The Nature Trail Rabbitry BLOG
Saturday, May 24, 2008
GAA Show, Taylorsville, NC, May 24, 2008
I haven't shown rabbits in over two months. I think that's a record for me. So today, I broke the fast, as it were, and hauled my bunnies out of the barn for a trip to the table.
I still don't have any juniors that I wanted to show. You may remember the dozen babies I got at Christmas. Well, let's see: 4 false dwarf bucks, 1 fuzzy, 1 split penis, 1 cute adorable doe - with a low shoulder, a false dwarf brood doe, a nice doe with a crown too tight to bother showing right now, and a couple of decent bucks.
But I've decided to sell the bucks, so I didn't want to spend money to show them. One is absolutely adorable, but is probably going to be small. He's out of Roxie and a LOV buck. (I've decided not to work on the outcrossing project I had planned because my herd is still so small and my breeding capacity has been slower than I expected kicking back in.)
The other is pretty nice and would have something to offer a breeder with the right doe. He's not the complete package, but nice with great stuff behind him.
Anyway, I took a look at my bucks. Lex is 4.04. He's a huge eater that seems to never be satisfied. So I guess I'll have to be satisfied with his 13 legs! He's done. He can join company with Rio, the original big eater.
My other brokens are in terrible fur. I mean they look like I ran over them with a lawnmower (or put them through the dishwasher!) Could it be that I'm on my 3rd feed in six weeks? Ummm, maybe.
Lord looked good - except for a patch of missing fur. No dander, so I'm wondering if he got stung by something. Padawan's still trying to molt out that gosh-awful coat of his. If you saw him now, you'd wonder why I want to keep a rag tag rabbit like that.
I could have taken MLK, perhaps, but I didn't think he could beat Java, who is back well under the 4.00 mark and in wonderful flesh and fur.
I went down my doe aisles and mentally tagged Jamillia to go. Too bad I didn't write it down because I forgot about her. She had 5 peanuts last time around, so she's in shape to show. I got distracted by the idea of showing May. I want to breed her tomorrow, so I wanted her up on the table, smelling those wonderful buck smells, and being stimulated by all of the handling. And if she did well - all the better.
That second part was a little too much to hope for from a 3 1/2 year old doe. But maybe I can squeeze a few more babies from her now. She seems to only do well with large litters. I want to do everything I can to increase her litter size this time.
Java was BOS in the first show and second place to the BRIS buck in the second show (if you gotta lose, it's nice to lose to a nice rabbit - this one owned by Margie Brewer). That makes an even 20 legs for him. I like that. It's a nice round number.
Anyway, my primary objective in going to the show was to relax and enjoy myself. I decided I wasn't going to work with judges, I wasn't asked to be a registrar (good thing I didn't take papers because folks asked). I had no meetings. Nothing. I was going to visit, look at rabbits, and have a good time.
Well, I did all of that, but did get swept up in studying English Spots. I found at the NC State RBA Convention in March that I was very deficit in that breed, so I mentally tagged it to get more hands-on experience.
And as luck would have it, there were four English Spot shows today, so I got to see them more than once, talked with the breeders, and then worked with a judge for their last show. It was a great experience because I finally began to "see" them by the end.
I was recruited to write for a while, but I enjoy that, so it was no problem. It makes me pay better attention to the rabbits anyway. And I do like to learn about them.
I took Roxie to breed with a friend's buck. I don't do that sort of thing often or with many people, but every now and then, it's a lot of fun to do.
Even though the breeder and I are good friends, we show each other the teeth and genitals and so forth before we breed. No one should ever been offended by a request to go over the rabbit in detail before a joint breeding takes place. And one shouldn't accept, "Oh, I trust you," from the other breeder either. Show them anyway.
An interesting situation came up with a split penis today. If you breed Hollands, then sooner or later you will have the occasional split penis. I personally feel that if there's no pattern to it, it's just one of those things. If you see it running in a line, deal with it. You know what I mean. Luckily, they make great pets.
The situation was a buck who had been DQ'd for a split penis, but appeared to be whole.
Sometimes a split penis can have a bit of flesh that flaps over the split, making it look just fine. But if the flap is moved to the side, the split is revealed. Even if you know the split is there (such as in the case of the DQ'd rabbit), it can be difficult to get the split to reveal itself. On this rabbit today, I only got it to open once, but I got a quick glance of it before it closed again.
If you see what looks like a dark line (red or purplish) down the underside of a penis, see if you can move aside a flap of flesh and reveal the split penis. If it's there, it's better to know about it sooner rather than later.
The difficulty in seeing these splits can answer a lot of questions about rabbits you sell that are just fine, but the new owner complains of a DQ. Or perhaps you were sold a rabbit that you were told was okay, but it turns out to be a split. It could very easily be that it was hiding itself with a flap. Don't automatically assume that the breeder was trying to cheat you.
