California SB 917 Passed- Terrible News!

SB 917 passed last night and will go in to effect on January 1st, 2012. This is TERRIBLE news for everyone out there, not just the people in California.

On the surface, this bill is supposed to help stop puppy mills. Instead, it spells the beginning of the end for farmers, pet owners, responsible animal fanciers- and it may eventually spread it's taint to the other states.

Read more about SB 917 here or here!

We can still fight this, but we need to get on it NOW!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Summer of Hell

I want to preface this by saying- before this summer, I went YEARS without losing a rabbit. The odd baby here or there, maybe, but very, very rarely did I ever lose a full grown rabbit.

Then came the incident. Which was my fault.

Then came the loss of several babies. Not my fault this time.

Then came the loss of more babies. Not my fault again.

Now this.
Picture is Keep's Juniper as a junior. Right before we went to Convention and she took 4th in her class.

It took me a long while to get Juniper to kindle. She had a dead litter on the wire- 6 babies.

I rebred her and just last week, she kindled one live baby. A day later she kindled three DOAs- she had trouble giving birth. I noticed she wasn't taking care of her kit, so I gave it to Flirt, who lost her entire litter because she gave birth prematurely.

A few days later, Juniper passed 3 more dead babies. One was very, very mangled, she had a lot of trouble with it.

Today- Juniper passed away :(. It was due to complications in the kindling, I know that. I don't know if she had another baby that she couldn't pass that became toxic, if she had an infection- I just don't know.

But the summer of absolute Hell continues.

Juniper was rotten- every day, she'd pick her wiffle ball up and toss it in her food dish. Every day, I'd pick it out and throw it back to her. She was always at the front of the cage being nosy.

It's a small comfort that I spent time with the juniors last night, but took some extra time to give her some head rubs. :(.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Playing with bunnies

I spent about an hour last night outside grooming and playing with the juniors. I've realized I have chosen THE WORST time to try to sell some of these juniors, as a combination of early molts, summer ears and the uglies has conspired to make them look truly awful. Ahh well though, I always do my best to describe animals accurately and only sell the ones that I think will be helpful to someone's herd.

It was nice to be outside and playing with the babies. There are several I am really excited about, I hope they look nice around Convention time!

Keep's Calypso, my Opal doe, is due to kindle today. If she doesn't have a litter, she's going to be for sale immediately. I have to wait for my broken chestnut doe to raise her litter. She's got three adorable kits- a REW, a broken opal and a chestnut.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Officially-

I'm going to be selling out of Agouti woolies and the tan patterns. I'll have a list in a bit of what is available and pictures, of course.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Heat

Lots of folks are talking about the awful heat that is battering the East Coast. We're not slated to get any relief until sometime in early August- by relief, I mean it will be 85 instead of 95.

I've seen the death tolls growing- not just rabbits, but chickens as well. People are scrambling to keep horses, goats, pigs- any livestock or pets that live outdoors cool.

I'm happy to report that my rabbits are all doing well. I've turned the AC down cooler than my preference to help combat the high-90s temperatures.

We're making sure to keep water bottles full and both Tim and I are out checking on the bunnies every little bit. We have some frozen water bottles ready to go out as well, JUST in case anyone needs it.

I hope everyone out there is able to keep their animals doing well in this heat!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Litter Announcements

Keep's Juniper, my tort doe who was 4th at Convention as a junior, kindled her first live baby! She didn't nest or pull wool, so I was lucky I found the baby in time!

WO's Flirt kindled prematurely and had 5 babies that weren't ready to be born. She's getting older, I think it's time to retire her. I only got one litter out of her (she's a fairly recent purchase), but I kept two junior does that are looking very nice.

I don't have any more litters due until August.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Selling Down Groups?

I'm considering selling out of my agouti and tan pattern animals. Admittedly, I don't have many of either- a broken chestnut doe, an opal doe, a black otter doe, a REW hiding otter, a smoke pearl marten doe and a few assorted juniors that are either black otter or are REW and probably are hiding it...

It would open up more space for me. The main problem is I only have so many holes and shadeds and selfs take up the main part. However, I don't have an agouti herd buck OR a tan pattern herd buck. I can't use my broken self buck with my broken agouti doe and beyond him, I really only have two self herd bucks, one who is a blue and one that is a REW. Since the blue is the father of the opal and I see no benefit to breeding her back to him, that gives me only two bucks she can be used with and only two the broken chestnut can be used with. So...after two litters I have to repeat breedings or sell them anyway.

