Alphabet Series

Errors in Judgement

March 26, 2019 By Annette1 4 Comments

When I was thinking about what to do for E, I almost chose the English Lop, the problem is, I have no pictures of an English Lop and other than the remarkably loveable few I’ve met… I don’t know all the ins and outs of raising them. 🙂 Ergo I changed my focus to talk about errors in judgement. We all make them. It’s SO not fun to do so, but errors teach us something if we’ve a mind to pay attention.

Errors vary from the “oops” that wasn’t smart to the “oh man…that was SO not good…hit yourself on the head and vow to never to that again” variety. Working towards the oops rather than devastating is always a step forward.

Small Mistakes

Letting sentiment rule.

I have a three strikes and you are out rule. My thinking, over 14 years of raising rabbits, is that if every other rabbit is healthy and doing what they should be, and this one rabbit isn’t something is wrong. Problem solve it. Watch the rabbit. Adjust feed. Try again. And if things aren’t right after three cycles, it’s not going to be right so let them go. SOMETIMES I get attached to a rabbit. It never turns out good. So I keep fighting the “letting sentiment rule” mistake. And probably will until I stop having my bunnies.

Picking the wrong bunny to hold back.

Occasionally, let the sentiment mistake above, I forget what I am aiming to breed. Tricolour lops with chocolate and blue. I let other factors influence my decisions. I need to stop doing that. If I want to get to point Z down the road, the decisions I make now actually matter.

Selling off mom, before having a replacement.

Sometimes I have a doe that I adore and she’s good enough to keep babies from. I end up thinking, okay… person B wanted her and I have this half-grown youngster (or two) almost ready to breed, let her go. Do that and then someone comes in and steals those half-grown youngsters. Or a wind-storm happens that stresses them out. Or a possum comes through (let’s not go there) BAD memories that! Now I hold on to them until I’ve a grown daughter/son because Person B will wait and then perhaps I’ll get a back up.

Big Mistakes

Tiredness Hit

I made one such mistake the week of March 7, going out to shelve babies for the night and accidentally leaving a cage door open. I’ve done this in the past though I never intend to. Always happens when I’m really tired and went out too late. Anyways, this time the doe jumped out of the cage during the night. Six feet to the ground. I found her in the morning as was totally relieved to do so and thought all was well. Until I watched her “NOT MOVE”. Not moving is SO not a good thing. Two things it could be… broken back, or injured nerves. Only time would tell. Fix: Help the doe, put in a double check system for all cage doors at night.

Lack of Quarantine.

This was a mistake I made early one. Bought a rabbit and ASSUMED it was healthy. It wasn’t. As a result I lost an entire batch of young rabbits, all because one seemingly healthy rabbit wasn’t. Fix: quarantine for one month minimum with mild stressors added.

Feed

How you feed rabbits is actually rather important. They are sensitive to mycotoxins (moulds) and feed changes. Have mould they stop eating, too quick with the feed changes and upset stomachs result. Fix: no mouldy hay, no feed with corn, slow feed changes. If it is suspect just throw it out.

Trusting the wrong person

One time I went on vacation and someone asked if they could bunny sit. I said okay and then FOOLISHLY paid them as they would be gone before I got back. They left three days into my two week vacation…. how to feed cats, bunnies and birds when I’m more than 10 hours away… GAH. That was a mess. Fortunately mom and a friend helped out. Could have been totally devastating for my herd.

Letter E Link Up

Each week we will be linking up with the hosts of Blogging Through the Alphabet. Please visit some of these other blogs to get things like book lists, vegan recipes, and wonderful places to visit, just to name the topics I can think of off the top of my head.

Discussing Death

March 19, 2019 By Annette1 4 Comments

I was struggling with what to do for D and happened to wonder aloud what I should do. My 13 year old immediately popped up with “Death! Mom, you should talk about how you handle it when a rabbit dies.” I got to thinking it was a pretty good idea, so today we’ll be discussing death regarding raising rabbits.

Happens to everyone

I don’t know of any rabbit breeder who hasn’t experience death in their rabbitry. Now I know, I just finished talking to you about culling. I’m not talking about the deliberate death that you either choose or is needful, I’m speaking to the unexpected death that happens.

Every rabbit breeder, unless they are extremely fortunate, has experienced unexpected death in their rabbitry. It’s part of dealing with prey animals.

What is a prey animal?

