I'm supposed to be writing an essay right now but I'm not. I'm writing this blog post and loading some pictures off my camera. Definitely have my priorities straight today.

Anyways the babies are getting huge and they're absolutely adorable right now, since it's still cold out trips out of the nest box have been brief. I have three does due in a week and I'm definitely getting excited for the Spring Bash Show

Bad luck.

It seems I've been stricken by bad luck lately.  I lost a doe and her entire litter of 6 thanks to a sneaky dog. And one of my other does has been picking off her babies one by one. At first one dead baby was considered a "It happens sometimes" incident. It was after the 2nd was found dead I began to become suspicious. It was until I walked into the rabbitry and saw her attacking and eating her own kit that it clicked.  So the remaining two kits have been fostered and this doe although this is her first litter will not be bred again. My three strike system is for does with newborn litters, not 2 week old litters. The weird thing is she comes from a long line of excellent tolerant mothers who would do anything for their kits.

So anyways one of the two babies I saved is a charlie. A real charlie as in less then 10% markings on a rabbit out of 2 brokens (a charlie can only be out of 2 brokens). It has no moustache, very thin eye bands, mottled ears and a tiny little dot on it's back. The rest is white. It is the most adorable baby I have ever laid eyes on unfortunately it's not showable and it also happens to be a buck. He'll make someone a nice pet. A faux charlie is a rabbit with less then 10% markings out of a solid and a broken.

So yes bad luck but if things come in threes, I only have one more bout of bad luck to suffer before things hopefully turn around, but I really do hope the bad luck isn't going to be rabbit related.

Non dwarfs suck.

If you have no idea how the dwarfing gene works I highly recommend doing more research especially if you're interested in showing Mini Rex.

a Dwarf rabbit's dwarfing gene looks like this Dd
a Non dwarf looks like this DD
a double dwarf (fatal, peanut) looks like this dd

So breeding a non dwarf to a non dwarf you will only get non dwarfs (nothing showable). Breeding to a dwarf, you will never get peanuts, but 50% of your litters will be non dwarfs and therefore not showable. Breeding a Dwarf to a Dwarf you do get peanuts 25% chance, you also have a 25% chance of non dwarfs, but a 50% chance of dwarfs which are showable*

Non dwarfs: We refer to these as Big Ugly Does (Buds) and Big Ugly Bucks (Bubs). For the reason that they're big and the lack of a dwarf gene tends to elongate features making them "ugly". A non dwarf is too big to be shown, and will never contribute a dwarf gene ever. Although people do try and pass them off as show quality by saying they have "summer ears". Summer ears is a term used to say "This rabbit has ginormous ears and is obviously lacking a dwarf gene but I'm going to pull the wool over your eyes claiming temperature can change genetics and sell it to you for double the price it is worth because you don't know any better."

The size of a rabbit's ears is determined by genetics and whether not they have a dwarfing gene. Rabbits with a dwarfing gene tend to have ear lengths under the maximum for the breed, and the exact length is an inherited trait. Not all rabbits with a dwarf gene have the same length of ears. Rabbits lacking a dwarf gene tend to have ears over the max length again exact length varies with it's genetics.

Extreme temperatures are not going to override genetic maximums. A rabbits ears are the first thing to reach maximum length. So for a time the rabbits ears will look out of balance with the rabbit however with a Mini Rex they should never be over 3.5 inches especially in a young rabbit. Saying heat will make a rabbit's ears grow freakishly long will also mean you will only get freakishly short ears in the winter. Which definitely is not the case.

In some cases people like to keep does with no dwarf gene because they do have larger litters. Personally I do not see how this is beneficial, you just have more kits born who are unshowable and slated for the pet market which gets you nowhere in your breeding program. Big bucks are just no. You shouldn't buy them you shouldn't breed them they're just big and will crush your does, and they'll hate you for it.

Selling Easter Bunnies.

Rabbits are a novelty of Easter. When you think Easter you think rabbits. You think how cool would it be to get a bunny for Easter. The thought does not often go past "cool..." for the vast majority of impulse buyers.

What is an impulse buyer? They are the people who buy something because they want it then and there. They don't give any thought to how long it's going to live, or how much it's going to cost in the long run, or how much time they're going to have to devote to a pet. Once they learn there is work involved a short few weeks later they're selling the animal because they no longer have the "time" or "money" to care for it.

Most people interested in buying rabbits for Easter are impulse buyers. Those who really want a rabbit for a pet won't mind waiting a week or two to get the rabbit.

This is why in the weeks following Easter there are so many rabbits being listed for sale on classified websites, or on shelter websites. Someone bought a novelty pet and the novelty wore off.

This is why I do not sell rabbits during the time before and after Easter. Unless it's to another breeder I know personally. When I do sell pets they're going to people who have done their research into owning a rabbit and are aware how long they're going to live and how much work they are. They've also completed my pet owner survey. People who are unlikely to dump the animal on someone else when they get bored of it.

pricing.

