a nice sensible girl. Mom and dad were both with her, and said they knew how to care for rabbits, and asked her to be "sure" of her choice, so I think Totsy will be ok too. Now if Notsy will just settle on being a girl, we're doing ok! Even if a buck, several people who stopped by said that his/her fur being 3 times longer than the sibs would likely follow into adulthood and so I might just clip him regularly and use the fur for nests or spinning or something (lots of spinners and weavers in my SCA local)!

 

[ZRabbits]

Congratulations on placing Hotsy and Totsy. Sounds like you found them a really good places to go to. New blood for a herd and a child with parents that will be there. Hoping Notsy settles on being the girl you want. But if not, sounds like you have a good plan if Notsy turns out to be a boy.

Karen

 

[dragonladyleanne]

Eventually, I have to slaughter - that's the reason I got rabbits! Though also, they're to be part of a nearly closed system: rabbit poo on the garden (sell extra, collected in empty plastic kitty litter containers), garden by-products feed bunnies (like carrot greens to them, carrots to me), bunnies inspire my ceramic art, wood from dead chopped oak fires pottery, acorns from live oaks tan bunny furs, furs and ceramics sell at Renaissance Faires . . . oh yeah, I eat rabbits or use them for barter or medieval feasts (at private events, not sales, no USDA need apply)!

 

[ZRabbits]

Eventually, I have to slaughter - that's the reason I got rabbits! Though also, they're to be part of a nearly closed system: rabbit poo on the garden (sell extra, collected in empty plastic kitty litter containers), garden by-products feed bunnies (like carrot greens to them, carrots to me), bunnies inspire my ceramic art, wood from dead chopped oak fires pottery, acorns from live oaks tan bunny furs, furs and ceramics sell at Renaissance Faires . . . oh yeah, I eat rabbits or use them for barter or medieval feasts (at private events, not sales, no USDA need apply)!

You'll get there regarding the slaughtering. I haven't done it, but if I had my way and wasn't stuck where I am, I'd be raising some meat rabbits myself. Along with chickens and goats. Would love to be self sufficient. Had rabbit before, very tasty.

Karen

 

[dragonladyleanne]

I can't be entirely self-sufficient, I just reduced my income by 75%, and still owe as much as I did 2 months ago!!! :x Fingers crossed my husband gets another computer job or we win the lottery before September! But I took the risk(incentive bonus for early retirement vs. cut in pension), and there's others a lot worse off, so . . . I can always be a Walmart greeter, heh! "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here . . . welcome to Walmart"!

 

[ZRabbits]

I can't be entirely self-sufficient, I just reduced my income by 75%, and still owe as much as I did 2 months ago!!! :x Fingers crossed my husband gets another computer job or we win the lottery before September! But I took the risk(incentive bonus for early retirement vs. cut in pension), and there's others a lot worse off, so . . . I can always be a Walmart greeter, heh! "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here . . . welcome to Walmart"!

Fingers crossed that your husband gets another computer job. Don't think much on lotteries.

You did what you had to do. With the way the economy is going here, grab what you can. My husband is in the real estate industry (home inspection) and it's absolutely DEAD in this State. Hasn't worked in months. So we are living off what I am making. But know there are others worse off than us. You just try to do the best you can.

Karen