I have a tiny bit more flexibility with the tan patterns because shaded martens ARE showable in woolies. I am just not sure how much I want to mess with them.

Blah! How did I end up with so many freaking tan patterns in my barn?

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

A bit of good news-

Keep's KTLM (Keep Tryin' Little Mama) won Best of Breed for her owner Amber out in California! I was thrilled to hear that. Her sister, Keep's Bahama, still lives here and produces beautiful babies for me.

Since KTLM is part of the start of Amber's shaded project, it's even more special that she did so well! She also took a BOG at the same show.

Keep's Chapel Hill gave birth today- she kindled one live baby and then had 4 dead ones :(. She is officially retired after this litter and will be looking for a good pet home.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

More Sad News

My pet VM netherland dwarf died yesterday. In this case, I suspect it was seizures (which BEWs and VMs are prone to ).

It was tough to find him- Tim grabbed him and we raced him in to the house to try to work on him and it was too late- not more than two minutes inside, he seized for the last time in Tim's arms and passed away.

He's going to be greatly missed- and the terrible things that have happened to me this summer continue :(.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

More babies born

The good luck of this breeding season continues.

BL's Jiggy kindle three babies yesterday! One looks like a peanut, but she's got two healthies. They are out of Keep's Panda, who is really making the rounds in the rabbitry. I think almost all the litters in the past two months are out of him!

It's been ridiculously hot recently, but the new AC is doing wonders to keep the rabbitry cool- I wonder that I don't start a storm cloud every time I open the door. :).

McKie's Lilly and Keep's Chapel Hill are due today. I think this will be Chapel Hill's last litter with me. :( It makes me sad to even think about, but I have to make some room for the upcoming babies.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Update on the feed

Well, it's time to give an update on the feed. It's been almost a week now since I switched over to Pen Pals.

The feed is smaller than the Purina pellets and and it's not quite as green, however it is WAY less dusty.

We had a boycott of the food the first few nights- about half the rabbitry didn't mind the switch and the other half flat out refused to eat it. Now we just have a few hold outs, Panda being the most noticeable. He doesn't want to eat the new feed at all! I had the worst time with him eating on Purina too though.

Everyone that has switched over has done it very well- no loose stools or anything like that. So, I've got high hopes for this new feed! It's too soon to tell how their condition will be on it.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Taylorsville Night Show Results

I went to a show this past Saturday. It was so great to see everyone but good lord it was HOT! So hot in fact that one of our exhibitors had to be taken by the EMTs to a local hospital. Not good!

Show A:

Keep's Panda- Broken Sr. Buck- BOSG
Keep's KS1- Broken Jr. Doe- 1/2
Keep's KS2- Self Jr. Doe- 1/3
Keep's KST- Shaded Jr. Buck- BOSG
Keep's KPO- Shaded Jr. Doe- BOG
Keep's Pakhet- Tan Jr. Doe- BOG

Show B:

Keep's Panda- BOSB
Keep's KS1- 1/2
Keep's Poplar (Self Sr. Buck)- BOSG
BL's Isis- (Self Sr. Doe)- BOG
Keep's KST- BOSG
Keep's Pakhet- BOG

I took 10 rabbits total to show, so I'm very pleased with how everyone did! This is Panda's second show as a senior and the second BOSB he brought home! Yayy Mr. Panda :).

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

An update

I have been kind of quiet here on the blog lately, I know. I promise to try to pick things up again soon.

I'm doing all right- the bunnies are all doing great. Miss Fiona has become and absolute food hog. I think she would be fine to return to the barn outside (which is staying a nice temperature thanks to the new AC), but I will probably keep her in the house a little longer, earning me more dirty looks from Pants when I go outside to feed him and the others.

I'm having a hard time talking about what happened- my dad came over and saw Fiona and asked if "the other one" had died. I couldn't find words so I had to excuse myself from the room to go cry while Tim explained what happened. Even now, I am on the verge of tears just thinking about it.

We're heading out today to go pick up the new feed. I'm hoping things go well with it! If not, I can always mix it with Purina I guess and then eventually go back to Purina Show, but I really would prefer a better feed. I'll keep you updated on how everyone looks on it!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry