2011 Texan Tales & Tails

[TinysMom]

Unfortunately - Thunder knows that as one of Nyx's daughters (well - her only daughter that lives on the floor) - that she has a special place in my heart and so she tries to get away with things - much as her mother does.

What's funny is that I look at those pictures of Thunder...but I see Nyx's expressions when she was younger and would get into trouble!

 

[TinysMom]

R.I.P. Teddy - the runt of Cindy's litter. I was playing with her earlier this week and really hoping she'd make it - but last night it became obvious she wouldn't.....and she passed away sometime a little while ago.

 

[wabbitmom12]

Sorry about Teddy.

When you were telling the story about Thunder chewing the mouse cord, my first thought was, SOUNDS JUST LIKE NYX! LOL, I had no idea you were coming to the same conclusion.

How is our Nyx? Has she mellowed a bit with age?

 

[JadeIcing]

Sorry bout the baby.

 

[TinysMom]

wabbitmom12 wrote:

How is our Nyx? Has she mellowed a bit with age?

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

She now takes RUNNING jumps into my lap when I'm eating a banana.....

 

[wabbitmom12]

TinysMom wrote:

wabbitmom12 wrote:

How is our Nyx? Has she mellowed a bit with age?

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

She now takes RUNNING jumps into my lap when I'm eating a banana.....

Well, bananas are a high priority for Miss Nyx!

 

[TinysMom]

Had to separate the Nyx Bits earlier this morning / late last night. Two of the boys decided they wanted to be dominate.....funny thing is - they were the two I sorta knew early on would be a bit more aggressive and not as much love-bugs as the others. Still - was hard for me to separate them and see them sulk in individual cages. ::::sigh::::

 

[MiniLopHop]

Why can't boys just get allong? That sucks they had to go and get into a fight

I think you should just put the lovey boy into a box and fedex him to me! That will solve the problem

 

[TinysMom]

It does suck about them fighting - but what also sucks is that they bit one of the girls on the back and she has an abscess (its draining now and almost gone).

What is also hard is that I had to separate Sam & Dean earlier this month - they were Adam's brothers who did live together after I'd had to remove Adam.

They are almost 18 months now - they've lived together that long....and suddenly they've started fighting and one's ear got bit up.

I had them way apart...but I noticed that the beat up one was not really wanting to eat and was missing his brother (made me feel so sad to see him that way) - so I put him side by side with his brother now - but in different cages. Let's hope they get along.

We'd always just called them "Sam and Dean" and never gone "this one is Sam" or "this one is Dean"....etc. They were always out together at playtimes, etc.

When we pulled out the first one - we were gonna name him Dean cause he is the bigger one. But after we got the other one out last night and into a cage where I can watch him better - I think I'm naming him Dean and the bigger one Sam.

Why? Well - they're named after Supernatural characters and Sam is bigger (taller) and in the last episode of Season 5 (Swan Song) - he really beat Dean to a pulp....

So I think I'm switching their names - not that they will notice at all...

 

[TinysMom]

I don't think I've mentioned our new cat yet.....I do have more photos of him on facebook but I'll just share one here.

His name is Ji Ji (we may name him something else).....Robin's friend/roommate from college "rescued" him because I think he was left on her doorstep when he was a baby - as in - his eyes had just opened. She could not keep him as she already has too many cats....so we wound up getting him this weekend (she lives in Abilene and brought him to Robin's boyfriend's place while Robin was visiting this weekend).



I have mixed feelings about him.....I thought at first I guess that it would be nice to have a kitten to grow up with Oreo....but now with Oreo's special needs...I don't know.

Oh well...whats one more animal when you already have a zoo - right?

Ji Ji on his first night here

 

[TinysMom]

MiniLopHop wrote:

Why can't boys just get allong? That sucks they had to go and get into a fight

I think you should just put the lovey boy into a box and fedex him to me! That will solve the problem

Ah....but two of the boys are lovey - a black one and a steel one. One of the girls is lovey too....may actually pet her out and keep the other girl (I was going to keep both).

 

[TinysMom]

Forgot to add - I may be needing some help soon naming the babies I'm keeping - both from the Nyx Bits and from the holland lops.

Right now the two brokens are called "Snips" and "Snails"....and the sweet little lop girl is called "Kissy". Those are three from Cindy's litter...I still will be keeping at least one girl and one buck from Portia's litter....and I don't know that I'm keeping both of the brokens but I might....just depends.

 

[TinysMom]

I'm so excited - I breed the girls in 2 days (on Friday). So far I know for sure that CJ is being bred to Rudy (he's Harmony's son). Harmony's daughters....I keep going back and forth on....who to breed to who. I'm hoping that Rudy will cooperate this time - I swear he's taken a vow of celibacy or something - its like he just doesn't quite know what to do with a girl and wants to fight her to get out of his cage - and yes - he IS a boy. I will probably set up an X pen for their date.

I'm also going to breed Dotty since she didn't take with Zuba last time.....but I'm breeding her with Sting....so she'll have lionlops.

I'm really a bit upset right now - the power was out for about 6 hours yesterday and it got miserably hot here - now some of the rabbits are sneezing a bit (no discharge). I'm keeping a close eye on everyone though - just in case. It got pretty darn hot in here...

I better go - Cindy is staring at me and I think she's trying to remind me that they haven't had their breakfast yet. The mamas and babies are getting two meals per day now since the babies are getting so much bigger.

