Breeding realities

If you had offered me a bet on which doe was ready to breed, I would have put my money on Liebchen. Well, she was the one who would have nothing to do with either buck. 6 days after starting out, I have finally accepted her decision.

Since I find it is a good idea to breed 2 does at the same time, I planned on breeding both Gretel and Liebchen. Gretel was vastly cooperative, and Neo was thrilled with a use, FINALLY, for all those raging hormones. On Saturday, after 4 days and 9 attempts with Liebchen and the guys (who were pretty discouraged by her lack of interest) I decided that Whitney would now be a good idea. In the blink of an eye she was bred. So Zwart did finally get into the act, too.

They are both due the first weekend of April.

Why two? Sometimes one mom has a huge litter and one has a tiny litter. Since does will accept OTHER new babies in the first few days, and they can't count, it's a safety net for all bunnies to have two moms deliver.

Whitney is a 90% German REW doe from Angela at Bristol Springs Fiberworks. I had not ever planned on breeding her, in my quest for colored angoras, but she has grown on me all winter and I really like her. Her coat is superb. Zwart's coat, although a perfect black, tends to be a bit fine, and he needs the free flowing German quality of Whitney's, so I think they are an excellent match. Her health has been fabulous and she weathered the chilling winter without skipping a beat. She's always chipper.

Liebchen may have a change of heart in the coming weeks. We'll just hang out and wait for her to be ready.

IVERMECTIN

Any medication you use on your rabbits impacts them and you somehow, so never use anything lightly. Research it fully before you try it.

Ivermectin is a pesticide. It is used widely for many different animals, and is not generally prescribed for rabbits as it has not been tested on rabbits, as far as I understand. Using Ivermectin is "extra label" usage and each person must decide how they feel about it. That said, I have been using it for over 10 years with no ill effects that I have been able to see. There is some concern about pesticide residue in the systems of breeding rabbits, as there SHOULD BE!, so I double the safe withdrawal time. It is 30 days after injection for consumption of livestock, so I leave 60 days for my breeding rabbit stock to recover. I used to inject it, but it became a hassle and I tried administering it orally after a number of other rabbit breeders had good luck that way. I am pleased with the results, and continue to use it orally.

Fur mites are my own personal enemy here at Countrywool. I don't often read too much about the PITA they are from other breeders. It's almost like they are an unspoken horror. For me they are a part of having angoras and I do battle on a regular basis. I cannot envision a rabbitry that won't have them crop up once in a while.

Fur mites are teeny tiny critters that one never actually sees. One sees the results of their presence in the itchy behavior of the rabbits, and in waxy dandruff residue on the skin. They don't bother the animal in any harmful way but they are a NIGHTMARE for fiber producers! For when bunny scratches and itches herself repeatedly, and there is more than 3" of fur.....there goes the coat! It becomes a webbed, matted mess that is tough to clip off cleanly, harder to process easily, and must be treated to kill the mites before it is used. As I like to plan for a LONG 4-5" coat before clipping, controlling the fur mite population about 2 months AFTER one clipping and before the next is the crucial time.

Dosage: I use 1% Bovine IVOMEC. You may use any ivermectin form if you can measure it carefully and make adjustments for the weight of the rabbit. For my hefty 10 pound rabbits, using a needle and syringe, I measure out .33cc. Put the rabbit on her back, holding her ears down under your arm, and slide the syringe into the corner of her mouth. It is bitter tasting, but they don't mind at all. I generally offer a handful of hay once they are back in their cage.

Stubborn fur mite cases need a repeated dose 2 weeks after the first one, and the best way to eradicate them completely is to clip the rabbit to the skin right after you dose her/him. The ivermectin is exuded by the skin and that is what kills the mite. If the mite travels to the ends of the hair of the rabbit, it can successfully remain alive until the ivermectin loses potency in the rabbit.
Fumigating the barn with SEVIN, sterilizing the cages and using a blow torch to remove all hair from all wire and wood that bunny comes into contact with, are other things that need to be done if you can't get rid of/control them.

I have accepted a "controlled population" approach to them. I do sterilize the barn once a year and the mite issue is non existent for a while, but they generally come back in time. I treat all angora with flea powder containing carbaryl right after it is clipped, and remove what I can as I process the fiber into roving for spinning. In fact, flea powder that contains carbaryl is a great way to deal with fur mites ON the rabbit if you do not use ivermectin (which is expensive to get yourself set up with to use). For single/double bunny owners, the flea powder is generally enough if you use it every week until all signs are gone. I keep HAPPY JACK FLEA POWDER in stock here at COUNTRYWOOL.

