The Old Folks Home

[perchie.girl]

they come in siamese coloration too.....

 

[Bunnylady]

If you are seriously interested in Lionheads, you need to know a couple of things. First, they became outrageously popular ridiculously fast, so everybody and their best friend jumped onto the Lionhead bandwagon. People will buy anything with a mane, and breed it to almost anything in hopes of getting maned offspring. As a result, the huge majority of what are being sold as "Lionheads" are way, way off type. The Lionhead is supposed to be a 4-lb rabbit with an upright posture and a nice, fluffy, bushy mane. We had a "Lionhead" entered in our fair a few years ago that was a dead ringer for the 11 lb New Zealand ("meat rabbit") a few cages down, except that it had a few wisps of longer hair around its ears and jaws. That's what is known as a "Single Maned" Lionhead. SM Lionheads start out looking like this as youngsters:




and often wind up looking like this as adults:



(not my pictures, obviously)

The only Lionheads that you can be sure will retain a decent mane as adults are what are known as "Double Maned" Lionheads. DM Lionheads have two copies of the mane gene. If you want a rabbit that looks like one of those adorable Lionheads in the pictures, you need to see that both of the parents still look like that as adults.

Around here, Lionheads often have health issues, probably because the people (usually kids) breeding them haven't a clue about what they are doing. I guess the take-home message on that one is that you need to meet the breeder and be reasonably impressed with their rabbits and their level of rabbit knowledge.

One health issue that plagues a lot of Lionheads is epilepsy. Some have full on, fall-over-and-twitch seizures, while others just kind of freeze and stare blankly for a few seconds. Since a lot of rabbits spend a lot of time just sitting and staring anyway, unless someone is actually looking at the rabbit when they happen, seizures may go unnoticed - so nobody knows just how common this problem is in Lionheads.

 

[NotAFarm]

Does your broody turkey have a full head and neck covering? or is the extra warmth just for those that venture out in the cold?

 

[NotAFarm]

Hmm, that's not what we have, guess calling them swamp rabbits was just something we do. Usually see them near swamps, they have unusually small ears, no way could you pick them up by the ears, like eastern cottontail mutants.
Further research I think, am pretty sure they are New England cottontail. Not supposed to be here, extinct in our area and endangered in most New England state's. Ny does have a survey for them, but only in East of the Hudson, I'm on the west side of the Catskills.
Wonder if I should call them up and let them know there is a population of them here still, haven't died off, and how many I've ate...

I'm thinking yes call them, but don't tell them how many you've eaten!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Does your broody turkey have a full head and neck covering? or is the extra warmth just for those that venture out in the cold?

The STILL broody turkey doesn't get a cowl, nor does anyone else (and a significant portion of my flock is naked neck).

The cowl was a bit of a joke - I covertly made and mailed that chicken quilt to a "friend" of mine. We'd been facebook friends for eons but I'd never actually met her. Well she wanted to thank me for it (despite me telling her I didn't expect anything in return) so she knitted me a beautiful cowl. About a week later we dipped significantly into sub-zero temperatures. Miss Piggy is one of my favorite birds and her adventures are featured prominently on my facebook page. The next thing I knew Miss Piggy got some mail with her own little cowl in it. She only wears it for photo shoots, though. I don't trust her to not drive the others crazy with her vamping if she were to wear it full time. It's hard to be that cute of a bird all the time and not strut your stuff.

 

[microchick]

Morning everyone. I haven't been on for a few days. I've been busy with a broody hen who just hatched 8 chicks, the 11 4 week old juveniles that are in our hobby room and need to go out to the grow out pen, a grow out coop with a leaky roof that we can't find the source of the leak which is keeping me from moving the new broody mom and her babies and the juveniles. One young OEGB pullet who is just sure she wants to sit on eggs and I sure she doesn't. Two roosters that I had to pull, one because I think that he has capillary worms and the other because, well, I think he's lost his mind. Seriously. Is that possible with a chicken? I suspect bullying. He's the lowest man on the totem pole yet doesn't have problems unless he's inside the coop with the other roosters. If he is outside, he is constantly restless,pacing about and circling counter clock-wise. If you try to catch him, he just spins in tight circles until he falls over and then thrashes about in a blind panic. I pulled them both and now they are occupying one of my grow out pens with safe-guard on the way for the one with the suspected worms and heck, I dunno what to do with the one spinning in circles.

