ayee

As some of you may have noticed, I have an extreme lack of Mini Rex bucks right now. Lucky me? Eh Not so much. After nearly two years, everything seems to be either out of Ice T, Odie, or Mon Dieu. Not to to bad the only issue is Mon Dieu is the grandson on Odie, Odie is the grandson of Ice T. So that leaves me with very limited room to move genetic wise especially if I need to fix certain faults. So I brought in a new buck, I do not have his pedigree yet so I'm not sure if he is related to what I already have. Time will tell. Now my issue is I still could use another buck, one I was hoping to get out of Mercedes.

Have you ever tried breeding by the phases of the moon? Sounds silly does it not? I was desperate for a buck so I said hey why not and gave it a shot. Well, considering my shortage of bucks, I only had one buck remotely compatible with her, this buck prone to producing does, Just my luck eh? Well Mercedes gave me five babies. The chances of at least one being a buck, when I bred for bucks according to the moon phase chart, seemed reasonable. There are 5 babies after all. At one week I sexed them, and prayed I was seeing something wrong because it appeared to be ALL does. Two weeks, I sex them again, still all does. Now at almost 3 weeks, without a doubt every single one is a doe. So much for the moon phase chart.

I can't give up on it yet you say? Well Mercedes was not the only one I tried to breed for bucks. Noirette's litter, and Au Contraire's litter I bred for bucks. On the Contrary had 4 Babies two chocolate does, two black otter bucks (Woot!) Unfortunately we lost a chocolate doe, but she still counts. Noirette, had 4, two bucks two does. Out of 8 babies half are bucks, half are does. So maybe it did work after all. I can't be sure. I really can't see how the moon effects what you get in a litter, especially the quality.

Quality is not something you can pluck out of a hat. If it is not their genetically you will never get it. So I don't see how breeding at certain times of the month will enhance this. It is probably just me but I'm a known cynic.

So yeah we have two more litters due. Protege and Ice T and Boston and Donatello.