New Rabbits!

Hello everyone. I hope this blog finds you well and your nestboxes full of babies! :) Everything here is going good. I dont think I updated since the break off. So let me just announce that Niki is no longer working at EAR. She has her own rabbitry again Catawba Rabbitry. She has holland lops & lionheads, specifically bews if you are interested.

Anyway in other news, we have some new rabbits on board. THF Kandy thanks to Jenna from THF Saynora. In addition, Spring Lake Demarius from Krys. He has two legs and Jenna thinks he can easily grand, so that is just awesome. He is going through a molt right now but as soon as we get him back into condition, he will be hitting the show tables :).

We finally have been working on updating the website the last few days and it has finally went live today. We still have so much more updating to do so please bear with us. Things are going to get even harder soon because Chris and I will both be so busy. Chris works usually 12 hours a day and is also going to be starting school partime. I am going back to school full time for web design & multimedia. So if you have a question or are interested in something, please just shoot us an email. :)

Well that is about all the updates for now. Hope all is well! :)

Kristen

New babies!

So, Nala kindled 5 healthy babies last night :) This is her second litter I'm so proud of her, she's such a great mommy!We bred her to Angelic Hares braxton. Lets hope we get some fuzzybutts in there. lol He's our experiement buck. He is a teddy, but he has great lines and a gorgeous color. He's a nice buck. We just wanted to try him a few times to see what we get. If anyone is interested in him soon, let me know.:) I would offer him free with a purchase. Or if you are interested in a pet, let me know. He's a sweetie!

Anyway, all of the babies are growing up so fast too. Litters from Melody, Neffy, Kodiak, Bayli, & Mckenzie. I have a few does due later this week too. So i will have to post the news.

Anyway, I got a new blue fuzzy doe that was bred to bastet's rowdy. She is Fry's Aly. They are very nice people and very easy to work with. I'm so excited for her and her litter (if she took). It will be my first fuzzy babies! My buck Andrew is doing really great. He is looking so nice. His sister is nice as well but she's not a fuzzy, she is definitely a carrier because she does have some fuzzy fur. I am going to still use her with my fuzzies and see what I get. One breeding won't hurt. I am still looking for a nice fuzzy buck (which I will probably get from Bastet's in August). And also still a nice solid tort or blue tort buck (holland lop). Color isn't as important as type. Either tort,blue tort, or blue. I definitely enjoy working with blue. I wouldnt mind a solid black buck either that maybed carried dilute. I have been being real picky when the right one comes around I'll know it ;).

Well I am rambling. Nothing much else is really happening. I got my hollands from lolly lops. Solitilly, Aubre & smores. Check out the site for their pics & info :)

Hope everyone is doing well & ur nestboxes are full of babies :).

New Website!

So the last two days I have been working on a new layout for the rabbitry. Then I am going to be finishing up "Ever After Designs". If i start to get enough orders I'll send in for another business ID under that name. I still have my One Stop Trend Shop from my online store. But i really dont think I'll be doing that anymore. I do miss it, i just can't believe how rude some people on ebay can be. And impatient! It ruins it.


Anyway, everyone is doing good here. I am awaiting Vivians babies. And then on friday/Saturday Nefertiti, Kodiak, Melody, Selena, Bayli, Mckenzie are all due. And in about a month in a half (I think), i can breed Paisley & Blue Sunrise. Paisley will be bred to Breredon, (I can't wait for that mix!), and Blue Sunrise to Blue Gene. I may breed blue Gene to one other doe and then I will be selling him. He is just so wooly and I all the dilute does I'd like to breed him to already have plenty of that. He's clean though for as wooly as he is. I just will be using Out of the Blue more than him so I have to make a choice. I will probably breed him to Mckenzie, Bayli, & Blue Sunrise, and let him go. I MAY breed him to Melody for some blue chip line breeding. I know I will be getting a charlie perhaps, but some say they are fairly typy and if i do get one i will just sell it as a pet if someone doesn't want it as a breeder, depending on it's type. That way i have some babies from him to choose from.


