Today I took new photos of the bunnies because after yesterday's extreme heat, all of the bunnies suddenly have lop ears! Every last one of them went lop within the last 24 hours! So, new photos are posted in the Rabbits tab. In other news Buck #1 has found his new home.
Today Maganda and the blue bunny both found their forever homes. Maganda will be joining an adult family with a dog down by the cities. The little blue bunny surprised everyone by turning out to be a buck! But regardless, he is heading up north to his new home with a wonderful family and a young woman who adores him. He's definitely going to be missed. He was my all-time favorite bunny so far.
This morning I met a young woman and her mom, and they fell in love with my little blue doe. I had originally hoped to keep her for future breeding, but after much thought, I decided I just didn't have the space, nor an appropriate buck. With the addition of the two new Harlequin does, I no longer have the additional cage space to keep the blue doe and a buck to match. I've also decided to stick with my bigger breeds as I had originally planned. Besides, I know she'll have an excellent home with this family.
In other news, a second litter of gerbils has arrived in the color point cage. The 6/20 chinchilla brothers are both spoken for, and they'll be able to stay together! The younger chinchilla litter is doing well and growing quickly. Right now I have plans in place for Maganda, the blue doe, and both of the older chinchilla boys to either meet potential families or go to new homes this month. I'm hoping to find homes for more of the hamsters, kitties, and bunnies this month too. I would be thrilled if I could place all of them before the school year starts! I'm thrilled to announce that Obsidian, the black kitten from the Roadside Litter has been adopted! He'll share his home with three little girls who are sure to adore him. Congratulations on your new home Obsidian!!
Trouble went to his new home today. He was one of the 4/24/13 twins. I'm excited to see him go to an active young family who will put the time into handling him and taking excellent care of him.
In other chinchilla news, three new arrivals made their debut yesterday. One beige male, one white female, and one (I assume) standard male. He looks like a standard, but his tail is oddly white, which could be just a fluke, or it could mean that he's a reverse mosaic. We'll see how he looks as he gets older. The baby bunnies are continuing to grow. There are three that are bigger than the rest (milk hogs), but otherwise, nobody is noticeably behind (no runt). I tentatively sexed them as 4 males, 3 females and one that I'm still not sure about. They'll be re-checked as they get older and bigger. Four of our five rabbits are now signed up to be shown at the county fair next week (Pickles will be staying home with her babies). Hopefully we can take home a ribbon or two. Since we're mostly breeding for meat and pet, show potential isn't a huge thing for us, but it'll be a fun experience for the kids. Tomorrow we're going to check out some new bunnies that we may be adding to the herd for fiber potential (harvesting their fur regularly to be sold for yarn making and felting crafts). What a fun new potential venture! We aren't planning to breed fiber rabbits (angora) right now due to lack of cage space, but maybe in the future. Baby bunnies are officially one week old today! Some of their ears are starting to open up so they're not all pushed back (see the blue baby in the photo below). In other exciting bunny news, father of this litter, Dark Chocolate Thunder (half lionhead, half mini lop) went to his new home today. No babies and no nesting going on with Stew, so I'm assuming there will be no babies from her. That's alright though, we'll just put her in the fair and breed her again afterwards. I think eight baby bunnies is enough to keep us busy for the next 5 weeks.
In the past week I've sold both of the older gerbils (born in January), and all of my female dwarf hamsters. I have one mama dwarf hamster with a single baby, and I'm hopefully expecting a litter of Syrians on Sunday. This male has failed to produce before, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
In rabbit news - The new bucks I purchased are settling in well. I attempted breeding Mama Bun again, so perhaps there will be baby bunnies in the future? I plan a test breeding after the blizzard passes. This time I'm attempting to cross her with a black lionhead/mini lop to see what she'll produce. This is an experimental breeding, as she's normally paired with my New Zealand Red buck. The resulting litter will likely be too small for meat rabbits, but better suited as pets, and just in time for warmer weather (I hope). I was up all night with sick kids. I'm hunkering down for the big snow storm that's supposed to come through today. Hope everyone out there is warm and safe today! Harry Potter Toupee, our Peruvian cross guinea pig, and the original pig that started our cavy journey a year ago, has found a new home. He will be joining five children, three other guinea pigs, and will be granted a home with blankets instead of shavings, so he can grow his fur out again. I'm very pleased with the home, and I hope he does well there. I miss him already, but I know he's going to be very happy there.
Today the 12/16/12 twins (one mosaic and one blue-eyed white) went to their new home. They will be part of a petting zoo that will (in part at least) help with therapy for special needs people. I'm so happy that they're going to be employed to help other people! I'm hoping their new family will keep me in the loop about when they open so I can share that here - and maybe get some folks out there to see the boys, and enjoy the petting zoo experience.
All kinds of updates! All of the 12/15/12 guinea pig babies have found homes. I have two more girls who could have babies within the next week or two (though I expect it to be a longer wait than that).
Four adorable Syrian (teddy bear) hamsters will be ready to go this coming Saturday. Two are black and white and two are brown and white. Another litter of Syrian hamsters is due 1/23 with a new male (we'll see if he's a better performer than the previous male). Gerbil babies are doing well. The litter of four from Ruby and Dean were born 1/4/13 and should be ready for new homes around six weeks old (2-15). I now have three female chinchillas in nursery cages awaiting babies (likely not until February). One is a beige/mosaic pairing, one is a homo-beige/ebony pairing, and the other is a brown velvet/ebony pairing. It'll be interesting to see what colors the new ebony male throws. After months of trying, Mama Bun kindled a litter of four baby bunnies on 1/9/13. There are three reds and one white. The dad is a purebred New Zealand Red, mom is a mixed breed (possibly New Zealand/Himilayan?). Babies will be weaned at six weeks old (2/20). Still no babies in the dwarf hamster cage, but she's getting big, so soon I would think! |
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