Baby Harlie Pics

Finally, right? Well, here they are in all their furry glory:

I couldn't barely fit the little chunkers all into the basket, so next time I will probably do individual shots of the keepers.

They are very friendly like most Harlequins, but also because this litter in particular has been handled pretty much constantly since the day they were born.

You can't tell, but there is another Harlie kit tunneling around the others at the bottom of the basket in this pic, lol. You can just barely see one ear sticking up between the two in the front:

This buckling in the front is large and typey so far, plus he has a very nice face split with properly alternating ears. He might need to stay if I do not end up overloaded on boys:

Tentatively, it looks like 5 bucks and only 2 does. I really needed more girls to choose from, but I am still so thankful for another Harlie litter so I can hardly complain. :o)

Thanks for looking. NZ are next up!

Excuses

I just wanted to post that I didn't forget about the blog, but I've been much busier this week than I had anticipated. My preceptorship for school is 7P-7A so I am not getting a whole lot done during the day. This is primarily because I am trying to sleep when I am not catching up on schoolwork. I also had a cold that I am now just getting over.

So.. basically, I am just listing a bunch of excuses, lol. Sorry! To give a brief update, everyone is doing great including all 12 of the Harlie and NZ babies. I'll get back to regularly scheduled programming here shortly (and new pictures, too). Thanks for your patience!

Litter Updates

Just thought I'd post a quick update. I wanted to take pictures today outside of the older two litters, but there is a major thunderstorm going on right now. I'll try to get it to though as soon as the weather cooperates.

New Zealands- all 5 are in with Kari, who has her paws full with the two litters. The black kit that I bottle-fed most of its young life is definitely a GT steel.

Harlequins- all 7 are running wild and driving their mamma crazy. One kit is so active that I don't know how much time she is taking to eat and always feels on the skinny side. I am trying to give her extra time with Kari to compensate for this apparent abundance of energy. I also decided to practice what I preach and cull the runt of the older Harlequin litter from the herd. She was nicely marked, but just had terrible growth and poor size. Valkyrie was almost twice as large when I compared the two, so that is interesting to see the differences even within the same litter.

Mini Lops- Dove's 3 and Serenity's 4 are all still with us and appear to be okay at the moment, though they are still really young. I always consider the first week to be a dangerous time since they are so tiny and fragile. Edit 01/28: I found Dove's kits dead against the side of the nestbox. It looks like she squished them, which really irritates me. Second edit 01/31: Now I am just mad. Serenity killed the two largest of her kits this morning, so only the runt and one other kit are left. I saw how it happened, too. When I was feeding everyone, I turned around just in time to see her (and Dove coincidently, who is in a stacker next to her) jumping in and out of her nestbox over and over again in a food craze, effectively stomping two of her own in her excitement to eat. The only reason she was even out of food is because she had apparently dug her pellets out for no apparent reason overnight. That is just poor mothering on her part-  of course jumping up and down on kits isn't going to have a good ending. I don't know why does that were already proven and did fine before are giving me problems right now.

In other news, I am sad to say that I had to euthanize my beautiful NZR buck, Scorch. He developed what appeared to be pneumonia suddenly, though I don't know what caused it. These are never easy decisions, but this is the reality that a responsible breeder has to deal with. As great as it would be to just enjoy the good, dealing with the bad is just another part of raising animals.

Breeding Goals

A friend asked the question recently about what constitutes a responsible breeder. In the culling post recently, I mentioned that I believe one important distinction is that responsible breeders have goals in mind. I didn't want to go too far off topic during that discussion to elaborate on it, so I am going to do that today instead.

 

I am including this stock picture because it is a good metaphor what happens when different people start working with a breed from what I have seen. Some may stay on the tracks heading due north. Although they may stop at different locations along the way, ultimately they will get to the same destination. These breeders (to me at least) represent those that have the standard of perfection in mind. Some, however, take a different path (or veer off course depending on your point of view) and they ultimately arrive in a different state, or on the other side of the country altogether.

With rabbits these differences can be readily seen when you compare rabbits from pet breeders, for example, to rabbits that arrive on the show tables. Since there aren't too many Harlequin breeders around at all these days, I am going to use Netherland Dwarf rabbits to describe some of the differences. I looked at the local Craigslist ads today just for this breed. What I found was that the people offering quantity on the cheap tended to have oversized ND's with big ears, long bodies, poor hindquarters, and were in colors that weren't recognized. The responsible breeders that I know with this breed aim for rabbits that are the opposite of this and that properly meet the standard and rabbits like the ones in the CL ads would have been culled out long ago. 