Well I am rambling. Boy oh boy, that is what makes it fun. Who to pair up with who. LOL Just a huge puzzle and i know I have only been a breeder since last fall. I cannot wait until a year or two from now when I have a lot of my own stock. :)

Well anyway, just wanted to post another update :)

Kristen

Updates

Well not much is new here... all of our babies we got from Nationals are all settled in. We have a ton of rabbits and some of them wont stay around as long because we also want to keep some of our own stock, so we have to cull hard (not kill just sell LOL). We can have about 30 holes that's about it for now. We have some gorgeous rabbits so definitely check out our new lionhead pages (bucks & does). In addition, we have a new holland junior page. hehehe! Our first little holland litter is about almost 3 weeks old. Ryan, a first time mom, also kindled 5 and is nursing colleens 1 kit she had. I'm so proud of her. Colleen has been acting up ever since i took her baby away but they both kindled so close I wanted the kit to be with others to keep warm. Plus i wasn't sure what kind of mother she would be... she seems very Pi**y. LOL!



Anyway, next week I am getting Rocko from Krys he is THF Saynora & is a broken blue. He will be our main herd buck. He is Foo Fighters brother. Then also I am getting a really really nice brood doe from LopNmops. In addition, a blue lionhead from Robins Backyard bunnies. She is trading me for a himi doe. I am also getting a large grooming table for shows from her as for a trade of two other kits. So I'm pretty excited about that!!



We have a lot of lionhead does due on the 8th & 9th. Lots of dilute & dilute carriers... i can't wait! :)

Well that's about all that is going on. I will update more later!

More bunnies! lol

Yes more bunnies, i know! We are getting two from Catwalk! I cannot wait. We are also getting two more from Angelic Hares! I just love buying from her. She has such nice rabbits available. I am getting Cimmaron Mckenzie & Cimmaron Out of the blue, which has a smokin' body! She had a litter of 7 her last litter. So I'm excited to have them both. Also, she carries dilute. So what more could you ask for! LOL. I cannot wait until Friday when I get all of my new babies :)

News! :)

So the rabbits are currently in our basment. This just started out as a pet thing about 7 months ago. And already it's only been 7 months and I have almost 25 holes. LOL! Anyway, the basement is just not working out for us,and we'd like to expand. LOL! We've been looking for barn spaces to rent, like rent a stall but everyone is full or has too many horses to board rabbits LOL! Anyway, Niki met this really nice lady she was going to get a Chi puppy from. She only lives less than a mile down the road LOL! Anyway, she said i could use her garage as my barn. And we have a garage here but we are renting now and so their stuff is all in there. I did have plans that when we bought this house, my sister would rent out the top (apartment on top of the garage). And then we'd share the rabbitry below. It's huge and well ventilated so we would have no problems. But that's a while away. And Niki introduced us to Sue and wow what a nice lady!! They are just huge animal lovers too! So we just need to fix up and patch up some holes and we can move them in. Maybe within the next week. Next weekend is Nationals. And I now have the cage room to get everyone at nationals so I'm excited :). Everything happens for a reason and this is just too good to be true! :)



So now i have enough room to grow out holland juniors if I want to watch them develop. If I want to keep some lionheads I dont have to sell others to make the room. I think i will maintain about a 30-40 hole rabbitry (definitely no more than that! LOL) . That is so big to me. Although I know that's actually considered "small-scale". It depends. I can't get too carried away. LOL But currently, after Nationals I will have about 25 rabbits & 27 cages. So I will have a few if needed to grow juniors out :).



Anyway, this just works out great. :) So I thought I'd post it. You know. someday i cannot wait until Chris & I move more out in the country & we have a few acres. Woods surround us, privacy, etc. That way I can have a veggie/flower garden... and we can build a huge barn just for the rabbits. Oh don't get me started. But hey, we're only 23, so we have plenty of time...

Lots of new rabbits

We have a lot of NEW and promising stock we are picking up at Nationals from Cimmaron, Catwalk, Wildhaven, & Angelic Hares. All have heavy Cimmaron/DJ Lines! We are very very excited to be getting such exceptional stock that will REALLY help our rabbitry tremendously! Check out our does & bucks page to see what we'll be getting. We cannot wait until next year, who knows how many we'll be getting! :) Thank you to EVERYONE!