And while I'm on the topic of penises, folks, please check your penises when breeding. I know you check them before you breed, but also check them after a buck has been with a doe, especially if it's not a wham-bam-thank-you-mam situation. If the buck is making contact with the fur with his delicate flesh, it can rub a whole layer of it off . Or, like Rio did once, he can get fur wrapped around his penis and become very sore.
Today, we saw a situation where just after one breeding (with a lot of extraneous activity), the buck's penis was missing the top layer of skin in a nice round patch - ouch!
I got a rare chance to correct an error I made at the Fort Worth Convention. On an impulse, I sold The Nature Trail's Glynis with two legs. She went home with her new owners and almost immediately granded and then got three additional legs. Then the new owners started breeding her. After a few months, I mentioned that when they were ready to sell, I'd buy her back.
Well, today, they gave her back to me. She was a junior in Fort Worth , so she should still be plenty young enough to breed. I'm very excited at the possibility. She's out of The Nature Trail's Navaro (who died or was put down this year after severely injuring his back). Navaro was a Merlin son. Her mother is Hilary. You might recall that I didn't get my other broken Hilary daughter granded before she went overweight. So its nice to now have a solid and broken Hilary daughter to carry on.
Changing topics from the show, I am in the middle of overhauling Precious Pet Rabbits. I decided to change hosts while I was at it since I've never liked who I had it with. The site was down for a couple of days. But it's up and kicking again.
For those of you who have sent me your link information - I haven't forgotten you. It's just that the changeover to the new format is taking longer than expected - of course. I should have known better, but I'm the eternal optimist.
If you want to see the new format, check out the home page at http://www.pet-rabbit-care-information.com/ and also the store pages, contact us, about us, help, privacy page, and a few more. Let me know what you think.
I'm going to be working on the Precious Pet Rabbits links next. The articles will follow because I think (stress think, I could be wrong) that they will be easy to change over.
After that, I will be adding some new articles. I plan to add videos on sexing rabbits. It's so hard to explain without showing, so that should solve the problem. When folks contact you about rabbits they got from a pet store, but don't know the sex of, you will be able to send them to that page so they can figure it out.
As much as I love Laurie's Cobalt World and my cobalt blue glassware, it has been so nice to take a couple of days off. Yesterday, I went to yard sales and flea markets looking for antique glass for my personal collection. Today, I spent with my bunny friends (though I missed a lot of you). I also plan to take tomorrow and Monday off. By Tuesday, I will hopefully be refreshed and ready to get back to my work.
Oh, and tomorrow I'm breeding. Send positive thoughts my way. I need to get these girls producing well again.
Have a wonderful Memorial Day. I'll try to remember to post a blog from time to time. No, I haven't forgotten all of you!
Laurie ¶ 8:33 PM 4 comments links to this post
I still don't have any juniors that I wanted to show. You may remember the dozen babies I got at Christmas. Well, let's see: 4 false dwarf bucks, 1 fuzzy, 1 split penis, 1 cute adorable doe - with a low shoulder, a false dwarf brood doe, a nice doe with a crown too tight to bother showing right now, and a couple of decent bucks.
But I've decided to sell the bucks, so I didn't want to spend money to show them. One is absolutely adorable, but is probably going to be small. He's out of Roxie and a LOV buck. (I've decided not to work on the outcrossing project I had planned because my herd is still so small and my breeding capacity has been slower than I expected kicking back in.)
The other is pretty nice and would have something to offer a breeder with the right doe. He's not the complete package, but nice with great stuff behind him.
Anyway, I took a look at my bucks. Lex is 4.04. He's a huge eater that seems to never be satisfied. So I guess I'll have to be satisfied with his 13 legs! He's done. He can join company with Rio, the original big eater.
My other brokens are in terrible fur. I mean they look like I ran over them with a lawnmower (or put them through the dishwasher!) Could it be that I'm on my 3rd feed in six weeks? Ummm, maybe.
Lord looked good - except for a patch of missing fur. No dander, so I'm wondering if he got stung by something. Padawan's still trying to molt out that gosh-awful coat of his. If you saw him now, you'd wonder why I want to keep a rag tag rabbit like that.
I could have taken MLK, perhaps, but I didn't think he could beat Java, who is back well under the 4.00 mark and in wonderful flesh and fur.
I went down my doe aisles and mentally tagged Jamillia to go. Too bad I didn't write it down because I forgot about her. She had 5 peanuts last time around, so she's in shape to show. I got distracted by the idea of showing May. I want to breed her tomorrow, so I wanted her up on the table, smelling those wonderful buck smells, and being stimulated by all of the handling. And if she did well - all the better.
That second part was a little too much to hope for from a 3 1/2 year old doe. But maybe I can squeeze a few more babies from her now. She seems to only do well with large litters. I want to do everything I can to increase her litter size this time.
Java was BOS in the first show and second place to the BRIS buck in the second show (if you gotta lose, it's nice to lose to a nice rabbit - this one owned by Margie Brewer). That makes an even 20 legs for him. I like that. It's a nice round number.