 

[TinysMom]

I need to go do a mystery shop but I gotta share a quick story - I just got outsmarted by a rabbit! (I know - how can I admit it?).

One of Nyx's kids is so affectionate - he's all black and I have to say that I love the way he looks. I just opened the door to give them a bit of extra food and he snuggled up and was letting me pet him and love on him....but I felt bad cause he'd missed out on food....so I turned around to grab another little bit of food for him ...

....and he'd snuck out by jumping on the floor!

I was calling him "Tim" thinking if I kept him - I'd probably name him that - since it would mean I'd had Tiny and now Tim....sort of a pun I guess. I don't know....we also had called him Bones (but I forget why).

Anyway - I hate to admit it - but one of Nyx's kids outsmarted me - but not for long...

 

[JadeIcing]

LOL

 

[TinysMom]

Let's hope this works...

From Facebook.....pictures of the holland lop kits that I set to public viewing..

Holland Lop Pictures

I can't figure out how to post the links to the videos here...I will have to upload them to photobucket later this week.

 

[TinysMom]

I am posting this here because so many of you who read this feel like "friends" to me and I would like to hear your input. I'm about to share something that I posted on facebook to some trusted breeder and former breeder friends....its a decision I am trying to make and feeling guilty about which way I'm leaning.

Basically - I'm torn about whether or not to breed Harmony one more time when I do my breedings on Friday (I have a specific reason for doing them then...either she'll get bred then - or she probably won't get bred again as I want to neuter her by Christmas).

I paid a LOT of money for her between buying her and shipping her here and she was going to be a major part of my lines because she had the depth/width I need.

But I love her dearly and don't want to risk losing her - I always tell people "don't breed a pet unless you're willing to risk something happening...".

The thing is...she's still young...she's very healthy...she's an excellent mama.

I have three girls out of her plus her son - and they're all out of Mercury.

But I would like to breed her to Mercury's son "Big Jake" because he gave me Dukey - who has given me even NICER rabbits with Nyx than Mercury did. I think that breeding Big Jake with Harmony would be a very good breeding choice.

But...I love her....dearly.

Anyway - here is what I wrote - please feel free to share your thoughts/feelings here or in a PM....and don't feel bad if I go against what you say because I promise you - I WILL be reading it....and thinking about it and weighing everyone's comments.

[line]

I am going to be doing some breeding on Friday and I'm trying to make a decision about breeding a doe.

I bought this doe last year from a top flemish giant breeder in New England and I had her shipped here. She was going to be one of the major lines of my herd along with three other does (one of which came with her). I spent $100 each for the does plus $200 each to ship them here....so it was a major investment.

The other doe who came with her - passed away before I could get a litter from her. It looked like perhaps it was heart problems due to the suddenness, etc.

One other doe passed away (after giving me a litter) but she had some health issues and it was not unexpected.

That left me with this doe - Harmony - and Athena - my last doe.

Athena had two litters but she had problems with her last litter. Last month, I decided to have her spayed and keep her as a pet because she is very dear to me. I just couldn't risk breeding her again where she'd had a hard time with her last litter.

This leaves me with Harmony (the doe I'm writing about), her three daughters, the daughter of the doe that passed away after her first litter, another doe named Nyx and Nyx's daughters for my breeding program. Nyx is a self-steel that looks black and her daughters are steel. I mainly work with light gray (chinchilla).

My problem is this....Harmony is like a pet to me. I don't want to lose her.

BUT...she is an EXCELLENT mom and she is still young (not yet 2 years old).

Since flemish tend to have shorter lifespans, I like to retire my does anyway around 2- 2 1/2 years old and enjoy them as pets or let others enjoy them as pets.

SHOULD I BREED HARMONY ONE LAST TIME THIS WEEKEND - or SHOULD I NOT?

She was originally planned to be a major component of my breeding program and I do have the three daughters and a son from her.

But I would like to take her back to a different buck this time and get one last litter.

I'd like to hear your comments because you are breeders or former breeders that I respect.

Thanks in advance - for reading this - and hopefully for sharing your thoughts.

Peg

P.S. The offspring I do have from her are outstanding but the buck I want to take her to also gives outstanding offspring in the one buck I have out of him. He produces better than his father did (and his father is who I bred her to in the beginning).

 

[JadeIcing]

I would say give it a shot. What is, is. If the breeding takes than good if not you tried and she is done.

 

[MiniLopHop]

:yeahthat:

Put them together one time and let God decide.

 

[TinysMom]

MiniLopHop wrote:

:yeahthat:

Put them together one time and let God decide.

I like the way you said that.....I hadn't been thinking about the fact that it will ultimately be up to God...

Ok.....now to get back to deciding who gets bred with which rabbit. I don't have much time left either to make those decisions....

I know right now that CJ will get bred with Rudy if he cooperates - otherwise Mercury is my back up plan for her.

Harmony will get either Big Jake (my original thought) or Dukey (Big Jake's son who has me impressed with Big Jake). It dawned on me that if Dukey's offspring with Nyx have me so impressed -maybe I should breed her with Dukey and not with Big Jake.

That leaves me with Diane, Melody, Riversong & Thunder (whose babies I'll foster if I have to - but I'm giving her one last shot at breeding because she's really turning out nice).

Thunder will probably breed with Hermes....he carries steel.

I know this is a lot of breeding and the potential of a lot of rabbits - BUT - I am saving to go to ARBA convention and I am getting inquiries already about not only Nyx's kids but if I'll have light gray rabbits soon.