Pricing is really person specific. This is how I price my rabbits.

Pets $45.00 even
I price pets in this range because I dislike doing pet sales. I have received a lot of e-mails from people who are indecisive and flakey in the past. Pricing them in a higher price range tends to weed out those people are are impulse buyers and flakes.

Brood- I don't believe in "Brood" quality. If it is not something I would show, why would I want to breed it? It's like taking a step backwards. Sure it can produce better, but guess what the kits they produce will produce throwbacks to their "brood" parents.

Prospective show rabbits. These are rabbits I have deemed show-able but have not been shown. they're usually priced between $50.00 and $75.00

Show Rabbits. These are rabbits who are show quality and have done well in shows. They're $80.00+

All prices reflect my personal opinion of the rabbit. If you don't agree no one is forcing you to buy the rabbit.

The importance of a good herd buck

Herd bucks are the most important part of a successful rabbitry. They can make or break your herd. They have the biggest influence on your future generations.

This is a post about how to choose a herd buck (or a buck you want to breed your does too) in a breed like Mini Rex.

Never use pet quality bucks or "brood" quality bucks. For your herd buck if you would never show it you should never breed it. Also bucks with the same faults as your does, or DQ's. You want a buck to be as close to the breed standard as possible.

1.) Stay away from big bucks, or bucks lacking a dwarf gene. For Mini Rex the max weight for a buck is 4lbs 4oz. A buck lacking a dwarf gene is characteristically having long ears, and a longer face, as well as longer type and will be over the max weight. You should try and stick to bucks no more then 4lbs to be safe.

2.) Bucks with lots of faults should be avoided. If you have a problem with does having long midsections you need a buck with a short midsection. Breeding two rabbits with the same faults will not improve anything.

3.) Keep the amount of bucks you have limited. a 1:5 ratio is a great place to start. I keep the amount of bucks I have very limited I have 18 does and only 2 bucks for Mini Rex. Line breeding with an excellent buck will keep the good genetics are the forefront.

4.) When looking for a buck don't fall for a breeder's bias check him out yourself. Try and avoid falling for things like "He's from the States" you can find a lot of great rabbits in the states but for every great rabbit there are 200 really really bad ones. Just like here. In Ontario the quality of rabbits is no different then in the USA. You've got you bad ones, and you've got your absolutely stunning ones.

If you're unsure of a buck go for proven and ask the breeder if they have any pictures of his offspring to give you an idea of what he can produce.

Baxter? Barrie? Barrie Spring Bash.

So this year the Baxter show is not in Baxter it's in Barrie at the Essa Valley Feed Services (AKA the Feed store we go to every other Monday).

So Yeah It's April 16th, just thought I should warn everyone not to show up in Baxter and expect a show :)

As for shows and showing I'm uber excited. I have this little black doe who is almost out of her ugly stage (although she was never that ugly). I die every time I touch her. Since they day she was born she had super curly dense fur, so did her brother and sister, but her brother and sister had normal Pre-Jr fur by 8 weeks. Not this little girly, she still had curly fur at 14 weeks. So by that time I'm freaking out, I have this great little doe type wise but her fur although dense and having excellent texture was curly which obviously is a no-no when showing. So I was biting my nails (nasty habit, yeah). When all of a sudden I go out to to rabbitry and she had exploded! Her fur was everywhere ! About a week later the curl was gone, by the end of the month my gloriously typed doe had glorious Jr fur!

Her sister is glorious too. Her brother went to a pet home even though he was a solid tank of a nice rabbit. Then there are the lovelies that are Mona Lisa's litter. They've been glowing since day one and I can't wait until they're old enough to show. Which unfortunately will not be the Spring Bash as they're only 9 weeks (luckily that's the perfect age for doe and litter).

Litter news and other things.

So I'm excited I gave out 6 nest boxes last night to does due on the 12th and 14th

This morning 5/6 had made nests, pulled fur, and then hoarded all their toys into the boxes.
Ohhhh the anticipation of new babies !

Some of you may not know this but I am an avid music fan with tastes ranging from folk to thrash metal, although I hate rap. Can't stand it enough said. So you can assume I also play an instrument or two.

Correct, but what does this have to do with rabbits?

One of the instruments I play is acoustic guitar, I have it hanging up just above my desk in my bedroom (on a cool treble clef guitar hanger). Well Elvis seems to have taken to her name quite well and has taken a fancy to my guitar. She discovered digging on the strings produced sound, and apparently she liked what she heard because now she'll do whatever she can to play my guitar.

