The shaded rabbit curse?

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skysthelimit

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I lost Aria today. She was due the first week of Feb, she had one kit, DOA and I was sure she had more kits. It was supposed to be her second litter. Nothing came out so I rebred her. She's been off her food for a while. Still eating some hay. She looked bad Sunday, and worse yesterday. I found her dead this morning.

What is it with shaded rabbits? It's my all time favorite color, even over Agoutis, and I can't seem to make it work.

From the Hollands, MR, Rex, Angoras and now JW, I can't seem to get the shaded programs up and running.

Holland- failed to produce a live kit in 4 litters. 5th litter one live, but not shaded kit, drops dead at 12 wks.
Second doe dropped dead two weeks after I got her.

MR, can't seem to find a shaded MR. Get ones with good genes, stuck kits and doe dies.

Rex--Seal doe is almost two, first litter had no milk, won't lift or had a color change in almost a year. Cal buck took a chunk from my hand, kits from other doe are all martens,, Marten buck has a split penis, Marten doe smothers her litter.

Angora- buck drops dead right before I am supposed to pick him up. Himi doe starts blowing snot day after I get her. All himi kits die from the plague.


Maybe I should talk about how much I hate shades and suddenly they will over run the rabbitry.?
 
I never had trouble. I never did get my hands on chin mr like I wanted though. I bred american sables which are all shaded and mostly shaded netherlands (I had 1 blue doe carrying rew) who were my hardiest rabbits.
 
Maybe I should talk about how much I hate shades and suddenly they will over run the rabbitry.?
it can't hurt to try :shrug:

I'm pretty sure shaded isnt cursed - that's all I bred in Netherlands back in the day and my Mini Lop frosties, sable points and shaded magpies are all healthy and fertile, maybe its just the Ohio shadeds that are cursed ;)
 
Sheesh, Sorry Sky :(

(Aria --- pretty name! And of course, being shaded, a pretty doe. Sigh)
 
Dood":2s5ymvud said:
Maybe I should talk about how much I hate shades and suddenly they will over run the rabbitry.?
it can't hurt to try :shrug:

I'm pretty sure shaded isnt cursed - that's all I bred in Netherlands back in the day and my Mini Lop frosties, sable points and shaded magpies are all healthy and fertile, maybe its just the Ohio shadeds that are cursed ;)


Frosted Rabbit is convinced that the amount of birth control hormones in lake Erie is causing a lot of my problems. supposedly, those hormones are excreted by the body, not broken down by the water treatment plants, and gets into my buns by the city water system. Considering how many of my teacher colleagues have had problems getting pregnant, I'm starting to wonder as well. The suggestion was to put them on bottled water, but impractical for even the scaled down numbers I have now.

But that wouldn't work for the buck that died before I got him.
 
Maybe it really is the water because it does sound like you are having a higher than normal amount of illnesses. It sounds totally possible it could be something environmental. My Dad lived in a suburb that had been an orchard and they worked out that there was some kind of pesticide that had worked its way into the water-- all his dogs died of weird cancers at early ages.
 
I will have the soil tested in the Spring.

This property used to be an orchard, which is why I have a barn in the middle of the city. We cut down most of the left over fruit trees, except a peach and plum tree, which is inedible because both trees are so full of worms. I believe some of my mouse problem comes from all the rotten fruit that falls, that I can't even get to for clean up. <br /><br /> __________ Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:05 am __________ <br /><br /> I thought about that a little more. The rabbits (besides the culls in the growout pen) never actually touch the ground. There is no forage to feed them either. Some lemon balm grows in a raised bed.
 
Sorry about your loss :(

You might want to switch to that thought process and then you may end up with a bunch of seals, sables, and smokes :D

They are a pain to get in coat, but SO pretty.So far breeding my mini lops to have the shorter, denser coat helps tremendously to maintain their color usually just long enough for me to grand them LOL All bets are off after a year or year and a half. I haven't kept a shaded buck yet, they have the longer show careers :)
 
Peach":1dud1562 said:
You might want to switch to that thought process and then you may end up with a bunch of seals, sables, and smokes :D

They are a pain to get in coat, but SO pretty.So far breeding my mini lops to have the shorter, denser coat helps tremendously to maintain their color usually just long enough for me to grand them LOL All bets are off after a year or year and a half. I haven't kept a shaded buck yet, they have the longer show careers :)


The thought of smokes makes me swoon. (or should I say I hate smokes,lol) :twisted: .

I seem to have a problem bringing in other rabbits. It's like my original herd rejects new ones...I do have one Seal that started out with the other woolies, and has live litters. Up until the end of this year, all I had to breed to was Otters. Got nests full of Martens. I don't like Martens. I have a REW and a Black, REW is probably an Otter. Cicci the Seal is my last hope.

The Black Angora buck might carry shaded. Need to get him a REW wife,and hope she lives.

The Rex are hardest, because shaded is not gonna pop out of anything I have now, the color is just too rare.
 
Sorry about your loss, but this convinces me even more that we should try to swap stock at some point! I'm sick of shadeds and that's all I've been able to get on colors lately...
 
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