Emergency Preparation

With tornados and terrible storms rolling through the South these past few weeks, emergency preparation is something on everyone's minds.

We all generally know how to take care of ourselves and I'm guessing a lot of people have a plan for their family, even if it is a bit...vague.

However, do you know what you'd do about your pets?

Some of you lucky people have the room to save ALL your pets, either by having a nice large basement to weather out a tornado in, or just simply by having only a few animals.

At my house, it's a little different. We have three cats and two dogs living in the house, along with a pet house bunny. We have only ONE room that has no windows and that is the main bathroom.

We do have an attached garage, but it does have windows all along one wall.

So what is my plan?

Grab carriers and put the top animals (and favorites) in to them. Try my best to get as many inside the house in closets and if there is time, put the rest in the garage, which is at least attached, unlike my rabbitry.

In the case of emergency, if I can cram 5 does in a cage, 5 does will go in that cage. If I have to put a buck and a doe together, or a buck and several does together, then that is what will happen. I'm less worried about injuries and unplanned pregnancies than total death.

Unfortunately, no rabbit carriers could come with us in to the main bathroom- it wouldn't be terribly safe (think heavy metal and pointy ends), though I would probably bend my rule for my top few woolies- I'm thinking a buck and two-four does could easily go in one of the plastic dog kennels.

You'd also have to make sure you had at least one bag of food and some water on hand to take care of everyone.

With luck, the storm would pass and everyone would come out safely. With bad luck, you might have to do your best to fill up food bowls and water dishes and abandon the bunnies. I know that we could never get ourselves, the other pets and all the bunnies in our car. Never.

If push came to shove and I DID have to leave them, I would honestly probably turn them loose in the garage with plenty of bowls of water and bust open all the bags of food and the bale of hay. That way, they get a fighting chance of survival. It's not something pleasant to think about, but it DOES bear consideration, especially because you never know when a disaster is going to strike.

Do you have a rabbitry disaster plan?

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

It didn't quite work out-

Well, my hopes of Easter babies didn't pan out! None of the does due kindled on that day (or as of yet) and I believe that several of them are not going to kindle at all.

It amazes me how just 2 weeks before, almost all of the does kindled and yet this second batch saw only two have babies.


I'm still on the hunt for a new feed. The Purina I'm getting right now is AWFUL. It's basically falling apart when you touch it- gross. I could contact Purina, but they don't care, as they've shown any time I brought a concern to them. I know they'll just say "Oh, moisture, blah blah blah". Yes... Moisture. Sure. That is the easy route, isn't it?

Whoops, sorry, I didn't mean to make this a Purina Rant, so I'll stop there.

I'm getting so frustrated with this feed issue.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Not great odds

Eurgh! I haven't had good odds with my babies kindling so far. One doe had a DOA and 1 live..peanut. I've been having a lot of trouble with this particular doe- at first she wouldn't kindle at all and now this is her third dead litter >.< I'm giving her one more chance because I know she's proven.

My other doe that kindled was a first timer. I left her in with my brood buck for about 3 weeks and it's a good thing I did. She kindled 2 weeks after her original kindle date, so I know when the buck finally caught her! She dug down to the bottom of her nest and kindled three, all of which froze, despite her pulling plenty of wool. As I was cleaning the nestbox, I found a live baby curled up all alone towards the front of the box! SMART baby! It didn't chill when it's siblings died. I rearranged the box and put him back in there. I am hoping someone else kindles soon so I can do some fostering.

I am declaring "last chance" on four different does in the rabbitry. If they don't kindle on this next round of breeding (I'll be doing week long slumber parties between the bucks and the does) then I'm declaring them duds or "dried up". Siiigh, I hope they pull through!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

It's OFFICIAL!

Jersey Wooly Nationals: Greensboro, NC! March 10, 2012.

I am over the moon happy.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Sales Policy

I finally, finally posted a sales policy on my website. I say finally because I've been planning on doing it for years. In fact, it sat half finished as a file on my computer for at least one full year.

My preference is not to have to do one. I'm much more of a handshake kind of person- you be straight with me, I'll be straight with you and a handshake seals the deal. However, things just don't work out that way anymore!

So here is the deal- my sales policy is linked to my sales page. I will no longer conduct business via any kind of instant messaging or phone calls. If you want an animal, please contact me via email, facebook message or even by letter. It's beneficial for both of us to have a record of the exchange!

If you contact me about an animal, I am going to assume you read and understood my entire sales policy. If there is something you are unsure about, please email me and ask.

I will be sticking like glue to my sales policy- this means 50% non refundable deposits must be sent and sent promptly. Animals must be picked up on time. So forth and so forth, etc, etc.

For the health of my animals and my mental health, my rabbitry IS a closed rabbit and it will remain that way.

All righty, I think that's about all I wanted to say!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Moving out some stock

I've got to move out some stock. That's just all there is to it!

I've got the 12 beautiful, happy babies. I've got a litter of three that needs to wean from mom and a litter of three, two of which need to be separated. The third already has her own cage.

To top it all off, Oak Ridge's Avalon is nesting now! :D Don't get me wrong, it makes me very, very happy. I've got three more does during this month and then we get in to the serious Convention breedings!