Netherland Dwarf for sale?

Anyway, here are some of my own goals (aka what I am breeding for):

Health- I want a rabbit with a strong immune systems that does not have, produce, or pass along congenital problems or disease. I also would like them to have good growth patterns/grow out, proper size, etc. You could probably put this in health or temperament categories, but I also want rabbits that are good mothers, ready breeders, and that keep themselves clean. 

Temperament- Ideally, I want rabbits that are friendly and tolerant, but I absolutely will not deal with aggression. I also want a rabbit that handles stress well due to their demeanor (high resilience).

Type- I could say simply that I want to breed better Harlequins, but there is more to it than that. Ultimately, I want to produce rabbits that are well proportioned and have the proper commercial type for the breed. They should have the right parts in the right places. Right now problems I am dealing with are pinched HQ, long shoulders, poor depth, etc. Although it is only worth 10 points, I feel this is extremely important to the multi-purpose/utility function of the breed.

Color and Markings- This is last on my list because it is my lowest priority at this time for this breeding program. Others mileage may vary and some people have been working with the breed forever, so of course they might have the order changed up at this point because they are able to and I am not there yet. Of course if I happen to produce excellent color and markings in a rabbit with the other prerequisites met then that is great, but right now I have to prioritize and know there is a lot of work ahead.

I guess that's a start. There are other goals that can be included like improved litter size, but right now I just feel fortunate to even have litters at all.

Thanks for reading!

Mini Lop News

I haven't been posting hardly at all about the Mini Lops because the plan has been to sell out. The kind of sad thing is that the only people to contact me lately are mostly wanting pets and I would like a couple of them at least (especially Hulk) to go to a show/breeding home.

Anyhow, since the does were just hanging out here in the meantime I went ahead and bred them last month. In my experience, it is better to keep a doe working than just hanging around collecting love handles. :) They are due today and are both in the nestbox today pulling fur. Update: Dove had 3 fat kits and it looks like Serenity has at least 4 so far, but she is kindling as I type this.

I bred Sundae at the same time, but it doesn't look like she took this time around. She has produced kits twice before for me, but her first litter had a couple giants DOA and her second litter was a few normal looking kits, but unfortunately they didn't survive the first week. Obviously she is fertile, but I just haven't had much luck otherwise. I am going to go ahead and place her up for sale to a pet home instead of continuing to mess with it since I had already planned to part with the breed to focus on Harlies. She is quite the character and should make a family looking for a new bunny very happy.

I think that's about it as far as Mini Lop news. I love the breed and will miss them quite a bit. Fortunately they are popular enough that if I want to get back into them later on then hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult. They are incredibly cute, are a great size, come in beautiful colors with such nice coats, and have personalities to match their sweet faces. :)

Litter Picture Update

Picture + update = Picdate? Upture? 

Anyhoo.. I get the message about the need for pictures, lol. Here you go:

 Eyes!

And now litter pictures. There are six in each box. This group is predominately NZ with a few Harlies mixed in:

And this group is predominately Harlies (though one of these is not like the others..):

 Check out the banding!

 

I know, I know.. stripes and plaid don't mix. The color is also washed out thanks to flash indoors. But not bad considering markings are about last on my to-do list with this breed right now. :)

We have eyes!

I just thought I'd share that the last of the babies from both litters opened their eyes over the past couple of days and are doing very well. We did lose that one black kit from Pearl's litter that I thought was fading, but still have 5 going strong. The Harlequin litter of 7 is doing great also. They are so cute at this age! When I walk in to check on them I see a pile of sweet faces peeking up at me now.

I know they are eating hay on their own in addition to Kari's milk and goat's milk (in the case of the NZ kits) and I am sure they will start nibbling on pellets in a little bit, too. I am so incredibly thankful that I did not lose Pearl's entire litter, but goodness I am attached to some of these little guys and gals now. It is going to be incredibly hard to select keepers for the project at this rate!

Thanks for all the kind words, advice, and support with these guys over the past week. It has been much appreciated!