The term prey refers to an animal that is sought, captured, and eaten by a predator. Rabbits in the wild are eaten by hawks, foxes, coyotes, weasels, possums, raccoons and more. I’ve even seen a squirrel noshing on an injured rabbit. If often seems like everything wants to enjoy rabbit for lunch.

AND a smart rabbit knows this. They know not to trust a thing around them because lunch happens and they don’t want to be it.

They know not to trust a thing around them because lunch happens and they don't want to be it. Click To Tweet

Oh.. why do I bring that up? As prey animals, rabbits hide illness extremely well. If you know what to look for you can tell if your bunny is not okay, but if you don’t know the rabbit, it’s harder to tell.

Unexpected Death Happens

Unexpected death happens for a variety of reasons: Shock, illness, predation, and accidents. Different emotions happen as the result of death. I’ll talk about each of these areas and the end result in my thoughts and emotions.

Shock

Shock for rabbit can come due to a move to a new home, sudden unexpected noise in the night, change in the weather, change in environment and even feed changes.

Smart rabbit breeders know that if you buy a rabbit, you want to breed that rabbit, almost right away. You put new bunny into quarantine, and grab whatever bunny you can afford to lose (of the opposite gender) and breed that rabbit immediately, putting it into quarantine as well. That way if new bunny dies unexpectedly (they are prone to do so in the first month) then at least you have the genetics you paid for!

Two summers ago I put a solid roof on the rabbitry. This caused a doe to go off feed and I had to foster out her litter of kits. One would think a new roof wouldn’t be an issue, but for this doe it was something she couldn’t handle. Another doe went from being a sweet kind doe to a skittery one scared of everything. It was a needful change, but these two buns couldn’t cope. It saddens me when something like this mess with bunny heads.

This spring we had a howler of a wind storm come through. Three days of unrelenting wind and noise. It caused a young buck to go off feed, and then I lost seven weanlings in about four days. One after the other they simply stopped eating. It SUCKS big time. Promising young animals stressed out by wind, noise and cold drafts that you do your best to protect them from but it’s hard to predict who will get hit. Two cages out of twenty that most likely had a cold draft hit them. Straw and added boxes not withstanding.. I can’t force them to use what I give them.

With most animals, going slow with feed changes prevents shock or tummy upset. With rabbits they need to develop the gut flora to deal with the change in diet. This is why you NEED to go slowly with rabbits when changing their feed, particularly if it’s big change.

Illness

Rabbits are notorious for hinding illness. It’s in their own best interest as a prey animal to not show obvious signs of distress. A rabbit owner needs to educate themselves on signs of illness. Even so, sometimes rabbits die without an obvious signs of illness.

I had a buck once, GORGEOUS animal. Eating, drinking, pooping, peeing, eager to breed. Next day he was dead. I talked to a vet once, and without doing an autopsy, suggested a heart attack. And not to be too surprised if a heart attack is why an apparently healthy animal is suddenly dead.

This is not something you can predict. It just bites you know? When an apparently healthy animal is found dead. It frustratingly sad.

Predation

Did you know that I HATE rats? Wild rats. I simply despise them. They nibble off bunny feet, if they get into a cage they will carry off newborns and frighten momma, and they poop and pee on everything causing mould problems. I had a distressing two winters of trying to get rid of them when the horse barn next door was torn down and the rats moved in my shed. Just awful awful awful. Now I see them, I trap them immediately. No second chances.

Next on my list are coons and possums. Both are seasonal, spring and fall. I no longer grow corn as that brings the coons in. If they can reach in and grab a baby… it’s not a pretty sight, and I won’t go into detail. Possums in the spring are youngsters finding their own digs, and in the fall it’s adults fattening up for winter. Removal of offenders is a given. NOTE: if trapping a possum and moving it.. don’t tell anyone, and move them at night, under cover, in an open bed vehicle. They STINK.

It frustrates me when I have the bunnies secured and then some bozo hops the fence and steals one and/or deliberately or possibly accidentally leaves a cage door open and a bunny escapes to be killed by a predator, shock, or on the road. IMMENSELY frustrated to the point of anger. Like HOW DARE THEY! Thieves and idiots.. stay away from my bunnies.

Accidents

Accidents happen. Both by me and by the bunnies.

A baby popping out of the box and chill to death, leaves me sad and becoming a problem solver. Babies pop out of boxes, ergo now why I shelve my babies in the winter. I don’t want them popping out and freezing.