That leaves me not a lot of space to work with.

Right now, I know I'll be letting BL's ? go. He's a chestnut senior buck and is a really cute looking little dude. I am gonna have to breed him to my opal doe Calypso before I let him go. He's out of McKie's Lilly and she's throwing me so many beautiful little babies... Oh wait, Calypso is a Lilly kid! Hmmm, a half sibling breeding- I think that would be a very good idea. Sorry! Rambling! I'm asking $40 for him.

Calypso's broken brother, Keep's Mini Me is already on hold and Keep's Angel is on her way out as well.

That takes care of the immediate press of cages, but I'm just going to be buying myself a little time.

So, I'll be going through the herd and making some hard decisions. I also plan on doing a major herd reduction again before Convention.

It's times like these when I really wish I could have a 100 hole barn, but I know that I really prefer to keep it under 50, even when it's hard. *SIGH*

Ahh well, my checking account will thank me, when I reduce that feed bill!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Vacation Catchup

Wow, I love vacations, but I have so much to catch up on!

I'm so lucky with my friend Becca- she's my Rabbit-sitter and she did a GREAT job. She had to deal with a ton of litters due because I'm dumb and didn't think about being away when I bred them!

McKie's Lilly had a single baby.
W.O's Flirt had FIVE babies.
Rosemeadow's Midnight Toast had SIX babies!

So wow, I came home to 12 babies! Lilly took two of Toast's kits, so she doesn't have quite as much to deal with.

I was reading Joni's blog and saw that her shaded buck Panache took a BOSB in Taylorsville! YAY Joni! I may be wrong, but this seems like it might be Panache's granding leg- if he hasn't granded out already. I know she's super excited!

Since I missed that show, I may have to sweet talk Tim in to going a little farther afield to get my show fix before the next NC show! :). We'll see though!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Bad Rubbish

In the course of reading some of my favorite blogs, I came across a quote on Timothy Chan's website. It was in regards to "love letters" and one particularly nasty one he received from someone. At the end of his blog, he writes

Lastly, if you have heard anything that didn't come from me, those are what we call rumors and 100% of the time is not true. One thing I learned in this hobby, always go directly to the source.

I thought this was particularly interesting. As people, we're bad about carrying rumors. I'll admit I've said to someone "Did you hear that so-and-so is going to sell out of X to get X from X?" We're nosy and we want to share our nosy with other nosy people.

There are, however, a certain set of people. Doesn't matter what age, gender, breed, etc. You know at least 2-3 of these people. They DELIGHT in making up nasty rumors about other people. They want to tear down their victims as people, parents, breeders- it doesn't matter how they do it, as long as they can do it. Fortunately, most experienced breeders know who the troublemakers are and can avoid them. If they hear something from a person like this, they can very easily say "Uh huh" and walk away knowing they were just fed a huge line of junk that is best ignored.

Newbies to rabbits are often the ones that fall the most victim to the gossipers though. "Oh no, you don't want to buy from __________. She kicks puppies and thumps kittens and her rabbits have snuffles and are pet quality and she charges $300 for them and I heard she pushed a kid in a wheel chair in front of a bus!"

Ok, that was a bit of a silly example (in part), but telling a newbie you'll get pet quality for huge prices- that often happens. Later, usually once the newbie has been burned by their new "friend", they realize that the person being talked about is completely different than they were led to believe.

How much trouble would be saved if the junk-talker would just try to be nice? Or if the newbie (or oldie) would not start trouble for the victim to get in good with their new "friend"? How much trouble would be saved if you just walked over to So-and-So and said "Hi! I'm new and I'm browsing- can I look at your sale bunnies? Would you explain type to me? How much do your prices usually run?" Go to the source. Is that person supposedly a horrible person? Try saying hi. Maybe they are just the victims of the rumor mill.

That isn't to say you will never hear true rumors. Sometimes someone will truly warn you to be careful around a person that is out to cheat you. You'll have to be burned a few times in learning who to trust and who not to trust. We all go through the "trial by fire" until we find our real friends and we discover the breeders we respect and trust.

Sometimes, a situation will blow up simply because there was a miscommunication. Maybe you don't think the rabbit you bought was worth $100 and the rabbit's breeder really does. Is that a reason to bash them for it? No. Remember- there is a difference between someone intentionally setting out to mislead you and cheat you, and between you two not seeing eye to eye on the severity of a fault or the quality of an animal. Be sure of the situation before you go telling people one way or the other.

In the meantime, let's all try to be better people. Let's work the rumor mill a little less. If you're a drama queen- STOP IT. And when you meet one of these people who make your life and the lives of other people miserable just because they can, or they get some kind of joy out of it- say "goodbye to bad rubbish" and turn the other way. You'll be better off for it, believe me!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Website

Ack! I haven't updated my website since February! I am shamed :(.

I am hoping to get a few pictures added to it soon, but everyone is starting to molt! I'm also going to get a Rabbit Smarties link up on my sales page.

There is a show this weekend coming up in Taylorsville! I think I heard it's Harlie Nationals, which is pretty nifty.

All the babies are doing well! I sexed the shaded marten litter- the Black Otter and the Sable Marten are bucks, the Smoke Pearl marten is a doe.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry