It has Been awhile

Well it has been too long since i have updated so this one will be long.

For starters our Rabbitry has grown, we have added to our starting herd and added a new breed. Scarlett joined us in mid September she is a Broken black New Zealand, completing ours new Zealand breeding set.

We had lost a rabbit when one got loose and the dog chased it, but she is in peace, to replace her in our Mini Lop herd we received Candy, a senior Doe proven, she is a frosted pearl. We also got Lil Colt a blue mini lop buck Senior and proven, he will be a brood buck for our mini lop herd as he has some disqualification from scaring in ears, but he is a great bunny.

Our Rabbitry added a breed at the end of October, we got Velveteen lops, once old enough a breeding pair. Imogene, a broken cream Doe, and Indy a Sable point buck. WE hope to add another velveteen lop doe solid color to the herd before end of year ( we are in agreements with a breeder).

Candy did not deliver a litter from the doe we had her bred with before arriving here, so she was bred with Lil Colt, and is Due around Nov 19th 2016 so we wait..... impatiently, haha.

WE completed our new cage system, it has 12 holes all wire bottoms in one area. this helps as we had a few in plastic bottom cages and them would get dirty and we don't want hutch stains. this also opened those cages as grow out ones and the cages system has ability to add a fourth row ( 4 cages) if i can get a step stool ( its 7ft to the top of those cages then and I am 5'3, I know I'm short.

With 13 rabbits we have dubbed the old cage on wheels as the birthing cage for Candy, this one i know can fit in the main house if it need to shelve litters.

This cage system i am most excited for as i built it with very little help even on the lifting. but it is also my design ( i will do another post on why and how i designed it)

And today i did my first 2 solo tattoos, yes Captain Jack and Luna were tattooed at the 4h fair, and I have been practicing on banana peels. OK I get that that sounds strange, but I have the battery tattoo pen, and the ear of a rabbit is not very thick so you use a banana, i took one firm and tattooed while peel was still on, this way i could tell if i got the banana, I did Not if you were wondering. Next time our any time my kids ate a banana i would take the peel and practice on it if i didn: go through it but still marked it then it was a success, which it was. so Today i stepped up to a live rabbit. I first got the calmest rabbit Oppie, so I knew that he would be still all wrapped up in the towel ( I used an old sweatshirt) I used ora-gel on the ear to help numb it and the marker to write it and I braced wrapped up Oppie on the table and began to tattoo. A few times he would jump, mostly if i got too close to the blood vessel, and yes he did jump once in to the pen, and did get a small cut in the ear on other side of tattoo area.Once I finished i used a towel/ rag (clean) to wipe the area gently to see if i needed to touch up and spots, I did and once complete i used the bunny balm on it, I will keep an eye on it all the cut too.

the second one i did was Ash and his tattoo came out very nice for my 2nd try, you have to find your own trick and once you get over the nervousness of the first bunny it was easier to relax. Ash did move more then Oppie, so maybe it was i had to do things in small steps. Soon I will get a Video of me tattooing, I couldn't tattoo hold rabbit and record myself.

so much to come and we hope you say along for the ride .... and I Can not wait to have baby bunnies.... check back soon for more updates

#Rabbits #Farming #rabbitry #Tattoo #Velveteenlops #rabbittattooing