Leaving a cage door open at night when tired and forgetful and a bunny hops out and injures themselves. That rabbit could have easily killed herself by breaking her back. That makes me angry at myself and vowing not to let that happen again.

The fore-a-mentioned windstorm? One result was a young kit with a broken leg. I assume from momma landing on it in a panic over noise. Fortunately kits heal well. 🙂 But if it was a bad break… it’s a death sentence.

Letter D Link Up

C is for Culling Well

March 12, 2019 By Annette1 7 Comments

I will freely tell you that this isn’t an easy topic, but it is a necessary one. When you raise animals as livestock, breeding and/or show animals culling is a necessary part of the equation. I breed rabbits (love the hobby) and have learned the importance of this vital task.

What does Culling Mean?

Culling means that you are reducing the animals in your herd. You do this for a variety of reasons: Perhaps you need a meal for your table or your pets, you have a sick animal, you have too many animals, or just need to cut back. Life choices affect the animals under your care. This refers to when you are raising animals with an intended purpose in mind, not animals you have as pets. Rabbits, like many other animals can serve both as livestock and as pets. Using the correct terminology for how they used is important.

Methods to Cull

There are two proper methods to cull.

Sell the animal. In my opinion only animals that you believe to be healthy should be sold. This means good temperament, no genetic defects and no health problems. Unloading sick animals on someone else should never be done.
Kill the animal. You do this by the quickest, most painless method possible. I am not going to discuss those methods here. Always have a backup method. Sometimes your primary method won’t work and causing unnecessary pain to an animal under care is wrong.

Improper method is to

Let an animal under your care slowly die because you aren’t caring for it properly…. whether that be from disease or lack of care
Releasing it into the wild alive.

Desire to save from Death

One of the things I run into on rabbit forums is this desire to save every animal from death. I don’t where it comes from. I sorta understand it, because honestly rabbits are cute. They are! Rabbits make excellent pets or livestock. They are great as companion animals, show animals, working animals, and food animals. Regardless of their purpose they are cute, easy to handle (usually), and are just lovely beasties.

But.. They aren’t always. Sometimes they get illnesses that never go away. You can make the illness hide, but not cure it (pasturella), or have Genetic defects (malocclusion). Sometimes they injure themselves badly (broken back, teeth). Other times they get an illness that is too expensive to treat, or even with treatment leads to an animal with a compromised immune system (enteritis). Occasionally you get a rabbit with a nasty temper. I am currently dealing with that right now. This doe wants to bite and attack me, and she regularly nips her kits for no readily apparent reason. Temperamentally, not the kind of rabbit to pet out or to continue to work with lest she cement that character flaw in my herd.

Never to be Sold

These animals should NEVER be sold.. in my opinion. Why? Well part of my opinion is that I used to work in rescue. I know what happens with rabbits with poor health in the hands of pet people. I do. It’s not a good picture. Rabbits slowly starving because their bad teeth are clipped once a month. Rabbits developing complications from hidden illness. Bunnies with eyes perpetually running and developing skin lesions or going blind as a result.

A secondary reason to not sell unhealthy animals, particularly those with an illness that hides. If you watch ads on any site that allows the selling of animals you will find numerous rabbits, many of them coming out of pet homes. People will often breed their pet rabbits together without knowing you shouldn’t breed weepy eye bunny to snot nosed bunny. The end result? Young rabbits with a compromised immune system. That’s not good for rabbits long term. Just isn’t.

If you breed rabbits DO NOT sell unhealthy animals. Not to the pet public and not to your fellow breeders. Just don’t.

What animals to Sell

Animals that are healthy with good temperament, can be sold for a variety of reasons. These rabbits can be sold as pets, breeders, companion animals, food, and more.

It helps other rabbits. If rabbits with health issues are dispatched humanely, you keep that rabbit out of the genetic pool. A rabbit with strong genetics will hardly ever get ill. Strong immune systems and genetics are what we need in rabbits. Not coddling of ill animals, with their potential to pass on their poor genetics.

Kill the Animal

Humanely culling an animal that is not in peak condition is the best thing you can do for that animal and any future rabbits you may have. Killing an animal when you have need for it is fulfilling it’s purpose. Rabbits are prey animals, and treating them as such is not a bad thing.

You need to cull humanely and calmly. Always having a back up method at hand. Being able to cull means you can also quickly end suffering, because sometimes injuries happen, or illnesses strike hard. Do you want an animal you care for to suffer?

