6 Week Weigh-In

It's amazing how fast they grow! Here we are at 6 weeks already and coming up on 3lbs in some cases:

Sunshine's Litter-
1. 1lb 15.4oz (black runty doe)
2. 2lb 9.3oz (black eye patch doe)
3. 2lb 2.9oz (blue shoulder buck)
4. 2lb 4.5oz (blue? banded doe- I need to recheck her color. She has a lot of rufus, but is looking more choco-based, which is entirely possible genetically)
5. 2lb 7.1oz (black banded doe)

Tacoma's Litter-
1. 2lb 13.7oz (black doe)
2. 2lb 14.9oz (Jack- black buck)

I went ahead and BunnyVac'ed all of them after weigh-in. I was only going to vaccinate the keepers initially, but it was my first time using it on kits and I wanted to make sure there were no problems. So far so good, but I am keeping a close eye out for sneezing with clear discharge, sterile abscesses, etc. (which are possible side-effects of the vaccine).

While evaluating the kits, I was still most pleased with Jack, the buck I selected as a keeper. His sister is getting a body type more like Tacoma and she peaks early and is fairly low and long. She does have other positive traits though such as being larger, muscular, etc., so we will see what she looks like in a few more weeks. Some of Sunshine's litter have swapped places for who is the largest. Now the black eye patch doe has take the lead and I'm liking her type the best along with the banded doe. The smallest kit at birth is still the smallest one now, so it doesn't appear that the transition onto pellets/hay made that big of a difference.

Overall, I'm still seeing tons of room for improvement in body type with pinched HQ, long shoulders, etc., but it will take time and generations. Because Harlies are a marked breed, some breeders pick their keepers the day they are born to provide perspective of how type can be thrown to the wayside for generations. While type is a function of show rabbits, it also applies to those used for meat as a pinched HQ or low topline can translate to a loin and HQ that is less muscular and full on the dinner table. It also means the same amount of food is going into a rabbit that is sub-par for commercial use, so it would cost you the same amount of money to raise a rabbit with good type and good commercial qualities then one that is lacking.

In other news, I have some of my older adult Harlequins for adoption. I'd like them to become someone's pampered house pet, but I don't know that folks really look for anything that isn't young and cute. I'm trying to give them every chance, but when I thought I had to sell out a few years ago, I couldn't give them away for free when they were in their prime. People in my area just prefer smaller pet breeds like Hollands or Netherland Dwarf. I think it will be even harder to place them as I'd prefer for them to go to someone with no other rabbits. Realistically, it is entirely possible that there are still Pasteurella carriers in the older group as they lived here when I had snot problems after buying rabbits from the outside. I have no way to tell though because they have no symptoms and carrier rabbits are difficult at best to culture.

With this in mind, there may be tough decisions made over the next couple of months for the betterment of the overall herd. I do not want to expand at all and I will need housing for up-and-comers, so we will see what happens.