Anyway, my primary objective in going to the show was to relax and enjoy myself. I decided I wasn't going to work with judges, I wasn't asked to be a registrar (good thing I didn't take papers because folks asked). I had no meetings. Nothing. I was going to visit, look at rabbits, and have a good time.
Well, I did all of that, but did get swept up in studying English Spots. I found at the NC State RBA Convention in March that I was very deficit in that breed, so I mentally tagged it to get more hands-on experience.
And as luck would have it, there were four English Spot shows today, so I got to see them more than once, talked with the breeders, and then worked with a judge for their last show. It was a great experience because I finally began to "see" them by the end.
I was recruited to write for a while, but I enjoy that, so it was no problem. It makes me pay better attention to the rabbits anyway. And I do like to learn about them.
I took Roxie to breed with a friend's buck. I don't do that sort of thing often or with many people, but every now and then, it's a lot of fun to do.
Even though the breeder and I are good friends, we show each other the teeth and genitals and so forth before we breed. No one should ever been offended by a request to go over the rabbit in detail before a joint breeding takes place. And one shouldn't accept, "Oh, I trust you," from the other breeder either. Show them anyway.
An interesting situation came up with a split penis today. If you breed Hollands, then sooner or later you will have the occasional split penis. I personally feel that if there's no pattern to it, it's just one of those things. If you see it running in a line, deal with it. You know what I mean. Luckily, they make great pets.
The situation was a buck who had been DQ'd for a split penis, but appeared to be whole.
Sometimes a split penis can have a bit of flesh that flaps over the split, making it look just fine. But if the flap is moved to the side, the split is revealed. Even if you know the split is there (such as in the case of the DQ'd rabbit), it can be difficult to get the split to reveal itself. On this rabbit today, I only got it to open once, but I got a quick glance of it before it closed again.
If you see what looks like a dark line (red or purplish) down the underside of a penis, see if you can move aside a flap of flesh and reveal the split penis. If it's there, it's better to know about it sooner rather than later.
The difficulty in seeing these splits can answer a lot of questions about rabbits you sell that are just fine, but the new owner complains of a DQ. Or perhaps you were sold a rabbit that you were told was okay, but it turns out to be a split. It could very easily be that it was hiding itself with a flap. Don't automatically assume that the breeder was trying to cheat you.
And while I'm on the topic of penises, folks, please check your penises when breeding. I know you check them before you breed, but also check them after a buck has been with a doe, especially if it's not a wham-bam-thank-you-mam situation. If the buck is making contact with the fur with his delicate flesh, it can rub a whole layer of it off . Or, like Rio did once, he can get fur wrapped around his penis and become very sore.
Today, we saw a situation where just after one breeding (with a lot of extraneous activity), the buck's penis was missing the top layer of skin in a nice round patch - ouch!
I got a rare chance to correct an error I made at the Fort Worth Convention. On an impulse, I sold The Nature Trail's Glynis with two legs. She went home with her new owners and almost immediately granded and then got three additional legs. Then the new owners started breeding her. After a few months, I mentioned that when they were ready to sell, I'd buy her back.
Well, today, they gave her back to me. She was a junior in Fort Worth , so she should still be plenty young enough to breed. I'm very excited at the possibility. She's out of The Nature Trail's Navaro (who died or was put down this year after severely injuring his back). Navaro was a Merlin son. Her mother is Hilary. You might recall that I didn't get my other broken Hilary daughter granded before she went overweight. So its nice to now have a solid and broken Hilary daughter to carry on.
Changing topics from the show, I am in the middle of overhauling Precious Pet Rabbits. I decided to change hosts while I was at it since I've never liked who I had it with. The site was down for a couple of days. But it's up and kicking again.
For those of you who have sent me your link information - I haven't forgotten you. It's just that the changeover to the new format is taking longer than expected - of course. I should have known better, but I'm the eternal optimist.
If you want to see the new format, check out the home page at http://www.pet-rabbit-care-information.com/ and also the store pages, contact us, about us, help, privacy page, and a few more. Let me know what you think.
I'm going to be working on the Precious Pet Rabbits links next. The articles will follow because I think (stress think, I could be wrong) that they will be easy to change over.
After that, I will be adding some new articles. I plan to add videos on sexing rabbits. It's so hard to explain without showing, so that should solve the problem. When folks contact you about rabbits they got from a pet store, but don't know the sex of, you will be able to send them to that page so they can figure it out.
As much as I love Laurie's Cobalt World and my cobalt blue glassware, it has been so nice to take a couple of days off. Yesterday, I went to yard sales and flea markets looking for antique glass for my personal collection. Today, I spent with my bunny friends (though I missed a lot of you). I also plan to take tomorrow and Monday off. By Tuesday, I will hopefully be refreshed and ready to get back to my work.
Oh, and tomorrow I'm breeding. Send positive thoughts my way. I need to get these girls producing well again.
Have a wonderful Memorial Day. I'll try to remember to post a blog from time to time. No, I haven't forgotten all of you!
Laurie ¶ 8:33 PM 4 comments links to this post