Breeding Season

I love baby bunnies and all the genetics that go with breeding for color. That said, it takes a lot of thought and preparation for me to breed angoras. Timing is everything.

First of all, animals have to be in tip top shape...weight wise, health wise and coat wise. There are 3 rabbits I had planned on breeding that I have deemed less than good candidates as I watched them through the winter, and they won't be used. I generally plan for litters 3-4 months in advance, making sure the last harvestable coat comes off the week I plan to breed. Both prospective parents get treated for any underlying conditions EARLY in that time frame, so all medications have exited their systems 60 days before they are bred. And, perhaps the most important consideration: am I prepared to keep ALL the bunnies that are born? Do I have cage space? How will I handle malformed kits, sick does, bad deliveries, terrible weather?

There are times of the year when does and bucks are more receptive to making new bunnies when they live outside, as mine do. Spring and late Fall are two times when breeding generally yields good results. Bunnies born in the hot summer need to be watched carefully, as do their moms, and mortality rates are higher in heat as well as in cold weather. Bucks generally do not breed well after high heat has settled in, and need 30-60 days of cooler temps for their sperm counts to rise.

So, right now in this first week of March, while we have been enjoying some 40-50F* days, I have been clipping coats in preparation for breeding. All parents were treated with Ivermectin 8 weeks ago to clear out the neverending crop of fur mites that wander around my barns. All body parts were checked over as I clipped and everyone is in good shape. Liebchen has been whining for weeks, and has been eating less and less as she pines for a mate. Neo has been spraying everyone and everything in sight as he wonders what to do with all his newly discovered hormones! Gretel has been watching me every trip to the barn...she knows what is on my mind. And Zwart...well this sweet buck-guy of 6 months is kinda young, but I am sure he'll get the hang of it.

Grindle
Topic: eye color

Grindle was born here in early December, making her 12 weeks old now. The day today is sunny and above freezing, so she and I spent some time together out in the sunshine taking pictures and just hanging out. She is a lovely rabbit. It always amazes me how the personality of an animal exhibits itself so soon after weaning and living on their own.

Her eyes are brown, but she has a softer center golden ring around her iris. Her grandmother Matilda had very light brown, almost gold eyes, and I suspect the chm or chl gene was the most dominant "c" gene she owned and passed down to her offspring.

Her coat also exhibits clear "rings" of black and grey under color at the ripe age of 12 weeks:

It almost appears silvery underneath next to her half sister Liesl (who will pay a visit to this blog tomorrow), but on the surface both are identical in color. In my continuing quest to identify a solid black color, I continue to note differences...and Liesl's eyes are darker brown than Grindle's.

CAGES

I got a private note from Amy who wants to know about the ideal cage size for angoras. There are differing opinions out there, but I'll chime in...
Does are bigger and heavier than bucks for the most part. My does tend to be less active than the bucks, too. I do find that active rabbits tend to mat more and the only way I can get a usable spinning coat from a hormonally charged buck is to keep him in smaller quarters.
I use 36" wide and 30" deep x 18" high cages for the does, and 30" wide x 24" deep x 18" high cages for the bucks. I also keep two nursery cages (60" wide x 24" deep x 18" high) with drop nests built in for rabbits who need to run around alot and for litters. I have gotten all my cages from DA-MAR'S. The shipping is hefty, but I got them in lots of 6 at a time and so in the end it was OK. I always keep a few empty ones around in case I need to quarantine a rabbit or two for a while.
Da-Mar cages come with flat pieces and J-clips, but the door is already on the front side. When putting cages together, it is best to have J-clip pliers to do so or your hands will hurt after a half hour of work. I also invested in a pair of J-clip REMOVERS, which paid for themselves many times over as I misplaced a clip. The tools are available from Da-Mar's also.
While you are spending money, may I rave about their coated wire HIGH traveling cages? I have 2 double sided cages (which can become a single cage if you remove the divider) which have become home for a rabbit for a week at a time when in transit. These cages are fabulous and light and easy to clean with their tray. If you do any selling or showing, these cages keep a rabbit very happy while not home in the hutch or barn.

Weaning, Moving on and LettingGo
Five of the baby bunnies moved to their new homes today. Two of the new owners wanted to know how I could let them go! They are adorable and very sweet right now, and I am pleased that they are all going to responsible places to become the beautiful adult angoras they are promising to be. Every rabbit has new friends to make and new hearts to warm, and so I am delighted to see their new owners infatuated with them...that is how it should be!

Many bunnies get their start here but I learned a LONG time ago that not all of them can stay. I guess I am always planning for the next group of bunnies.

And so is Liebchen. She really, really loves being a mom. So much so that last week when I moved the bunnies out of her cage, she went into a depression and has remained quiet ever since. I think she would like to be a mom again...soon!

