That was close

I had put a doe up for sale. She was bred, but I didn't think I'd have to move her before Jan, so she was kind of up as "pre-sale after litter". The doe in question is Infinite Detail - broken black. She was bred to himi RR Messenger. Yeah, I know, a bit unorthodox. It was an experiment to see if ID carried non-extension for tort. It was very possible. Messenger does. He's useful that way. Because it was an experiment, I could have given up the litter to a buyer if I had to.

So a buyer came along and was traveling a ways to get them. We worked out the details and set up the meet for yesterday. Then it hit me that ID was due the next day! I don't know why that didn't register before. For some reason I thought there was more time. I wasn't sure of the buyer's experience level and didn't know if she'd be ready to deal with a litter that was due anytime. I didn't want to send ID that close to her due date anyways. She had to stay put for now. A frantic game of phone tag followed. I had to catch the buyer before she hit the road so she wouldn't make the long trip without knowing what she was not getting. We finally hooked up, and worked out a different deal as she still wanted to come for the buck in the package. I wanted to delay the meet until later in the week to get past ID's kindle, but she didn't have any other free days in the near future.

In the meantime. I hadn't been out to the barn yet. It was very cold that morning and I just don't do cold. Chores were waiting for it to warm up a bit, and delayed even more by phone tag. When I finally got out there, ID was calmly sitting in the middle of her cage with a mouthful of fur. I swear she was glowering at me! "Hey, you know that nestbox I need? Need it NOW." I quickly gave it to her and she immediately began to pull more fur. By the time I left to meet the buyer, the box was full of fluff.

I'm so glad I didn't move her!!! When I got back late that afternoon, the litter had arrived. She would have kindled in transit for one thing. The other thing is that this litter is lovely! She doesn't have a lot of pattern and I don't think I've ever kept anything from her. No showable brokens, no daughters. She had 5 which I think is also her biggest litter. 2 very nicely marked broken blacks, a solid black and a ? I think the ? is a siamese sable which I didn't really expect from her, but shaded is there way back in her 3rd generation. Breeding her to himi must have pulled it out. There was also a peanut the same color. On the downside...apparently she doesn't carry non-extension.

The lesson learned: Pay attention to the calendar! And don't pre-sell bred does.

This worked out so nicely, Messenger will be getting more broken does. I know I'll be dealing with broken himis down the road, but the type and pattern he can produce should move the broken program forward some more. I've bred a Messenger daughter to Dot.com for the same reasons.

In other Nestbox News:

Lady Blaque is due today as well. She was nesting yesterday. This is a repeat breeding to LB92. The original plan was to foster whatever ID had to Lady B so I could sell ID, but since ID has such a good-sized litter, I guess she'll be raising them. I should be able to move her out by the time Jan shows come around.

Foxy Lady x LB had a litter of 2 poorly marked brokens (true charlies?) on Thanksgiving Day. Since they weren't keepers, I didn't safeguard the litter like I normally would. Lost them the next day to cold. The first litter from this match produced a beautiful broken doe, and I was hoping for a bigger litter with more of the same. Try try again.

Shadowland Honeycomb came pre-bred but she missed. Or maybe lost them to absorption in transit. She is now bred to Messenger and I do expect tort out of that. It will be interesting to see if she carries shaded. I wouldn't mind having sable points again.

The older litters are looking real promising. Camaro's first litter with Anaba might be 2 does. Camaro is spending a working vacation at a friend's. I hope to get something for myself out of that as well. A little more diversity in the himi lines would be good. The broken litters are all very cute, but iffy for cleanliness of pattern. Haven't sexed them for sure yet, but there might be some does.

Weather is up and down. Very cold one day, unseasonably warm the next, it's hard to call it. I had to deal with frozen water bottles for a couple days, but the low this morning was 64!. The current forecast says I'll probably be moving the rest of the herd into the shed very soon, and dusting off the heaters.

tnt

Got em

Went down to my friend's yesterday to pick up the Torts. I'm very pleased with them. They're a bit rough around the edges but that's to be expected with what they went through to get here. They flew from Washington state, spent most of the week in convention coops, then the 24 hour drive home to TN in carriers, and the last 2 hour leg to my place.

Whiskey Mac is so cute! He's in the process of growing his head. Even though light in flesh from his travels, I can tell he has a rock solid butt. He's very sweet, and lit right into the hay when I got him home.

Honeycomb is also very cute. She was vocally grumpy when I moved her into my carrier to leave. I don't blame her. Brenda's house is a bit chaotic with 4 big dogs and a little BEW buck who rules the roost. She was quiet when I got her home into her own hole. Look forward to her litter that's due in about a week.

Visiting Brenda is a lot of fun. Moonwalker is the house bunny (bred by me) and it's a blast watching him tear around the house. Makes me want to try a house bunny. The big dogs include a 150 lb mastiff that's the handsomest sweetest guy. Moonwalker just climbs over him if he's laying in the way. Moonwalker accepted me pretty quickly and if my hand was hanging in reach, he was right there begging for attention. My pant legs and shoes were thoroughly chinned.

She and her husband own and operate a pet shop so there's a lot of other critters there too. A couple parrots, including a talking African Grey, and a chinchilla in the living room. Lizards, snakes, fish, guinea pigs and rats occupy other rooms. Always a fun visit.

I have a couple litters due today. Both 1st timers so keeping my fingers crossed. Another is due the same time as Honeycomb and a couple more a few days after that.

Still really nice for weather but I believe that's changing this coming week. Wish it was like this all the time. 50s-60s at night and 70s-80s daytime would be the ideal climate for me. Is there such a place?

tnt

Ready for winter

I finally finished the barn remodel. You can see it here. Glad that's done so I can move on to something else. I figure I'll be moving all the buns in by the end of the month when we'll start getting more freezing nights. I eliminated the center unit for now, but I have the parts to put it back together if I need it. I don't plan to need it. I like the extra room to move around and position fans and heaters. I'm thinking about investing in a couple of bins big enough to stow a bale of hay which could sit stacked in the middle of the floor. I might make a playpen to sit on top of it. I'm sure the buns would enjoy that.

ARBA Convention is over and as I write this, exhibitors are checking their rabbits out to go home. Congratulations to all the winners and high placings. Wishing everyone a safe journey home.

This means my new Torts from Shadowland Rabbitry will be here soon. A friend is bringing them back for me, and I'm going down to get them this weekend. I've posted pix that I have from their breeder on my site. Whiskey Mac placed 2/6 jr bucks at convention. Honeycomb is pre-bred to a broken blue out of Micro Ranch lines. My transporter friend told me she's stealing Honeycomb. I guess that means she really likes her. Can't wait to see them. Honeycomb is due about a week after she gets here, along with another doe I managed to get bred for the same time.

Why Torts? Why not? No really, I do have a plan. At this time, I'm mostly only showing in the AOV group with Brokens and Himis, but there's occasionally something worth entering in the Self group. I've given up on broken agoutis, and don't intend to keep or show any solid otters that come out of the broken otters. Tort will give me another group to enter without having shadeds, and they'll fit well with the broken selfs.

Honeycomb's next mate after this litter will be Messenger. He carries non-extension and I should get tort out of that. After that, Whiskey Mac should be old enough to breed. I'll be giving him broken black does that might carry tort, too. Litters should be a little more colorful next year.

There's a glitch in this new plan, but I'll deal with it when the time comes. You see, I was counting on Blue Tort passing which would have had them officially recognized and showable in Feb. Something went wrong and they failed. Big bummer that. The broken blue that Honeycomb is bred to came from the Blue Tort presenter's lines, and that means they could show up in my litters. I probably won't keep Blue Torts to maintain the herd size where I want it, at least until if and when they are accepted. They might be useful for the dilute gene, and type will decide that.

Another interesting thing that could happen involves Foxy Lady, the one broken chestnut I'm keeping for now. There's a good chance she carries non-extension, too. What might happen? Bred to tort, which I might try, I could get orange or fawn. Not that I want them, but broken orange is so pretty I won't mind too much.

Well, it's another gorgeous fall day so I'm off to take advantage of it.

tnt

More babies

Yay. I'm pleased.

Dreamer x LB92 had 3 - 2 broken blacks, and a charlie. There was also a peanut.

Dreamcatcher x Smith's DA (on loan) had 2 - A broken black and a black. This was one of DA's last breedings before he went back to his owners.

Dreamcatcher didn't build a nest as of last night. She had kicked everything out, and I forgot to add more material to her box before I closed up for the night. I barely caught the kits in time this morning. She pulled piles of fur which probably helped save them. They were alive but cold and they were doing that awful gasping squeak that is often their last breaths.

I had decisions to make. The broken I want for sure but I don't care about the black. Dreamer has the charlie that I wasn't sure I wanted either. What to do, what to do. I hate to tie up a doe and nestbox on just 1 or 2 kits so I usually try to economize. I gave Dreamcatcher's broken to Anaba where it will be safe and easy to tell in the himi litter. That can be a problem when fostering look-alikes around and these brokens do all look a lot alike.

I was going to give the charlie to Dreamcatcher to raise with her black, and if they died, it wouldn't be a great loss. Then I got to thinking this could be that elusive true charlie I've been looking for. The reason I'm thinking it might be a true charlie is that it only has color on the eyes and a little on the ears. Considering the heavy patterns on the rest of the kits and the parents which have proven to throw their heavier pattern consistently, it looks like a safe bet. I had given up growing out possible true charlies as none had proven to be true, and it wasn't worth wasting time on them. Those other not-charlies came out of a spot pattern parent which just threw lighter spot patterns that looked like charlies. That's not the case here. If this is a true charlie, it should carry the heavier pattern of its parents. So this and the type potential from the sire made up my mind to grow it out.

I don't know of anyone else raising broken dwarfs who has acquired a proven true charlie. If nothing else, it will be an interesting experiment. If it turns out that I'm wrong again, I'll go back to the original plan which is to not waste time on possible true charlies. For anyone reading this that doesn't know what a true charlie is. A true charlie will have a broken gene from each of its parents...double-broken. When bred to a solid, it will produce ALL brokens.

So it now stands that Dreamer has her whole litter. Anaba has her 2 himis and Dreamcatcher's broken. Dreamcatcher has her black which probably won't survive being an only kit, especially as cold as the nights are lately. It was also gasping more than the broken sibling when I found them. That often means it's past the point of no return. The other reason I decided to leave it with her is that she didn't get to raise her last litter. This way she can have it until it dies a natural death if that's what happens.

Here's wishing luck, fun, and safe journey to everyone going to Convention!

tnt

November

Weather has been very nice. Cooler than I like at night, but days are perfect. Got first frost Oct. 30. Fall color is going strong. We had enough rain this year for a good display. I never realized how stunning Crape Myrtles are in the fall! All mine were small and set back by the droughts. This year they are more mature and they're on fire!

Out of 7 babies (5 litters) I have 2 keepers. These are both out of Lil' Bit Farms LB92 (broken otter), different dams.


Broken Otter buck, out of Lady Blaque (broken black), about 5 wks. I have high hopes for this guy, but he might go too heavy like his sire which will shorten his show career.


Broken Otter doe, out of Foxy Lady (broken chestnut), about 4 wks. Future show doe for sure. She's quite a bit smaller than the buck so I'm not worried about her going overweight. She's also the only doe out of all those litters. Dang.

LB's scorecard is looking real good. He is proving to throw his clean pattern consistently. Yay. That's one of the reasons I bought him. There's also a broken black self brother to the buck with the same pattern. The doe's litter (she was the only live kit) included a dilute broken that also had good pattern. Yay Yay. I needed this.

Both Lady Blaque and Foxy Lady have fairly clean blanket patterns, as does LB. Lady's is pretty heavy (what I consider over 50%), and Foxy's is more striped and within limits. All the broken kits have showable pattern and there was only 1 charlie-mark. When I bred LB to Infinite Detail who has a lighter spot pattern, there was a solid blue and a charlie. The only decent pattern was on 2 peanuts (of course it was). That didn't work out very well for me, but might be worth repeating to see if I get usable results. So far I've only bred him to 1 solid doe and while type is promising, there were no brokens at all. He may mesh best with broken mates.

He carries self and dilute, and so far, throws more selfs than otters. That works for me. He's producing small offspring with a small doe, but bigger brood does like L.Blaque and I.Detail produced bigger kits that may not be showable after they reach mature weight. Like him.

Nestbox News:

1 new litter so far. Anaba x Camaro (himis) had hers yesterday. More about that in a minute. Dreamer x LB92 is pulling fur as I write this. I'm looking forward to this litter so I'm very glad she didn't kindle in the night. There's a few more due today and later this week. Reminds me. I have to move those other does into the shed today.

Anaba. This is Camaro's first litter. She missed the first time with him. Camaro was cleaning up the AOV group until his broken toe took him off the show string. Anaba is still my best himi doe who also had a successful show career. Needless to say, I can't wait to see how this litter turns out.

It's not often you get to watch a litter being born. Anaba gave me quite a show yesterday. I was out there most of the day working on the cage remodel. Almost finished, BTW. She began pulling fur early in the afternoon. I hoped that meant she would kindle before I closed up for the night. She did. On the wire. Right in front of me. She's experienced and had put the fur in the box, so I don't know why she dumped them on the wire. I whisked them into the box as soon as she seemed to be done with them. There's 2 kits and they are fine this morning.

The 3rd was a peanut which she ignored after it was dropped on the wire. This was interesting to watch. The kit hung from her mouth in the sac like in a sling as she chewed the sac. When she finally chewed through it, the kit dropped. It was still enclosed in most of the sac. It was alive at first, it moved a little but then it stopped. Maybe it suffocated in the sac? How lucky it was a peanut and not something I wanted. If it had been a viable kit, I would have tried to get the sac off myself, but since it wasn't, I left it there to see what she would do. It turned out I had to clean up the mess and the rest of the afterbirth left on the wire.

As I said, I'm almost finished with the cage remodel. I'm finishing up the buck/jr units now. Just in time. I'll move everybody into the shed when we start to get a lot of freezing nights. I expect that at the end of the month or so.

tnt