I managed to get out of bed and out to the barn long enough to snap some photos two days ago. It took me two days to get time between pain bouts to get those photos posted... but there are updated photos on the Rabbits page for Gretchen's litter and Princess Poppy's litter, and on the Breeding Rabbits page for Boyce. Below is a photo of Gypsy's kittens. Left is Carbon (the only boy), middle is Ditto (Carbon's near identical sister), and right is Tigerlily (she has a pretty coat pattern and white feet).
Ditto is less playful, at least with people. She plays well with sister Tigerlily. Tigerlily is a sweet girl, very photogenic. Most of the photos I took of Ditto she was not pleased to be photographed and reminded me of a reluctant celebrity.
Yesterday I was in the bathroom, I took the mirror down and the cats were very interested. Here is a photo of Floki and her three remaining babies. Yuri (aqua collar) will be staying here. Blue Star (purple collar) is set to leave to her new home on Sunday. Ginger Bear (no collar) is still waiting for his permanent home. Floki (leopard print collar) is the momma and is staying here.
I used to microchip our own animals for the rescue I used to run. In all my years only once did we ever had a microchip not implant properly, and that's because the dog had particularly thin skin and the needle went in and back out again. In this case, neither cat had a puncture wound at all. They didn't even break the skin! Two mis-implanted chips at the same time? My husband wants me to call up the adopters of the other two kittens to ask them to have their cats scanned to see if their chips were properly implanted. I don't want to doubt their competency, but honestly, this is one more thing in an ever growing list of minor red flags over the years. I'm quickly losing faith in my regular vet and may soon seek care elsewhere. A shame really since we moved out here and are conveniently located near the clinic we have been using for several years. Back to the vet tomorrow I guess.
The little dutch harlequin bunny from the colony died. The kids went to dig up the burrow since we hadn't seen any babies for a while and found it had died in there, all alone. So sad. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a better day and I will be able to go out and patch up the ground fence to prevent the rabbits from burrowing there again. We've been losing a lot of babies since they started burrowing again. The nest boxes we can check on regularly in the building seem to secure better survival rates.
I also want to breed some more rabbits soon. I want to do a re-breed of Calliope to Mister Cellophane to see if we can get more of the pretty colors like Boyce. I need to rebreed Spotty because (no surprise) she didn't take... again. If she were my rabbit she'd be up for sale, but she's #4's rabbit and she doesn't want to part with her. I'm tempted to offer her a trade for a different breeder that will be more productive. I mean, wouldn't it be more fun to have a bunny that produces babies? Bacon once again failed to produce, so she will be officially up for sale just as soon as I can get an updated photo of her. If anyone wants an oversized chestnut lionhead doe that refuses to breed (may be spayed), please let me know!