Funny Bunnies

Guess I'm a little behind on the bunny updates. Who am I kidding? I'm a little behind on everything. I had no idea it would take so long to get back into the fall groove and quit living like gypsies.

I'm working on a website so the blog isn't so rabbit-centric, but if I wait until it's up and running, these bunnies will be all old and feeble. Heck, that top pic was like three weeks ago!

I have four, great-looking bucks that are weaned and ready to go. They've been handled every day since they were born, so they are pretty gentle (I say "pretty" because one is a bit wilder than the rest, ha) and they all have um, different personalities. They are pure English Angora, the sire is Noble, my chocolate torte and the dam is Blueberry, a broken blue doe who's big brown eye you can see in that top pic. They would all make fantastic woolers and companions or good breeding stock if you are wanting to introduce brokens to your lines.


Broken black buck



Black bucks



Broken chestnut agouti

Aren't they sweet? These are the best shots I've managed to get out of probably a hundred. I see all these great bunny sites with nice shots of perfectly-posed bunnies and I'm mystified. How in the heck do they get them to hold still? I'm not complaining, though. Crazy, hopping, skipping, jumping bunnies are happy bunnies.

new arrivals

These little guys arrived on Friday. The proud parents are Blueberry, a broken blue English Angora doe I got about the same time as the Bluth herd, and Noble. Blueberry is a great mom and I know she did all the work, but dang the whole thing was nerve racking.

I couldn't decide if she was pregnant or not. You would have thought that the fat belly would have clued me in, but she just didn't seem to act any different. I bred her in June and tried to palpitate at two weeks, but felt nothing. I guess it will just take some practice. I put the nest box in her cage on the 28th day and waited and waited for her to show some sort of sign that she intended to be all nesty, but by the 32nd day the only thing she had shown was that the nest box made a great litter box.

I dumped all the hay out of the box and was going to take it out all together but my husband felt her tummy and said I should give it another day. The next morning when I went out to feed the herd, Blueberry looked like half a rabbit. She had pulled all the hair off her belly and legs and put it in the nest box. I gave her some hay and she grabbed as much as she could carry and made a nice nest.

I checked on her right before I went to pick up the kids and when I came back (about ten minutes later) Little Scarlet came running up yelling that Blueberry had a nest full of babies.

It's so exciting! They are so tiny and weird and make a crazy little yelping noise. And they jump around, alot. They have teeny, tiny little teeth and claws. Oh, and I don't know if you can make it out in the crappy vid, but those things that look like chicken livers are placentas, which the mom usually eats, but sometimes she misses one or two (as I quickly learned) and you have to cut them loose from the babies and toss them.

They are growing (even the runt) like crazy and I'll post more pictures soon.

the tharn barn

The bunny population has increased dramatically around here. Remember the two does I was supposed to be getting? Well, somehow (somehow being my bunny pusher friend, Nancy) two turned into four and I came home with a buck and three does. And they are growing like weeds. We tried to get pictures when they were still tiny (meaning the kids would try to round them up and I would try to snap the pic) but it just didn't work out. This crew is wild and won't set still for much of anything.

This is Buster. Sometimes we call him floppy because he has an ear that droops.

This is Lucille. Lucille is my little troublemaker. She causes all sorts of mischief. When we first brought the bunnies home, everyone was really shy and a bit nervous in the new environment. Except Lucille. She took off and explored every inch of the house, chased the cats and had absolutely no qualms about peeing on furniture.

At first I had all four babies in one cage in the basement until I could make more space. We came downstairs the second morning only to find bunny berries everywhere (and I do mean everywhere, I had no idea four tiny bunnies could poop so much in an eight hour period). However, there were no bunnies to be seen, only a very disgruntled cat who bolted upstairs after having been accidentally locked in the basement all night. I wasn't concerned because Jasper is a big fraidy cat, but since there were no bunnies, I began to think that they had driven him mad and he had no choice but to gobble them up. I called them a few times and finally bunnies came running from all directions waiting to be fed. They had knocked their feeder out and climbed out the hole where it had been. I stuck everyone back in the cage and before I could replace the feeder, Lucille came bounding out the hole, so I know it was her who pushed it out and I wouldn't doubt that she came back and demanded everyone else go with her.

Lucille is so rotten that I had to have Little T hold her to get her picture. She kept making faces. Think I'm kidding?

Evil I tell ya. I should have named her Bunnicula.

This is Lucille II. Sweet and shy, nothing like that other Lucille.

And this adorable little girl is Annyong.

I have even more surprises, but I'll save them for tomorrow.