Gretel, on the other hand, had had enough of the bunnies and was starting to become irritated with them the day before I took them out. At 7 weeks, they were more than ready to be on their own, but because of the cold, I had left both litters in with their big-and-warm moms a little longer than I normally do.

So, what is normal and how do you wean a bunny?

Actually they wean themselves with mama's help. I offer fresh and delectable hay and oats at 2 weeks, and keep watch to see what they do with it. Some single bunnies will start eating at that age, although they are still nursing. Many more bunnies will nibble on the grass and oats at 3 weeks, which is usually when they start scampering out of the nest on wobbly legs. You will see them try to nurse at various times during the day while out of the nest, and mom will refuse to cooperate. She feeds them only when she is in the mood, which normally is 2 or 3 times a day. While they are out of the nest, they can nibble on what they can find, and I offer cleanly filled bowls of whole oats for 2 weeks, and then half rabbit food for the next week, and by 5 weeks they are eating what mom eats, although I top each food bowl with oats.

When it is time to separate them from mom at 6-7 weeks, I double up on the hay and oats offered, and keep the rabbit food a controlled portion. This will help with any weaning diarrhea that sometimes happens if one of the bunnies has been nursing a lot. I have been known to leave the smallest bunny in with mom for 8-9 weeks to let him/her get an extra bit of nursing, and to lessen the final weaning impact on mom. Most of the time the bunnies are NOT nursing at 7 weeks, and there are moms who get a little rammy at that time, looking at the bunnies with mating in mind (!), so it is helpful to keep careful watch on the mood of any litter from 6-8 weeks and be prepared to intervene to keep everyone happy.

Before any bunny leaves here, he/she has been eating on his/her own for a full 8 days and shows no sign of diarrhea. When I send bunnies home with their new owners, they get hay from here and a bag of the feed the bunnies have been eating to mix in with what they have ready at home. This helps lessen the stress of the move. Also good to remember....hay and oats have been a rabbit staple for a LONG time, so when you have a stressed rabbit, offer those comfort foods along with fresh water twice a day to give the bunny a break for a couple of days before other foods are introduced.

It WAS a little lonely feeding everyone tonight...

Agouti pattern breeding rules
Oh, the cold that has us socked in here in the Hudson Valley of New York. I have not had a winter like this in 10 years. Two of the rabbits have not endured it well, and MATILDA and DARTH are now living with Irene and her family in New Jersey on a heated sunporch. I couldn't be happier for them all.

The bunnies and their mamas continue to thrive in the cold. One wee one did not make it (she was not growing well before the cold moved in, and I had my doubts), but everyone else is doing fine. They are eating 3 times their normal rations, and twice as much hay every day to keep warm. I visit three times a day with warm water and more food.

I have been overly busy keeping up with the brutal cold and not posting here, but hopefully this will change this week. We have snow here now and it is warmer because of it. I think we are 12*F this morning! Our normal lows have been -2 all the way to -10*F.

Just finished a post I started back on Jan 8 for Lana about breeding with agouti color and I see the Tripod Blogworks have placed it in sequential context, so I am highlighting it here for those of you who check in and read the top date.

Identifying Eye Color
Topic: eye color

Eye color is dependent on a couple of genetic factors. Above we see Liesel, the doe in Liebchen's litter that is staying at Countrywool for breeding evaluation. Liesel is 5 1/2 weeks old, and her black coat and clearly dark brown eyes tell me her genetics color makeup most likely is:

"aa" Self or solid color. The color on each fiber shaft is black. Darker at the tips and fading paler to charcoal at the base. At this point her color is very dark for her fiber is short. As it grows, things will happen and her coat will fade as the intermediate fiber shaft grows long very fast and does not retain the depth of the colored tips of her coat, which will always be black. Her face, where fur remains short during her life, will always be black. I am journeying on a discovery mission to find out if stray white hairs identified on the face of a "solid" black rabbit will lead to white hairs in the coat at a later age. Stay tuned. I will have more info in ten years.

"B-" Black, which is the dominant gene for color in the gene pool. The "-" could be either "B" or "b", but it makes no difference what it is for "B" always shows itself regardless of the attributes of its companion gene. It may indeed be "b", since Liesel has a chocolate brother, and we may be able to determine this after she is bred. Interestingly enough, now I know that Liesel's black mother Liebchen carries a hidden "b" gene in HER makeup. A true black self/solid colored rabbit will have brown eyes IF the "C" genes allow for it.

"C-" All color provided by the "B" genes shows through fully. Well, this is true now, and will be true later, but there are questions in my mind about those silly white hairs in an adult coat. When color shows through fully, then eyes will be brown. There are a number of "c" genes that alter the color expressed making the coat more yellow or less black, and adding a few new tones to the gradations of color from black, blue, chocolate, lilac of the coat. These genes also change eye color, and they work cooperatively when the right combos are present, so you can get light brown eyes, golden eyes, marbled brown eyes, grey eyes, and marbled grey eyes. They are:
"chd", "chm", "chl", and "ch"
I suspect one of these may be in Liesel's background, but they are not expressed right now. They may not ever be expressed, as current genetics understanding goes, but I have my doubts. Stay tuned.

"D-" Color depth expression is as deep as it can be, while allowing for the other genes to make a play on which color gets expressed. Currently the accepted genetic expression of "D" is black, and "d" as the dilute of black, or blue. When "D" is present, eye color is as dark as it can be, So, brown.

"E-" The extension gene. This factor will keep color expression confined to PARTS of the body, or allow it all over. "E" allows it all over, so Liesel, being an all-over colored black rabbit has this makeup. If her makeup was "ee" she could still have brown eyes, as "ee" confines full color to the head (eyes!) and ears, back haunch, tail, and feet, and strips out any black/blue/chocolate/lilac from other parts of the coat, leaving a cream/golden bunny with solid colored extremities. There are a number of additional "E" genes that have been wrecking havoc with my herd "Es" and "Ej". I suspect "Es" is at work. The steel gene expresses itself in partial spurts here and there when the genetics are not quite perfect for full expression, and that may be the reason I am seeing stray white hairs in the coats of my black rabbits. Stay tuned.

The Agouti Color
Topic: agouti patterns
This post is in response to Lana's questions about why there are "rules" for color breeding. Simply put...if you follow the "rules" you will get the best color expression possible in your subsequent litters, and hopefully MOST of the resulting colors will be showable in ARBA here in the US (and maybe elsewhere...I do not show).

To get an overview of color names and their underlying genetics, I like to visit Meg's Website. You will see that there are many ways to get a "black" rabbit, for instance. Not all of them have the same genetic combination, and some of them will be "better" black colors than others, even though they are all called black.

Because of the nature of some of the recessive genes available for color, certain combinations do not look "clear". Because of their haziness, they are often misidentified. Angoras that are bred for fiber contribute to the hazy genetic combinations for oftentimes you are just trying to make healthy animals with great fiber! If you are into dyeing angora, then whatever color comes out is JUST fine for it can all be overdyed.

So...agouti. Agouti shows itself whenever a single "A" gene is present. Agouti patterns are defined as rabbits with colors that show a 3 color "ring" when you blow into their fiber: base color is white or creme or lightest grey; middle color is a darker version of the base color or a light grey or tan; and the tip color is the darkest color (usually). Chestnut agouti rabbits are the most dominant of the color possible with A-B-C-D-E-. Here is Nordic Christopher Robin from Kim Kaslow (where my beloved but gone Nordic Glinda came from, and where her daughter Countrywool Belinda moved to):

Chestnut agouti rabbits have faces that look like North America's wild rabbits, and when they are bunnies, they look just like wild rabbits.
An agouti looks dark and striking when the colors involved are clear. If they get muddy, or if recessives dilute them down to nonexistence, you won't see the rings, even though the animal is genetically programmed to show rings. Sometimes you can see the rings when they are 1-3 months old, but the coat color fades after that and you have no idea. You will see an agouti patterned face with a pale grey coat and no ring definition. This is called a "bad" agouti pattern and leads serious show breeders to define what colors to breed with other colors in order to keep the ring definition sharp and clear.

So my answer to Laura's question is another question...what are you breeding your angoras for for? Rules are guidelines to achieve something specific. So define your goals before you start and you may have an answer to your question.

Hoppy Bartholomew
Topic: chocolate
Meet Hoppy:

This wee fellow's heritage just charmed Matthew, who may be allergic to bunnies, but he is willing to find out after he adopts the little guy. And as he so cheerfully pointed out, "What are allergy drugs for, anyway, if you can't use them to enjoy bunnies?" What indeed.

Hoppy was born to Gretel and Darth in December and will be 4 weeks old this week. Mostly German angora, he is the most curious one in the litter, and Matthew has been a regular visitor at the Bunny Barns getting to know him. Hoppy will be the subject of much picture taking, as even when he moves out, he is only moving a few miles away.

We suspect he has grey eyes, which would make him a self chin chocolate color, but with all the cloudy weather, it is tough to get a sunny (warm) day to make a careful inspection. Whatever color his eyes are, his life will be wonderful as Matthew's new best buddy. Stay tuned for frequent Hoppy updates.