Culling an animal doesn’t mean it is a waste. Raptor rescues, snake owners, raw feeders of cats, dogs and other animals, zoos and animal sanctuaries will gladly take your animals. You can eat them yourself or feed them to your own pets. if you can’t find an outlet you can bury them deep (letting them return to the soil) or bring them to a forest for wild animals to enjoy. No waste, just a well cared for rabbit right to the very end.

Sorrows and Joys

I have had the misfortune of having to cull babies when momma over cleaned them taking off a foot or when a baby is born wrong (it happens, you just don’t rebreed the parents). I’ve had rabbits do a crazy kamikaze leap out of my arms and break their back. Windstorms come creating lots of noise and fright and sometimes rabbits don’t cope well with that. You need to end that pain and suffering as quickly as you can.

I have also had the joy of sending a rabbit off to a new home, owners grinning with delight. Experienced the expressed gratitude of a large snake owner when he finds me saying “wow.. now I can feed my big girl properly”. The joy of seeing my son’s cat do better on an all protein diet. The pleasure in helping the family budget with a home-raised meal. These are all good things.

Cull your animals well. It’s an important part of raising rabbits.

B is For Baby Bunnies

March 5, 2019 By Annette1 7 Comments

Do you see how I did it? Two b’s for this second letter of the alphabet! Today we are going to talk about all things baby bunny!

First it starts with introducing one male bunny (a buck) and one female bunny (a doe). You let them do their thing (which by the way is sometimes super easy, and other times… not so much) BUT that’s a topic for another post (reproduction anyone?)

Then you need to wait. Some people can palpate and others can’t. If you do it wrong you can cause a spontaneous abortion. Anyways, again, topic for another day! 🙂 The easiest thing to do is simply wait. Bunnies usually kindle (have their babies) 31 days after they have mated.

Babies come! WOOT WOOT! Nothing better than day old babies except day three babies or day 21 babies! or… day 28 babies or….. 🙂 Can’t tell I love babies can you?

Newborn babies need to be checked out carefully. Sometimes mama bunnies make mistakes when giving babies their first bath and clean up. Other times babies are born dead. The very odd time they are born with birth defects. Once in a while mama will do a horrible job at building a nest or does WAY too good a job in the middle of summer. Check the babies, the same as you would for any baby, look for all their toes, tails, eyes and nose!

Wait for your day three babies… you can really start to see their colours coming in. The sables will look silvery, the whites and pointeds will look white, and the subtle differences between the lilacs and blues will be apparent. It’s a great day to give them all a very thorough check over.

Week One

I love the pristine whiteness of the light coloured week olds. Aren’t they adorable? 🙂 Did you know that babies have to be checked over every single day? Sometimes a baby will die, or miss a bath from mama and have poop stuck to their bum. They also need to get used to the smell of people, so picking them up every single day keeps them used to you and teaches them not to be frightened.

At about 10 days old their eyes open. I sprinkle a little bit of food into the nest box for them. This gets them started if something untoward happens with mama.

Week Two

They continue growing, you continue checking on this. Week two is when you’ll find out which ones are a bit more high strung. You’ll reach into the box, waking them up and one will start to scream. My lad loves the screamers. He’ll just keep picking them up until they realize that screaming doesn’t get you anywhere, and before long he’ll have them snuggle in his hand. Brings a smile to both our faces! 🙂

At two weeks, Spring through later fall I tip the nestbox on it’s side. This gives babies a solid platform to huddle together on. At this age they still can’t regulate their own body heat. Having a platform helps them stay healthily warm. I give them a creep feeder at this age. In the cold of winter I change out the litter and start shelving them at night.

Week Three

Young rabbits are called kits. They grow like weeds and have an amazing ability to heal quickly from injury or damage. Scratches, nips, broken legs, bug bites and more. Kits can get hurt even in the safety of their own boxes. Keep the fur out of the wound and they heal up right smart.

Week three babies are out of the nestbox and you start to see personalities emerge. The bold, the shy, the curious in your face ones. It’s good!

The nestbox is removed in the warmer weather, tipped during the winter at this stage.

Week Four

Week four babies can be almost impossible to take a picture of. They are SO curious and into things, OR so incredibly shy you can scarce get them to stop trying to hide.

The two kits pictured above were really showing their personalities off. The wee one in the corner just wanted to hide, I had to make sure there were no folds in the cloth. The other one, my son bribed her with a piece of carrot. She was bouncing EVERYWHERE!