Chilled kits

So, everyone in this rabbitry hobby has their own methods of doing this. When I write about mine, i really do encourage other rabbitries to let me know what THEY do, so i can also learn other methods. So far after reading around and talking to many breeders, I have found that when I have a chilled kit that is not too far gone, the best method is to get very warm water in a bowl and put the kit in a ziplock bag opened and let them sit on top of the water. Usually, they start to move almost instantly. Just this week i've saved 3 kits this way. Then, I take them to their mommas and let them feed. This gives them more warmth & will to pull through. I read & from experienced have learned that if it takes them longer than 10 or 15 minutes to start really moving and being active after you warm them like that, please just watch and be prepared for them to have a seizure. That had happened to me twice. I revived them and after about 10 minutes they were okay and moving and i would try to get them to feed... and they would have a seizure and die :( Sadly. And i read online that that is common. But dont give up if you find a chilled kit there is still hope! I know i've saved many. Even when it's not necessarily cold in the rabbitry, it's just they are away from the nest and the warmth.


I'd love to hear what others do. I've heard many different methods.
kristen

Butler PA Show

Well Saturday is the Butler, PA show and we can't wait! The only thing is we just aren't showing yet. Right now i have Chester I could take, but the rest are either have kits or are pregnant. Most of my stock i bought senior does...and some of my juniors are just too wooly to show. OR they had their mane chewed by either mamma or their cage mate. I have juniors in together because I have so many rabbits I'm holding for nationals. Next year I'm not going to start holding rabbits until about March/April. That way kits are 2 or 3 months by Nationals TOPS. I'd prefer 2 1/2 months tops... i just am a small rabbitry, and i dont have the space. I didnt realize the chewing stuff because well i've only been breeding for about 7 months. lol. Hey, you learn from your mistakes and i certainly have.



I'm So excited for the two does I am getting from Dan @ Perrysburg lops. Ryan was the first doe i picked and this is her first litter so I really hope all goes well. The second doe is Colleen. She has had kits before but her first litter they got out of the nestbox & chilled. So I am nervous for both does. You really dont have to worry so much about kindling issues with lionheads. They are extremely prolific. If I find that hollands are just not for me, with their birthing issues and lets say i'm just not fit for them as a breed in whole, well I haven't invested much... and i dont have that many. I really love them though, and they are very exciting. I have really studied a lot about them with info and pictures and i dont think i'm that bad. I think i am starting to get the "holland eye". All with time. I am excited for when i actually start showing both my lionheads & hollands. I am in no hurry though. A lot of breeders told me they had not started showing for about a year after they started breeding when they had more of their "own" stock. I think I will be ready to show in the next few months though. I have a lot of very promising does, but i decided to breed them instead. I can still have them take a break from breeding and start showing. With the hollands though, they seem to be not so complicated as far as that. If you have a show/breeding doe... it doesn't take as much to condition her for showing as it would with lionheads. So they both have their good & bad points.



Well i'm rambling, i cannot wait to get my girls tommorow... and in no time Nationals will be here & i will be getting all my rabbits then. I am up to 23 holes and that is honestly the limit. I see 25 being the limit and that's it! lol... I promised my husband a few months ago it wouldn't get more than 5 or 8... these rabbits are addicting. lol



I hope everyone is doing well & your nestboxes are filled with tons of spring babies :)



Kristen

Lots of updates + Pen & GI tract problem.

Wow, I got rid of my blog for a while because I didnt have time for it, but it seems I can try to make time for it. Things are going great here at the rabbitry. Lots of new rabbits that are coming from the Butler PA show & the Lionhead Nationals. We are getting some VERY promising stock and I cannot wait to see what our rabbitry is like in a few months to a year. By next year at Nationals I hope to have much better bodied rabbits.... as well as work on rabbits that keep their senior mane. This is a goal that every lionhead rabbitry strives for, of course. But i am so excited to be taking such huge steps to that goal. I cannot wait to see what these next few months bring. As well as lionheads, I am also into HOlland lops. We are starting out small and right now have 5 breeder does and a buck. I did run into some problems and I'd like to explain them for reference for myself later as well as if anyone ever gets in a situation like this when a rabbit have a blocked GI tract and cannot poo.