Another instrument I play, and this one is my all time favourite is my Irish Wooden Flute. No I'm not going to tell you a rabbit discovered how it works. I'm going to warn you, if you have baby bunnies running around on your bed, do not sit on your bed to practice the flute. My flute is made out of Maple, which is wood (as the name suggests). Bunnies like wood. So in they end they will want to eat it. Now babies are really fast and have no boundaries yet. So they will literally climb up your body to get the wood. And if you move they will jump off the bed and follow you around trying to climb up your legs. It's actually terrifying be mauled my 3 little babies.

Dealing with a small Gene Pool

I've been running into the same faults with my Bruns in every litter. The gene pool is very limited so it's really hard to breed out certain faults as it's almost guaranteed to be carried by every other Brun out there. Line breeding heavily tends to suppress things like max litter size potential, and max weight potential. So what do you do when you've hit a wall? Out cross your herd, carefully.

I've run into the problem that my Brun does are producing 3 kits per litter (not very impressive). All my does also seem to have the same PH level that makes it all the more friendly environment for the Y chromosome, which results in a greater number of bucks being born, surprise it's not the bucks fault.

So how do you out cross while maintaining the breed characteristics. You could potentially find a large chocolate rabbit, and use it and then work your tail off getting the proper silveringbody type, and fur back or you can take the easy route. Use Champagne D'Argents.

At the base of it all Champagnes and Bruns are self coloured rabbits with the silvering gene. The only real difference between them is colour and size. Which are two very easy things to fix. The type is already there, the fur, and the silvering. All you're doing is opening up a blood line and changing the colour and size.

Lets talk genetics for colour: (the underscore is where recessive information can be filled in if known)

A Champagne is: aaB_C_D_E_sisi . A Brun is: aabbC_D_E_sisi

A=Agouti
aa= self
Aa= Agouti that carries self

B=Black
bb=Brown (chocolate)
Bb= Black the carries brown (Chocolate)

C=Normal colour (like black)
ch= Himalayan
cc= Albino
Cc= Normal colour that carries albino

D=Dense colour (black, chocolate)
dd= Dilute colour (blue, lilac)
Dd= Dense colour that carries dilute (Chocolate that carries lilac, black that carries blue).

E= Extension series. E is normal (ie Black)
e= Non extension (like tort or red)

Si= Normal
sisi=silvering
SIsi= Normal that carries silvering (this is an incomplete dominant gene so carriers often show silvering).

So that's genetics in a nut shell. I'll also point out lowercase letters are recessive. For instance bb (chocolate) when two chocolates are bred together they cannot produce black.

So lets take aaB_C_D_E_sisi . A Brun aabbC_D_E_sisi

You breed a Brun to a Champagne you're offspring will genetically look like this : aaBbC_D_E_sisi a black rabbit that carries chocolate. Bred back to a Brun or another black rabbit that carries chocolate you'll get 50% chocolate and 50% black in the litter.

Chocolate and Black are two of the most compatible colours out there, They in no way shape or form interfere with each others colour negatively. In fact it is widely believed that using blacks in your chocolate breeding program keeps the chocolate colour rich and prevents it from fading and turning greyish. (All my black Mini Rex carry chocolate).

Let's say you want to fill in the genetics of a Brun and your Brun has produced a lilac, and a rew and no non extensions. That rabbit would look like this genetically aabbCcDdEEsisi

Size between Bruns and Champagnes is not that different but different enough to worry about. You have to be very selective. My Brun bucks tend to be on the smaller side of the scale for a Brun, so I crossed one with a wondrous Champagne Doe who also is small for a Champagne but has fantastic type.

I have one breeding age out cross doe she just had her 2nd litter of 9 kits (all of which are fantastic looking Bruns). So far out crossing has increased litter size and increased the number of does I get per litter. And for this litter 3/4 of their pedigree is pure Brun.

I'll talk about silvering later. It's late and I still haven't done chores. I hope this post made a bit of sense.

Dude guess what?

I finally built up the courage to sex my latest Argente Brun litter because well, I'm so tired of getting all bucks. There are 9 of them and I was seriously dreading sexing them and ending up with 9 bucks. I usually sex them at 1 week right on, but I waited a bit this time.

Well I ended up with 4 bucks and 5 does. This means this is the first litter in which there were more does then bucks. It may actually be a cause for celebration. I'll actually have does available!

Hmm

I'm the least creative person when it comes to thinking of blog titles.

This blog is about the fact that I have seen far to many people using a plural of Mini Rex such as Mini Rexes, or Mini Rex's.

Mini Rex's is possessive not plural. Using this in a sentence form would look like "That Mini Rex's coat is fantastic."

Mini Rexes is just wrong. Even spell check says it's wrong.

The plural form of Mini Rex is Mini Rex. It's the same as the singular form. Not Mini Rexes or Mini Rexs, or Mini Rex's. Just Mini Rex. "I raise Mini Rex." Sounds much better then "I raise Mini Rexes." Just as "I have 12 Mini Rex." Sounds far better then "I have 12 Mini Rexes."