Tre3hugger's Rabbit Thread

[Tre3hugger]

Update time. Some good news and bad news. Bad news first: Crewella has passed on. My wife got her a toy and it kinda unraveled and she ate a string of it. The string jammed up her intestines and she died. My wife was devastated and I was sad. We dug her a grave in the yard next to another beloved pet. Enough bad news...

Momma successfully birthed a first litter of 8 kits! Pure bred American Chinchillas. They are 2 days old now and all 8 seem to be thriving with full bellies and maximum wriggliness. I am beyond excited for a few reasons: 1)these babies are ones I can cuddle and socialize with to make them great pets. 2)If I sell this litter I will pay for a whole year's worth of rabbit food. 3)I don't have to start over again trying to get purebred pedigreed bunnies. And mostly, 4)this is THE FIRST PROPAGATION OF A CRITICAL BREED ON MY FARM. I can't express the fulfillment this brings me. I ordered a tattoo pen and bunny burrito so I can ID the babies and pedigree them! Planning to sell them at 8 weeks old for pet, show or breeding stock. I got my ARBA standard and am looking forward to seeing how they conform.

Maple's last litter is about 8 weeks old now and growing fast. I will be processing them in 2 weeks or so. In a weird turn of events, I have a market for cleaned rabbit skulls. This has led me to reconsider my current dispatch method, captive bolt gun, and I ordered a hopper popper so I can keep the skulls intact. I find it hard to believe that I currently have a waiting list of people that want to pay me 25 dollars for a bone, but that is the current reality. What a wonderful way to recoup some of the set up costs of my first year rabbitry. I have found an excellent resource through the Alaskan fish and wildlife website for cleaning skulls and will be trying it with this next batch.

Another pleasant surprise has been Maple. Since transitioning out of mommy mode, her personality has really begun to shine. She in incredibly friendly and demands physical attention from me every feeding. It is nice to see her hormones calmed down and to have such an amiable NZ meat rabbit.

It has been a busy month at Cuckoo Mountain. I will post some pics later today.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

I'm so sorry to hear about Crewella. I just lost my own rabbit, Pumpkin, last week so I understand how hard it is to lose a pet particularly right now.

But I'm also so happy and excited about your new litter and your new accomplishments! Congrats, it must be so cool and rewarding. That is very interesting about your market for rabbit skulls...but hey, like you said, at least you can make some money.

Keep us posted, and if you can I'd love to see pictures of the new litter!

 

[Tre3hugger]

I'm so sorry to hear about Crewella. I just lost my own rabbit, Pumpkin, last week so I understand how hard it is to lose a pet particularly right now.

But I'm also so happy and excited about your new litter and your new accomplishments! Congrats, it must be so cool and rewarding. That is very interesting about your market for rabbit skulls...but hey, like you said, at least you can make some money.

Keep us posted, and if you can I'd love to see pictures of the new litter!

RIP Pumpkin. I appreciate your kind words. I took some pics earlier. Just waiting for the internet to cooperate!

 

[Tre3hugger]

Momma, the new Momma

Babes, 2 days old

Proud papa, Sir hops a lot

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Momma and the babies are beautiful!

 

[Tre3hugger]

Momma and the babies are beautiful!

Thanks!

 

[Tre3hugger]

Silly dad. He loves ringin his bell.

Maple's 8 week olds. Gettin big. Processing in two weeks. I seem to have a couple agouti, a couple tortoise shell, and the rest chinchilla coloring.

And one of Maple. Perfect meat bun type. Beautiful!

 

[fuzzyfarmer]

Question for you about the ones you sell as pets - do you give people info about keeping rabbits as pets, especially about neutering the boys so they don't spray pee? (Sorry if I missed this in the thread, I read most but not every page.)

I volunteer for the local humane society and we get so many dumped pet bunnies, usually boys around 4-5 months old, because they've started spraying pee. (Or worse, people give them away on craigslist where they can get used as snake food or dog fighting bait.)

I'm not judging against you for selling pet bunnies, just to be clear I love pet bunnies and have 2, both fosters from the humane society. One is a New Zealand White who was sold as a pet from a local rabbitry. She is the sweetest bunny ever, but the breeder didn't tell the parents of the little girl (this rabbit was almost bigger than the kid!) what to expect from a pet bunny and they gave her up after having her just 2 weeks.

