Ahhh, the after show doubts

It's started, and anyone who has gone to more than one show knows what I'm talking about-
the dreaded after-show doubts.

You look at that rabbit that was promising, that you loved, admired by all- the one that the judges hated, threw off first, grudgingly gave second to last to, or finished mid-class. And you wonder.

"Am I losing my touch? Do I know what I'm talking about?"

I tell people I love to go home and cull after a show, because comments are fresh in my mind, and I don't fool myself with "barn blindness". But that's not always true. I try to remind myself it's only one opinion, or two opinions. I try to remember comments in the past on the rabbit, previous placings and who they were under (trust me, the who matters a lot!). If I remember that a particular rabbit always places low in a class, then yes, that rabbit will be culled.

If I'm on the fence about an animal, I try to go to other breeders for opinions. My favorite for mini lops is Trent, because he really knows his stuff and won't hesitate to tell me, very honestly "This rabbit has no HQ. This rabbit has this list of problems". And I love that! It's helped me not waste time on crap.

I think too often as breeders we're too hesitant to list out faults, because we're afraid someone will think we are mean, or we'll hurt someone's feelings. We don't want to "tear down" the rabbit that is the product of someone's breeding and their hope for the show table.

Consequently, breeders get frustrated with judges and judging, because "well, everyone said he was cute". I've learned that at least 50% of the time "Cute" as an overall statement when evaluating a rabbit means "It sucks". I say 50% of the time, because I know a breeder who describes her own rabbits as "a really cute" buck or doe, then they go on to grand. If you're wanting more specifics in an evaluation, ask for them! Make sure they know you're not going to be mad at your fellow breeder to hear a laundry list of faults (worst case scenario!)

I need to identify problems I am making as well- for instance, I noticed my woolies tend to be small. I like em small. But when I showed Elm, he was the smallest senior buck on the table! Maybe I'm breeding them too small! It happened with hollands, I was getting tiny little 2 1/2 lb balls of adorable, but they couldn't compete, because they always seemed to be dismissed as "too young." With Jersey Woolies, I need to find out the preferred size and try to breed that way, still with overall type in mind, because none of the rabbits on the table were super huge!

And now comes the worst part, where I go outside, run my hands over my animals and decide "what is it about you? Are you going to help my program or would you work better for someone else?" Ahhh After Show Doubts- you make it harder to sleep at night, but so much easier to cull!

*EDIT* I feel like I should add- "when someone says "oh what a cute rabbit", that's not insulting your animal. Or one of the instances I was referring to above. It is when you go through feeling the animal, etc and the only word you get is "um...cute". I realized earlier how often I say something is cute when I really mean it! LOL That's what I get for blogging.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Taylorsville Show Results

Wow, I'm exhausted. These shows are too durn early!

To begin with, AGAIN my alarm didn't go off! Must be something about setting it for 5:00am, because I made Tim set BOTH alarms on it just in case. Luckily, Malena had been picking on me for days about it, so I had her call us.

We were only a few minutes late meeting up with her and Nita, it's amazing how many times you can be stopped by red lights in one stretch of road.

So we transfer my four carriers to Malena's van, and put my grooming box in with Nita- away we go! Tim had to perform a renewal of vows, so he wasn't able to come :(.

We roll up to Taylorsville around 7:30am- and no one was there! The doors were shut and locked, and we were freaking out. It's always in the same place! I had whipped out my cell phone and was about to call Tim, when one of the other breeders opened up the front doors. There were 4-5 breeders on the other side of the building! HOORAY, we weren't crazy!

We set up in a room that was actually colder inside than it was outside! I met up with Dennie, a ND breeder and she taunted me with an adorable VM dwarf that Tim wouldn't let me have. Oh he was so cute, and I wanted him!!! Luckily, he found a good home with a little girl before the end of the day. :)

After setting up, I did what I do best- chattered away with anyone and everyone in the vicinity. I had Trent go over my new mini loppers. Sadly, these guys suffered a lack of condition because of the airplane flight, but despite that, my results were pretty good!

Finally, the show was started! I'm going to give the short version of my results, if that's ok everyone.

Keep's Basheba took her class (SSD), earning her second leg! YAY! I'll probably try to breed her during our lack of shows, though I hate to do that, since I do think she could grand. She placed second in her class in the second show- SO CLOSE! :)

SSB's unnamed mini lop took his class (BJB) in the first show, and placed second in the second show!

The results were reversed for SSB'S Goober (BJB) who took second in the first show and first in the second!

