Friday, July 25, 2014

2014 Rabbit Update!

The sad news first.  Some idiot neighbor let their dogs run free and they attacked and killed our sweet buck, Captain Jack.  It was just sickening. 

Our Jack
Nicholas came home and started working on a fence.  We now have all of our rabbit hutches inside a fence and we reenforced all the cages as well. 

An update on all our rabbits now:


This is Jack's last litter.  Aren't they a great selection of colors!  We decided to save one buck out of these. 

This is Jack's son.  We're going to keep him around - isn't he handsome?  We are calling him Gimli.  It just seemed to fit.  He is mostly New Zealand with a little Dutch thrown in. 

This is Gimli's mom, Dulci.  She is the sweetest and well mannered doe!  She is a NZ/Dutch mix.  

This is Rosette.  She is also a NZ/Dutch mix.  She was pregnant when Jack was killed, but none of her kits made it.  But it was her first kindle and that is common.  

This is Rosette's sister and litter mate, Suzette.  You can see the Dutch more in her.  She was also bred before Jack's death but didn't take.  It's possible she miscarried due to the stress of the dog attack.  

And the newest additions!  Last week Mom brought home this handsome boy to "replace" Jack as our Senior Buck (Gimli as the younger one will be the Junior Buck). 
 
He is a 4 month old Satin and we named him Thorin.  Yeah, we went with the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings theme for the boys this time.  You should always give rabbits a break in the worst of the summer in breeding.  Pregnant does are susceptible to heat stroke and bucks are frequently infertile in the heat.  So by the time the weather breaks he will be old enough for breeding. 

And today she brought home this little sweetie:
 

 This is Snickerdoodle.  She is a baby Flemish/Rex mix.  She's actually much younger then we thought, just old enough to leave mama.  We would have preferred for her to stay with mama longer, but the seller was ready to send her on.  She has all of the rabbits around her and lots of straw to burrow in.  She seems active and healthy.  And it looks like she may end up being Claire's special pet.  We told her she could keep one of her choice and she saw Snickerdoodle and adored her.  And she picked the name after her favorite cookie and her colors are cinnamon and sugar!  :)