(I have nothing against snakes, either. I also have a pet snake. He eats mice that were humanely killed, not live-fed.)

(Also also, when people don't neuter or separate their pet bunnies, we get pregnant bunnies dumped at the animal shelter, and they clog up the works because they just pump out babies like, well, rabbits! And we can't adopt out the babies or the momma until they're old enough. And we neuter every single one.)

Also also also: I realize that the worst offenders are irresponsible backyard breeders who don't care and won't educate the folks who buy pet bunnies from them. I'm just trying to make "my job" a little easier for folks like me who volunteers for the human society XD

I really do appreciate you keeping an endangered breed going In Ohio we have Silver Fox bunnies. I'm not sure how rare they are, but they are supposed to be great meat rabbits and they're very pretty.

 

[Tre3hugger]

@fuzzyfarmer thank you for your input. To be frank, this is my first litter I will be selling so I do not have a protocol cemented in place. I do however agree with the vast majority of your statements. I worked (paid employee) in a humane society for several years and am sadly aware of the mistreatment of basically any domestic animal imaginable.

My plans to circumvent some of the issues you stated is to mainly sell to people already in the rabbit game. I don't envision most of my custys as little girls wanting their first fluffy bunny. More so small farmers or ARBA showers that know a bit about breeds and animal care in general. Rather than CL I will advertise at feed stores and through the ARBA website, of which I am a member. Or on the various homesteading FB groups. I will not recommend or discourage neutering. It really depends on why the person wants a rabbit, and that can change over time.

When I sell a rabbit as a pet, I will provide an informational sheet on their basic care requirements as I understand them, as well as a bag of feed for transitioning, and life long support if the people have any questions or problems. The rabbits will be tattooed and come with a pedigree. Also, and maybe most importantly as pertains to your concerns, I will take any rabbit back no questions asked. That would, I hope, alleviate rabbits dumped at shelters or abandoned to less savory and uncertain futures.

Any other recommendations aside from neutering are welcome! Thank you for raising these points.

 

[fuzzyfarmer]

@fuzzyfarmer thank you for your input. To be frank, this is my first litter I will be selling so I do not have a protocol cemented in place. I do however agree with the vast majority of your statements. I worked (paid employee) in a humane society for several years and am sadly aware of the mistreatment of basically any domestic animal imaginable.

My plans to circumvent some of the issues you stated is to mainly sell to people already in the rabbit game. I don't envision most of my custys as little girls wanting their first fluffy bunny. More so small farmers or ARBA showers that know a bit about breeds and animal care in general. Rather than CL I will advertise at feed stores and through the ARBA website, of which I am a member. Or on the various homesteading FB groups. I will not recommend or discourage neutering. It really depends on why the person wants a rabbit, and that can change over time.

When I sell a rabbit as a pet, I will provide an informational sheet on their basic care requirements as I understand them, as well as a bag of feed for transitioning, and life long support if the people have any questions or problems. The rabbits will be tattooed and come with a pedigree. Also, and maybe most importantly as pertains to your concerns, I will take any rabbit back no questions asked. That would, I hope, alleviate rabbits dumped at shelters or abandoned to less savory and uncertain futures.

Any other recommendations aside from neutering are welcome! Thank you for raising these points.

You may already know about it, but the House Rabbit Society has good info on their website for people wanting rabbits as pets: rabbit.org - they're UK-based if I remember correctly but most of the info will be the same. There are also local house rabbit societies in many states and many offer rabbit classes (how to pick them up and hold them securely, how to look for common problems, etc) and rabbit grooming services (like clipping their nails). Lots of them also sell supplies like high quality bunny food and bunny-safe toys and the proceeds support the chapter.

I'll bet one of the bunny societies has a one-page flier you could give to people or point them towards, about taking care of pet bunnies. And if they don't, they should! If you can't find one, let me know and I'll make one.

Neutering for boys because of pee, and spaying for girls will help them be more docile and prevent uterine cancer that girl bunnies can get when they're not bred. I also keep baby gas drops on hand because gas bubbles in bunnies can be lethal, and swift administration of baby gas drops can save them.