If you have a large litter it’s really hard getting a picture of them lined up and looking at you. 🙂 You’ll get bum pictures and sideways bunnies, or young boys coming out to check the camera. It’s a mess.

They are very much like toilet-training toddlers at this stage. Learning to keep themselves clean but often times needing help. Daily checks for poopy butt are a necessity at this age, particularly with my hollands and fuzzies.

Week Five

Curiousity and training starts to play a role. They are getting used to the word STOP and a knock on wood or cage gets them to sit still a moment and start to assess the situation. It gets easier to take a picture or two. Telling genders becomes easier. They are getting smarter and more aware of the world around them.

Week Six

Ears in loppies start dropping more, the girls start to act more like girls, the boys well… they are super sweet but won’t sit still for nothing! Usually takes a bunny threat or two to keep them in line. 🙂 Here I start more seriously evaluating who will stay in the rabbitry and who will need to find a new home. I’m harder on the boys than the girls as the boys tend to stick around a bit longer than the girls and affect all future generations. Kits that are ready to be sold I list (I can do that in Ontario) Stateside the rules are different, there are you legally obliged to hold them until they are eight weeks old.

Week seven-eight

I can’t recall exactly how old this girlie is above. She’s around 8 weeks old. Really starting to show what she’ll look like as an adult. They are pretty self-sufficient at this age. It’s good to watch them grow. 🙂

Others in this series.

A – American Fuzzy Lops

blogging through the alphabet #abcblogging

Letter B Link Up

Save the Zed

July 11, 2017 By Annette1 13 Comments

Blogging through the Alphabet. Ah it’s been a good 26 week run hasn’t it? I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as Amanda and I have! This week we celebrate the letter Z.

Y is for Yukon!

July 4, 2017 By Annette1 12 Comments

Hello! Welcome to the second last week of Blogging through the alphabet! Can you believe it? Wow… it’s been a whirl wind hasn’t it?

This week Amanda and I bring you the letter Y!

Since I have been bringing you all things Canadian during this alphabetic tour, this week I’m going to talk with you about the Yukon!

Think Jack London, Call of the Wild, Snow, tundra, permafrost, Inuit, snow, sun, frontiersmen, cold winters, sled dogs and the northern lights.

Or take a photographers viewpoint:

The Yukon is located up north.
It is host to Canada’s largest mountain, Mount Logan.
AND the smallest desert in the world (yes, under all that snow is a desert) called Carcross.

It is located right next door to Alaska (the USA) and the Northwest Territories.

The population of the Yukon is 33, 897 with 2/3’s of that living in Whitehorse. Sparsely populated, with year round snow (even if in summer it falls sparsely), interesting animals (polar bears, moose, artic fox, stone sheep etc.), hunting, fishing, a large film and tourist industry, forestry and more.

A
Net In Time Schooling Blogging Through The Alphabet Grab Button Code:

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X is for… An Excellent Time to Celebrate Canada’s Birthday

June 27, 2017 By Annette1 13 Comments

Thank you for joining Amanda and I as we blog through the alphabet. This week, X!

On July 1st this year Canada will be celebrating her 150th birthday.

To that end oh my, things are getting busy.
Stores is promoting their 150th birthday sales.
Communities are prettying themselves up.. for instance our town put up a lovely begonia bed made up in the shape of the Canada flag.
Towns are putting together bigger than normal Canada day events.

I have to admit, it’s rather fun watching folks prepare.

Even funnier… on our family vacation (celebrating my mom’s 80th) my sisters (who don’t celebrate Canada Day) were busy talking about how they should have a party for all their friends this year. After all, Canada’s turning 150 this year!

As to what we’ll do? I haven’t a clue! I’m not really planning a party (I’ll let my younger sister plan that). I expect we’ll take in the town events, probably go out to the local provincial park and have a bbq supper, swim and walk (if the weather is nice that is).

If you want to find out what’s going on across Canada, you can check out this site.
Celebrate Canada is a four-day celebration that begins on June 21 with
National Aboriginal Day, continues with Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (June
24) and Canadian Multiculturalism Day (June 27), and comes to a
spectacular finish on Canada Day (July 1). Find out what is going on in
your region and across the country!

If you are in Ontario, check out some of these Canada Day events. Sure to be something to interest most anyone eh? 🙂
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