Rabbit w/ a blocked GI tract: What worked for us.

I'll try to be as concise as possible. Email if you have any questions... Well, i had an experience from which I learned a lot that I'd like to share. I got my holland lops about 2-3 weeks ago. The one doe I got from Krys @ Spring Lake was bred to her Ruckus. Well, when i got her, I feed my rabbits with water bottles. Not even considering that she may not feed hers with water bottles I put one in. The next day it seemed she was drinking but just not much, i figured it was stress. On the third day i realized she was not eating her food and got worried. I asked Krys and found out she does not drink from water bottles. And she had not drank since being at my house and is used to croaks. Here, the water out of the water bottle was just from dripping. She would not eat or drink from me. I had to feed her water with a bottle and syringe. I gave her some milk supplement (like pedialyte)... and got her enough energy to want to eat Kale *her favorite* from me. She also nibbled celery. Well the next day goes by and I'm still force feeding her water & food. She is only a week away from her pregnancy and i am getting very nervous. I find out that she is also not pooing either. So with help from My friend Niki @ boulder creek rabbitry we realized that she much have a huge blockage from the food and not getting any water in there. For days I battled with penelope. It was not a few days after she had not pooed and we were about to lose her. We were rubbing her stomach, feeding her a ton of greens, lots of water. Trying to get her to poo. Still nothing. Then we read to use an electric massager/vibrator. Also another option was giving her an enema. This was to be our last option, but she was very weak and we were going to lose her within a few hours if we didnt try something. So we gave her two enemas in a small syringe that we inserted 1 inch into her. The enema had mineral oil, epsom salt, & warm water. Still she was not pooing after two of these. Later that evening after we used the electric massager we got her to go a tiny bit. I was so happy! But she was not out of the woods yet. The next day she decided she would not even swallow water, nor would she take anymore greens or nothing. She rejected EVERYTHING. We were about to lose her. So we gave her an enema again but this time with more mineral oil than recommended to coat it. Then i gave her more massages with the electric massager. In about an hour i checked her bum, there was poo there but it wouldn't come out. Well, we had to pull it out. We pulled about 4 inches of hard poo out. About another hour later, she went a LOOOOT by herself. By the next day she was pooing normal circle size rabbit poos. We read that this problem can take weeks for a rabbit to regain regular GI movement. So everyday, even though she was still going we gave her the electric massage a few times a day to help keep the GI tract moving. It is a week later from when she had these issues, and she is completely better. It took her time to eat and drink again on her own, but with patience we were able to keep up with her and finally get her to eat & drink on her own. She is 100% better now! We are so happy we were able to save our Pen. The day we gave her the enema was also a saturday during easter weekend, there were no vets we could take her too. I DO NOT recommend that you do what we did. But they are ideas if you have no other options, as we did. I am not a vet and am just explaining what worked for us in a desperate situation. It saved our PEN! :)

Yes, More Bunnies!

Well I thought for sure after the last three from PJ Bunnies that we were done for a while. But I am getting three more from hattrick rabbitry in PA. I am meeting her friend in hubbard, OH. I am getting two kits with amazing lines... firebear lines. Nala has firebear lines and so I'm excited to use the buck with nala in the future!! I am going to concentrate on getting MORE firebear lines... It seems like they really help start out rabbitries from what I'm seeing. Plus I have hattricks, pridelands, cimmaron, peace lanes. Very good lines to start out with so I'm very happy to start to see what I get!!! :)

I also have a Rabbit breeders top list & forum that is really doing great. It's only been a week in existance and already almost 50 members and 4000 views!!! I wish more people would join, it's free!! If you are reading this, join! You dont even have to be a rabbit breeder, just a rabbit lover, we have a forum too! :)

The site is:
http://rabbitbreeders.top-site-list.com/

Also be sure to vote for my rabbitry to! :) But I care more about you joining so please join!!! :)