My woolies didn't do a lot to write home about this go 'round. I was only able to show two. Keep's Gorgeous got 2nd once and 3rd once, as a young, molty senior doe.

Lil Bit's Zapp, my holland broken junior buck, placed 2/3 in the first show and 1/3 in the second. He was faulted on "too light of a pattern". What the crap? He's a broken sable point, how dark should his pattern be? I wish I had asked the judge to clarify, but I was tired.

The most embarrassing part of the day had to be when I ran out for food with Alison. As we pull back in (and this took less than 10 minutes), Janet Canipe is standing outside looking for me! Mini Lops, in Show B had started! Luckily, the mini lop folks are GREAT and after searching for me, they took my rabbits to the table, and Malena found my check in sheet and put my senior doe up on the table! *WHEW*

Another hilarious moment: Apparently the Holland Lop won BIS and the American Fuzzy Lop won BRIS in the second Show (and I apologize if I got these results backwards). However- the holland obviously knew a quality rabbit when he saw one, because he tried to "do his thing" with it! Luckily the judges were able to seperate them quickly, but it makes you wonder- what in the world would have happened with those babies? I bet they'd have been cuties! ;)

I managed to chatter myself hoarse, but I had a ball! I got to talk to all kinds of different breeders, evaluated a few bunnies and generally enjoyed myself.

I also sold several bunnies! We bid a fond farewell to NGF Foxie, Hamilton's Fendi and Keep's Champ!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Tattoo Woes..

I just tattooed the two jumpiest rabbits I've ever had the misfortune to have to work on!

Usually, my method is pretty simple. Lay a blanket or towel across my lap, wrap the rabbit in it, leaving only the left ear sticking out, and go to town. Whoa, not this time!

To begin with, they are two bucks. Two...almost senior bucks.....mini lop bucks. They went nutso! One scrabbled backwards as soon as the Rabbitat touched his ear, managed to pee on the blanket (yum, thanks for that guy!) and I ended up having to have Tim come help restrain him, while I buzzed through the rest of his THREE LETTER TATTOO! Thankfully I didn't want to write a book on that one!

The next guy was much better, but then again, we were prepared. He was pinned to my legs and I tore through his tattoo at a speed that I'm sure even Flash would have envied.

I just hope their tattoos turn out nicely! Ahh well, doesn't have to be perfect, as long as it's readable, though I guess I'll have to take my tattoer to Taylorsville just in case. Though- I do think I will start charging for doing tattoos for folks. I don't mind the practice, but it can be time consuming! Especially when I have 3 breeds on the table!

Tim won't be coming to this show, sadly :(. So it'll be me by myself! Any hollerin' at me to get my rabbit to the table will be much appreciated!

I've got one holland, two woolies and five mini lops to show, plus a ton of NICE sale rabbits! I'm doing a nearly-holland sell out, so please stop by to see what I have! Mention my blog for a special deal :-p

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Taylorsville Sales List

Holland Lops:

Hamilton's Fendi: Sr. Holland Lop Doe- solid black tort
Fendi is a great mom, and a beautiful doe. Quite a looker, she manages to throw better than herself and it's amazing. Keeping her daughter as a replacement. $45

Hamilton's Mallory: Sr. Holland Lop Doe- solid black tort
Mallory is a gorgeous brood doe. She's a BUD, but she is beautifully put together and has a lot to offer any herd. $50

Rogers Judas- black tort holland lop sr. buck.
This guy has made beautiful babies in the past. I've decided to severely cut my holland herd, and I have a buck I like the smallest bit better. Not easy letting him go, he's gorgeous and always places well for me! $100. Picture can be see on my Bucks page on the website, or in my blog.

Keep's Flippa- black tort holland lop sr. doe
Out of Hamilton's Fendi x Leprechaun's Tommy. I think she's so cute, tiniest bit slipped in the crown, very poofy crown, great ears/head. Awesome bone, very nicely put together doe, is a bit on the larger side. Very nice lineage, would make a good brood doe, she's a young senior. $45


Jersey Woolies:

Daisy's Princis- Broken Black sr doe
She's got a cute head and ears, nice body. Comes out of good lines, Lynch and BB's for example. Definitely worth taking on chance on, I think. I just HAVE to clear some animals out! $25.

Mini Lops:

Keep's Champ- chinchilla sr buck.
This guy is out of Velotta's Joe, who has about 14 legs at this point, and Under the Pine's Bertha, 1 leg. Has absolutely no butt whatsoever, the best fur ever, a beautiful H/E/C package. Would be a great pet, $5 no ped, $10 ped.

