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| This one died, by the way. |
Hi, guys! Today, because I haven't blogged in a few days, I'd like to tell you that one of my hobbies include breeding and showing rabbits.
And, any day now, I'm expecting two litters of rabbits from two of my better does, Susan and Andromeda.
In my last two litters, I got four Hollands and one Mini Rex, only one of which I like--did you guess it? Susan, the Mini Rex.
Just for reference, I breed Mini Rex's. And I did one litter of Holland Lops last May, out of this despicably evil rabbit we call Poppy:
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| $10, plus shipping and handling. |
But we've decided to get out of Holland Lops, so if you might want to buy this rabbit, contact me or something.
15 comments:
You breed Mini Rexes?? So do I!! I have seven right now--three bucks, four does. One tort, three blacks, and three blues. And a Dutch crossbred buck.
Eventually I'd love to get out of breeding and go more rabbit rescue type, but for now I am what I am.
You should totally email me--I'd love to talk rabbits. :)
nursenetti98@gmail.com
~Bekah <3
I've always wanted to see a solid tort mini rex! We had a four week old tort doe almost two years back, but the litter she was in had some issues (if you want to get technical, they all had E. Cuniculi) and she died.
Pretty much as soon as I posted this, I went out into the rabbitry and discovered that I have a new litter! I'm pretty sure there are two blacks and two broken chocolates, but it's a bit too early to tell! :D
Oooh... I love chocolates!! I want one, not sure how well they breed to blue, though. :P
I'm looking forward to the community street sale a week from tomorrow. There's always rabbits there (and quite a few of them are Mini Rex), and last year I got a pedigreed black buck there. He ended up with Best of Breed, Best 4-class, and Best of Show at the 4-H fair. This year I'm hoping to find a red or tort pair. Or a white buck--I'm ready for more color. :)
What kind of building do you have for your rabbits? I have mine in an old chicken house. It stays decently warm in the winter and somewhat cool in the summer--yay! :)
I think chocolate and blue would breed relatively well together (at least, you'd get some nice chocolates out of the combo, but I'm not sure how clean in color the blues would be; whether or not they'd be slate blue all around or a bit muddy in places. I'll look in the genetics section of Raising Better Rabbits and Cavies for you).
As to where I house my rabbits, I keep them in the garage. It's nicely ventilated in the winter, but if I remember properly, it's hot as a desert wind in the summer. I'm sure I won't lose any rabbits due to the heat, though, because of frozen water bottles and fans. :)
According to the genetic guidelines I usually use, chocolate breeds to blue pretty much without problems. Black breeds better to blue, though, because blue is a dilute of black.
Oh, yes, thank goodness for ice and fans. I don't think I'd have rabbits if it wasn't for ice. :)
Do you just show rabbits in 4-H or do you show in ARBA too?
Just 4-H, for now. I'd love to show in ARBA someday, but the entry fees around here are just a little steep. :P Where do you show?
I show ARBA and 4-H (though the 4-H part is only once a year at the county fair).
I looked up in my book about breeding chocolate to blue, and it seems fine.
Okay. How do your rabbits typically do at shows?
Middle grade. :/
Last year at a show in February one of my black bucks got Reserve Grand, though, which earned him a leg.
Hey, reserve grand is good! :)
So today I cleaned out three cages and scooped a whole bunch of straw off the floor. Scooping manure is probably my least favorite part of having rabbits. :P Or clipping toenails.
Now I'm off to start working on showmanship/breed ID for the 4-H fair. Breed ID I like, the other part of showmanship isn't my favorite.
Do you do showmanship in 4-H?
It's sort of hard NOT to do showmanship at the fair, as I'm such a pro at it (that was a joke. I beat every other kid who enters with me, but I'm not all that good at it). I like the Judging contests, where you have four rabbits that are all the same gender, breed and color, and you order them from 1 to 4.
Oh, that judging contest sounds fun. I've never done one of those. Well, I've done them online with cows, pigs, and horses, but not in real life. At the fair, I do like watching the horse show and placing them in my head to see how close I get to the judge. :)
I do that with cows at the fair, but not with horses (probably something to do with the fact that I'm usually in the classes that are being judged). :)
Haha, yeah, it's hard to judge the other animals in the class you're in. :)
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