Baby Tans! + foster puppies

I'm not the best at keeping up with blogging apparently. To make up for all my nonexistent entries, here's a post full of baby bunny and puppy photos!

Wool Creek's Mad Hatter kindled 3 kits on April 18, two blacks and one little chocolate. The babies are feisty as can be and getting non-blurry pictures of them has proven quite the challenge.

Eyes still shut at 10 day old:

 

Here are the babies in all their cuteness at 2 1/2 weeks.

Something tells me the chocolate is going to be quite the clown. ;) 

Going from long-earred English Lops to the little prick-earred Tan babies has been quite the experience. While very sweet, these babies are already super active and would much rather run around than sit and puddle for head rubs, unlike my previous litters of English Lops. I'm still very much enjoying my Tan project, but I've made the decision to sell off my Tan stock this fall to prepare to go back to school; I'm sure I'll pick up some more of this cool breed sometime in the future when I'm ready to get back into rabbits full time.

In other non-bunny related news, I began my new job at a vet office this past January.... and promptly brought home a homeless puppy "just for the night". Vixen stayed with me for about a month before going to live with some family friends who are absolutely in love with her.

With Vixen gone, my poor pup Nova seemed a bit depressed about no longer having a playmate, so I agreed to foster puppies for a local rescue. Enter Delilah, a scrawny, oddly-proportioned pit mix who, over the course of two months, turned into a happy, well-mannered, and most importantly healthy pup. She was adopted two weeks ago and I couldn't be more ecstatic. Mostly because I'm happy she got a home, but I'm also a little bit relieved order has been restored to the house. Though not a bad dog at all, Delilah was definitely way too intense for what I'm used to; having a puppy in the house who didn't have an "off switch" was just a little crazy.

I've really enjoyed my venture into being a puppy foster, but I'm definitely taking a break for now as my baby bunnies grow and need more care and attention. Nova is getting lonely again, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I bring home another pup to visit.

My rabbitry website desperately needs updated, and I have a few plans for my English Lops that need to be revealed. Hopefully I'll get myself in gear and get all that updated!

Vertical Earred Bunnies??

There's some new faces here at Tristar Rabbits... And no, they aren't lops!


Meet Ax, one of my two new Tans! He and his lovely girlfriend made the trip today from Pennsylvania down to Virginia to be the beginning pair in my spring Tan project. If these two silly bunnies cooperate, I should hopefully have some Tan juniors on the show tables this spring.

I plan on eventually getting up a new post with some more pictures and information on my new breed... I just have to get through hell exam week first!

On Fat Rabbits: The English Lop Min. Weight Change

"I am NOT fat, I'm big boned!"

Ms. Nyx eats less than 1.5 cups of feed a day along with her constant supply of hay. She has a large cage with room to stretch out, and she gets time to run around the fenced back yard. All of her five siblings fell in with their parent's weight range of 10-11.5lbs at adult weight. And somehow, Nyxie tips the scales at 15lbs- 3 pounds more than my x-large cat.

One of the reasons why I made the decision in January 2011 to stop breeding English Lops was due to the then recent Standard change in minimum weight requirement. In the past, English Lop does were required to weigh 10lbs to be shown, and bucks needed to weight in at least 9.5lbs. The .5lbs added to both the buck and does minimum weight requirement has not only forced a fair amount of breeders out of the breed due to their once showable rabbits suddenly no longer making weight, but also, in my opinion, makes for an unhealthy attitude towards breeding English Lops.

It is no secret that English Lops are not at all a hardy breed. Continuous unhealthy breeding in the breed's past has made ear infections, abscessing, and respiratory infections, among other health issues, all too common in the breed. While those issues can be dealt mainly with culling rabbits who show those symptoms out of the breeding program, one other main problem is often ignored: sore hocks. Although it is a common infliction in the English Lop breed, because sore hocks are generally viewed to be a environment-caused problem as opposed to genetics, not every breeder takes the appropriate breeding practices to be sure it doesn't show up in their lines. The truth is, while sore hocks certainly can be and often are environmentally caused, genetics play a huge role as well. A few breeds that are often genetically prone to sore hocks, for example, are Rexes, Belgian Hares, and giant breeds such as Flemish Giants.

So why is it that English Lops are so prone to sore hocks while their larger lop cousins, the French Lops, are not? Again, it's genetics. French Lops' breed type profile is Commercial Type- a breed type that is also assigned to Californians, New Zealands, Rexes, and other meat breeds that are expected to support a large, meaty rabbit. The English Lops are a Semi Arch type; their body type is simply not build to support such a large amount of weight.

Also differing between the two big Lops is fur type. French Lops have a Rollback fur type- It is supposed to be, as described in the Standard, "very thick and dense". Compare that to the Flyback fur of the English, which "must be fine and silky to the touch"- It's obvious that while French Lops will genetically have thickly furred hocks, this is simply not a physical possibility in an English Lop that correctly conforms to the Standard of Perfection for the breed.

Sore hocks are not the only weight-related issue that is seen in rabbits. Heart attacks are not uncommon in the jumbo-sized Flemish Giants, and neither are they unheard of in English Lops. I have noticed that my still-overweight rescue mini lop, Clover, has difficulty bending over to eat his cecotrophs, and I have to wonder if the joint problems that plague overweight dogs ever crop up in rabbits. It blows my mind why a breed club of a large, medium boned, fine furred breed that suffers from weight-related illnesses would even suggest, let alone vote to raise the weight limit.

So herein lies my problem with Nyx. Although she is just 3.5lbs heavier than her mother, the extra weight has an obvious effect on her. Despite living on solid flooring for the entirety of her life, Nyx does suffer from sore hocks, and I am constantly worried that they will worsen or become infected. Even in a large cage that is always kept clean and dry, she has difficultly cleaning herself, and part of her belly is bald from urine scald. Her overly large size makes for a very interesting time on the judging table, as her disproportional body shape makes her actually long ears look short, her broad head look small, and her body round and shapeless as if she is part French Lop. Though she is a sweet bunny and I adore her very much as a pet, Nyx is a perfect example of why breeders should NOT be trying to breed ginormous English Lops. Nothing good can come out of rabbits bred larger than their bodies can support, and I truly believe the decision to raise the weight limit was a poorly made one that is pointing the breed in the wrong direction.

That all said... I do not know WHY Nyx is so big. Her parents were normal-sized. Her set of grandparents I owned were normal sized. The rabbits listed on her pedigree are all under 11.5lbs. (OK, there is ONE 13 pounder, but she's listed way back there.) Her siblings were all 10-11ish lbs at adult weight, and they were all raised the exact same. She's limited fed and I try to exercise her the best I can. I can't say that her size is genetic-based, as I know of no related bunnies that ended up that big, and so I can't say she'd throw giant English Lop babies should she ever be bred. Size variation is such an interesting thing in bunnies, and something I'd love to look into more eventually- Soon as I finish campaigning my max English Lop weight idea!

Blast From the Past

It's been years, and these two goofy faces still remind me why I so love my breed.

I still miss my goobers every day. <3