On top of that, I made a trip to the doctor for my back and wound up with new medicine which really works. Except for the fact that I can't stay awake while I am taking it. With a garden to plan, wood to harvest for next winter and about three other projects going on at the same time and you'll understand why I haven't been around much.

Won't even try to catch up. Hope everyone is hale and hearty and having a great Sunday.

 

[drumstick diva]

maybe enter the "spinner" in those pet trick contests- he might win.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote: We have the snowshoe hare. Subgenus Poecilolagus

• Snowshoe hare, Lepus americanus

It's brown for summer and white for winter. Some interesting facts between the two:

Hares do not bear their young below ground in a burrow as do other leporids, but rather in a shallow depression or flattened nest of grass called a form. Young hares are adapted to the lack of physical protection, relative to that afforded by a burrow, by being born fully furred and with eyes open. They are hence precocial, and are able to fend for themselves soon after birth. By contrast, the related rabbits and cottontail rabbits are altricial, having young that are born blind and hairless.[6]
All rabbits (except the cottontail rabbits) live underground in burrows or warrens, while hares (and cottontail rabbits) live in simple nests above the ground, and usually do not live in groups. Hares are generally larger than rabbits, with longer ears, and have black markings on their fur. Hares have not been domesticated, while rabbits are raised for food and kept as house pets. The domestic pet known as the "Belgian Hare" is a rabbit that has been selectively bred to resemble a hare.[7]
Hares have jointed, or kinetic, skulls, unique among mammals. They have 48 chromosomes while rabbits have 44. (Copied and pasted from Wikipedia)

That's amazing they are fully furred and able to fend for themselves after being born. Completely different than domestic bunnies...lol.



We used to have what we called a "bush rabbit" which was a rabbit type rabbit. If they could interbreed with domestic rabbits, they never did with mine when I was a kid. I never see them now.

Here is one of her rabbits.






I know what you mean chicka..not the best little bunny for eating..need them bigger. Her kids have fun doing this and showing them.

Eeek, eeek...SO cute!

I was kneeling down to take these through the door window. I turned the camera around to see this.
He watches everything I do.

Black.

Still my kryptonite.

He's such a cutie!!!
Your puppy's look is much what I get from Mr.Max...except Mr. Max is usually jealous because he's not getting the attention...and then he tries to insert himself into what's going on...lol.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

He was such a funny bunny...lol. I was just wanting to mention that with lionhead bunnies...there can be extra grooming required to keep the tangles and knots at bay. I took his lovely fellow in from a family where the kids had grown up. They kept some of the hair trimmed in these photos when I first got him. I went one step further and trimmed most of the mane off so it stayed nice.


Someone mentioned what would happen if you let your bunnies loose? They run up and almost trip you so you can give them millet...

She comes running up and stops right in front on me so I just about get tripped trying not to step on her. Took this this morning.



And they still have cutie babies. The babies below were all born around Christmas/January. All males except for the black in the back which is nice because they can live in the yard.



I don't get to see them pre-fured...they show up as 2-3 inch puffballs. Just had some show up last week. They survived the -29C weather and storm we had a couple of weeks ago. Amazingly tough little creatures. They would have been less than a week old when that weather hit. I'll be separating the females. I think after the next litter (which I haven't looked at yet because she had them where I can access them) that it's enough bunnies...lol.

 

[chickadoodles]

He was such a funny bunny...lol. I was just wanting to mention that with lionhead bunnies...there can be extra grooming required to keep the tangles and knots at bay. I took his lovely fellow in from a family where the kids had grown up. They kept some of the hair trimmed in these photos when I first got him. I went one step further and trimmed most of the mane off so it stayed nice.


Someone mentioned what would happen if you let your bunnies loose? They run up and almost trip you so you can give them millet...

She comes running up and stops right in front on me so I just about get tripped trying not to step on her. Took this this morning.



And they still have cutie babies. The babies below were all born around Christmas/January. All males except for the black in the back which is nice because they can live in the yard.



I don't get to see them pre-fured...they show up as 2-3 inch puffballs. Just had some show up last week. They survived the -29C weather and storm we had a couple of weeks ago. Amazingly tough little creatures. They would have been less than a week old when that weather hit. I'll be separating the females. I think after the next litter (which I haven't looked at yet because she had them where I can access them) that it's enough bunnies...lol.

They are all so dang cute! I am still trying to talk my Dh into making a run for the rabbits to get out on the ground to eat grass and have a nice yard area. We have all the turkey pens we are going to tear down. I might try to tackle it after I get some of my strength back.I have to do some PT first.