Will have a broken buck available, I'm just not sure which one yet, please be sure to stop by and take a look.

As always, will discount on multiples.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Worming

I've got a junior holland buck who is tiny. Insanely tiny. And he eats like a pig just constantly. We all have some of those- the "OH MY GOD, I'm STARVING even though you just fed me 10 minutes ago" rabbits. In his case though, he's skinny! A metabolism most of us would die for.

I've decided to worm him. We ran out to TSC and bought some Wazine 17. I've seen different ways to administer it- some say dilute in water, others administer it orally.

The dosage seems to be 2 tablespoons of wazine per gallon of water or 4 drops orally per pound of rabbit. *Note, I'm not a vet, this is what I've found in research*.

Hopefully, this will solve his weight problem, though I'm unsure as to how he would have picked up worms in the first place! He hasn't been playing in the yard, none of the other rabbits appear to have them- bizarre! I've decided to go on and just treat the entire barn though. So we'll be mixing the wormer in their water for the next 3 days.

While doing this, I've got to draw up my list of for sale rabbits and show rabbits! Right now, I know I definitely have a broken Jersey Wooly doe for sale, as well as a solid mini lop buck. :)

Breeding Cages

I don't have a specific set of breeding cages, used only for does about to kindle, or who are raising their litters.

I should, but I don't- especially for the mini lops.

This bites me in the butt sometimes. Take now for instance. I had a jersey wooly doe in a small cage. It's fine for her and her alone, but putting the nestbox in there was quite cramped. She kindled 2 healthy little babies and then I got to thinking (uh oh). "Is this cage going to be an acceptable size for her and two babies?". Of course not.

So, I had to do some cage shuffling to get the three of them into a nice large cage. No problems!

But wait. I've got the same situation- another doe, in a great sized cage for her. With nestbox, it ain't so great. So, I'm gonna have to shift her around as well.

It's really a big disruption on all our lives (people and bunnies). Larger breeding cages would be great for growing out a litter if none of the does were due to kindle.

I've had 12 mini lop babies born to a litter and the only thing than saved me (other than the stupidity of the babies) was my one huge 36 x 36 cage. It was a little cramped as it was, but since a few babies popcorned out of the nest and died of various things (broken necks, kitcicles, etc), we were able to work it out.

I think my solution will be to put my teenies (like my 2lb wooly buck and just weaned juniors) in to the smallest cages. Brood does will go in to the largest cages, with mini lops getting priority, and then show stock will fill in from there.

In certain cases, my teenies will get larger cages, for the simple fact I have 6 hanging holes. I don't know if you have ever seen a holland have a violent attack of the binkies, but imagine a mini lop doing it. Then imagine the cage is held up by four small chains. It's the stuff of nightmares.

Now I just have to find a solution to keep the rabbits from chewing on each other. It's always something, isn't it? :)

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

What day is it?

We went to Atlanta yesterday, to pick up my new shipment of mini lops. I purchased 5, 4 from Sarah at Sarah's Bunny Barn and 1 from Michael at Silent Springs Rabbitry, both located in CA. Sarah also threw in another buck! So that brings us to 6 new rabbits! 3 bucks and 3 does, with the 3 does all bred to VERY nice bucks belonging to Sarah.

I am so excited about these guys, they are very nice rabbits, short with nice depth. Morning Mist, one of the chinchilla does, is a definite fatty, but she's here to live the good life making babies :D. All of them are so friendly and in such great health and condition (MM brought her own dewlap pillow for the journey! LOL).

I'm so lucky that in all the cases of shipping I've done (Lisa from Wooligans Rabbitry in CA, Sarah, Michael and Melanie & her mom LeeAnn from Lil Bit Farms in OK) have been awesome breeders. They've honestly evaluated their rabbits, provided nice pictures and have just been 100% amazing, despite any problems with shipping that arose, due to the airplane carriers.

Shipping is something that is iffy at best. Pictures lie, breeders lie (not always on purpose though!), and in general you're not always happy with what you get. Not to mention, it's a little pricey. I had to spend $103 including all taxes, plus drive 6 1/2 hours round trip to Atlanta to get the rabbits. Had I used Delta, we'd have been able to drive 20 minutes, but we'd have paid over $200 in shipping.

I'm just so happy that through Rabbit Habbit, I've come to know breeders all over the country very well and I've never been disappointed with my purchases. So, if any of my shippers read this, THANKS SO MUCH FOR BEING YOU!

To anyone considering shipping in the future, good luck! I hope all your purchases are as great as mine have been! :)

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry