Why so blue baby?

Blue is one of my favorite colors in fuzzy lops. When I was able to buy my first couple I was beyond ecstatic! Leslie Hobbs (Hobbs Habbitry) was the first to let me get ahold of the color and I couldn't wait to get my very own! I don't necessarily "specialize" in the color, but I'm working on them a lot. I don't usually see very many on the show tables anymore, but I'm trying to change that. They can be a challenging variety with possible scattered white hairs and white toenails. You have to pay close attention to the dilution of the blue color as you don't want it to be too light either. I like a nice very deep blue color. Above are some photos of some current blues I have... shown as head shots so you can see the thick fuzzy faces!

Viper & Tulsa

The Summer is feeling practically over. I can say that I am very happy for the bunnies as I know they will appreciate the milder temperatures... but I have hardly got a chance to enjoy the hot weather myself. I think I've only been swimming twice! Ah well, I love the Fall.

The Violet baby I mentioned in my previous post is around 8 weeks old now. He is named Starlite's Viper. See pic above! He has been growing beautifully. I bet he is going to have a very nice dense coat like Violet does. His sire, Hobbs Oh Da Man, is going through his first major moult right now but is looking like he is going to come nicely out of it and look like a whole new bunny!

Lil'Bit Farm's Tulsa was feeling photogenic today so I have lots of photos to share of him:

In the midst of the summer

Summer is in full throttle.. unfortunately. A week ago we were battling 110+ degrees here in the Central Valley. I am so very thankful that is over. We had fans, misters, and frozen water bottles going full blast. Yesterday was a nice 80 degrees and slightly windy. It was perfect! The rabbits were loving the new weather. It's set to head back up to the high 90's again later this week. But we'll be prepared!

I have a doe named Starlite's Violet. She was out of one of my first fuzzy lop litters, and the first one that I actually kept from my own breeding. She has the chunkiest cheeks ever, and is the sweetest thing. No matter whether I could ever get her bred or not, she was going to live out her life with me. I tried breeding her for a looooong time, and the bucks would "get" her, but still nothing. I was pretty much settled that she would never "take". She had a top cage full of toys and lots of head rubs. Every once in a while I would try breeding her, if I was doing a round of breedings. By golly.. on her 2nd birthday she delivered a litter! And there was like 6 of them! Unfortunately, due to a first time mother syndrome, they were all DOA. The next time I would be prepared. A month ago, Violet was fat and plump. I brought her inside the house in a small solid bottom cavy cage. She birthed her litter inside my room, and there were 3 of them (1 DOA). Violet decided that being a spoiled pet was more important to her than rearing her own litter, so I fostered off the babies. I think part of the issue is that it took her 2 years to get bred, so she doesn't have the natural instinct that a 6-10 month old doe would have being bred the first time. Unfortunately, I lost one of the two to the heat in our horrible heat spell last week. Thankfully I do have one baby left, a really fat tort! (See photo above!)I think it's a little buck and he is totally adorable. He reminds me so much of Violet when she was still in the nestbox. Even though I have no clue what he will turn out like (besides his super big head!), he will probably live his life out here as well, since he is the only live Violet baby ever produced. Violet was bred again a couple weeks ago and we are hoping for another litter. Moral of the story? NEVER give up. This is something that I had to teach myself because I was definitely running out of patience. I think after the stress of trying to get her bred was over (since I decided whatever happens, happens) she decided to take.

No shows until the middle of September. We will be taking the brunt of the hot part of Summer off. I have a new show puppy coming at the end of the week, and I have some more dog events and school to take care of. Besides.. time to save money for Convention right? Only 3 months away!

Randomness

Spring has definitely hit our barn. I know Susie (Wooly World Rabbitry) mentioned in her blog that there isn't much else to talk about but babies, and that's the way it is here too. We have had several litters born recently, including some otters! Fairy (blue) was bred to AK's Quiddich (blk otter) and produced a litter of 4 with one black, one blue, and two blue otters!! Hopefully one of them will be fuzzy. Fairy is a fuzzy, but Quiddich is a holland x fuzzy that ended up with normal hair.

We also had our first holland lop litter born! THF Saynora Zayden (tort) was bred to THF Saynora Cookie (broken blue tort). There were two babies. One was squished in the box, and the other was cold and half-alive in the back of the box. I warmed the little singleton up and it has been living at my side basically for the past 3-4 days of its life. Since its mother thought the whole litter was dead she wanted nothing to do with her nest box. So twice a day I take little baby to its mother, or any of my other willing nursing does and let it nurse off them. Unfortunately all my other litters are almost 2 weeks old, so the size difference is too great to foster "little one" off. I already feel so attached to this baby! It's my first holland baby, so it's special no matter what. :)

Show tomorrow.

This week is a very special week- Convention breedings can start. Oh yeaaaa! I started today off with cleaning a few nest boxes and a couple carriers for the show in the morning. Tiring! Then I did two Convention breedings. One was PFF's Tonka (Tort) x Hobbs' Oh No (Blue Tort). This is going to be an exciting breeding. Oh No is a VERY short and solid doe with excellent wool. Tonka is short, except he is long in the shoulder. His head is TREMENDOUS. I haven't been using him much lately because he is just my spoiled baby, but I really need to get some babies with his monstrous big head on them! The second breeding was THF Saynora Zayden (Tort) x THF Saynora Tort doe (Qwade daughter, Tort). He only got her once, but I'm still crossing my fingers.

I'm looking forward to the show tomorrow morning, but I wish I was a bit more prepared. Even though I cleaned a few carriers this morning I still have a TON to do in the morning. Here's to waking up at like 5am!

Oh those Convention breedings

The nestboxes are full right now here. It's such a wonderful feeling to go through each of them every morning and see how every new life has grown in just the past 24 hours since I last looked at them. This year is going to be a busy baby year here, as I have Convention breedings starting this weekend. I've been sitting for weeks comparing and contrasting who to breed to whom. I have some decisions dead set, yet others I am still unsure of. Who has the best shoulers to breed to the one with some weak shoulders? Ok this one has good ears, and this one's are a little funky.. but will they all end up thin and folded or short and thick and round? So many decisions! I am going to start my first round of breedings. After 5 weeks of the litter being born, I will probably start Round 2 for those that I need more babies out of. I'll foster to any other does if possible when having litters. Even though the amount of holes I'm taking to Kentucky on the plane are very very small, I would like to have a great batch of juniors to pick from.

Anyone who is interested in any for sale rabbits we will have will probably be disappointed to hear that shipping to KY will not be possible by airlines. The rabbit would have to go via ground transport by one of the many people who will be driving from CA to KY. It's sad, but this year space is limited. Next year, since the Convention will be in Southern California I will be able to easily drive there and bring as many rabbits as I want! Yipee!

Above you will see photos of some of our upcoming juniors. I believe both of these two are bucks, and are around 3 months old. Forgive the scruffy wool. They're still babies! If all turns out, I'll be keeping the fawn. What I love about these two is how clear the agouti coloring is. The mother of these guys is Hobbs'/Moore's Ado Annie. She is a very crisp clean fawn with an awesome shake and show coat. Father is Hobbs' Dayton, a solid blue buck that is so short and so solid. Both babies ended up with awesome coloring and rufus. They are doublebred on PSP's Taboo, a broken chestnut buck that took a great placing at Convention a few years back.

It's so nice to have some young life in the barn!

Holland Lops!

Quite a few months ago I was fortunate to get a great start in a new breed. Their page is not setup all the way on our website yet, but I just had to share what we have. HOLLAND LOPS! Yes, that's right! Starlite Rabbitry is also home to Holland Lops. We have a very small herd of them at this point. I always told myself that when I decided to get into them I would only go to the very best. And I did just thank. I cannot thank Tracy and Jenna enough from THF Saynora for sending me my starting stock. All 6 of our current hollands are from them. I have a solid tort buck, broken tort buck, two solid tort does, a broken tort doe, and a broken blue tort doe. I have only done one breeding so far, with the intention of doing most of my breedings for Convention juniors. Might as well since the time is right! I am very excited with this endeavor and it should be a great challenge as we all know how competitive holland lops are on the table. Below is a picture of one of my boys, THF Saynora Yowza who always begs for loves through his cage door. Photo is Copyright THF Saynora:

I have lots of babies in the box right now. I am very excited for some of the crosses! I only have a couple more does due before I start my breedings in about 2 weeks for KY Convention Juniors. I can't believe it's that time already!

Yesterday one of my good friends Susie (Wooly World Rabbitry) stopped by for a visit. We spent the day going through my rabbitry and comparing rabbits. She brought a few of her own fuzzies from her barn for me to look at. We also did some breedings. I'm very happy for her and how far she has come in her program! Each generation seems to get better and better. She also helped convince me to keep a couple of my juniors from my older litter. One is a fawn jr buck and the other is an opal jr buck. They have both such awesome agouti coloring and the rufus is amazing! I was so hesitant and debated on just selling them all quick as pets but when she convinced me to take them out of their cage I was pleasantly suprised at how they are turning out! Sometimes all you need is another eye huh?