Little chubbies

Babies are doing well. Been little cold lately but it’s still been a refreshing change of weather. Been working on the barn some to spruce it up and make it fancy! Penny kindled 10 babies (1 doa), a big litter for a young momma. She did lose them all the next day…so she was rebred to Mr. Cleo and will be due again in May. This is typical usually for a first time mom to lose 1 or 2 litters. Hopefully she will grow up some and nature will kick in. So far we are still planning on making the trip to Ohio for the Velveteen Lop specialty show! I talked to Lorrie, the COD holder, and she said to expect around 50-70 Velveteens to show. So exciting!!!! The most I’ve ever shown against was 5! Can’t wait for some REAL competition And to meet all the movers and shakers of the Velveteen Lop world. The end of the month we will be going to the Rhinebeck show too down near Poughkeepsie. I still have a young Velveteen Lop buck that is available for sale. He would be good for breeding or pet and he has no showing disqualifications. He will be going to the Ohio show so transport will be available on the way out to anywhere on the way. If anyone is looking for transport out to that show let me know.

My Lucky Charms

Everything is good in the rabbitry. Enjoying some warmer weather finally. Still expecting one more litter of English Lops next week. Currently, there are only going to be English Lops available in the future as all the Velveteen Lop babies are spoken for currently. I only have a young buck for sale (Tracy). I will be sending a few English Lops to the Rhinebeck show at the end of the month and the big plan is to go the Velveteen Lop Specialty Show in Ohio. I’ll be competing against the COD holder herself (the working standard for Velveteen Lops until they get officially recognized as an ARBA breed) as well as some other great breeders. I need to put my babies up against some well-developed lines!!! That show is the beginning of May. I will be offering transport from NY to Ohio (or back) to anyone that may need it. Everyone got wormed (except for the pregnant/nursing does) and their nails trimmed today. Here are some pictures of RBB’s Collins (broken black) x Darabella’s Domino (tri) litter. They were born on St. Patty’s Day if you were wondering about their names. I’m still debating on one whether it is a boy or girl!!!

Bella’s Bunnies Guinness

Bella’s Bunnies Clover

Bella’s Bunnies Patty (or Pat, lol)

My 6 Valentines (bellasbunnies.com)

Baby Easter Bunnies

Whew. Updated for sale pages and the velveteen lop buck & doe pages as well. The Velveteen Lop babies are all spoken for. I only currently have (plenty) English Lop babies…but boy are they cute. They won’t be ready for their new homes till mid-May at the earliest. Feel free to let me know if you have an eye on any particular rabbit. I won’t be accepting deposits until a few more weeks in which I will let you know. I love the (below) pic of Pokerface completely zonked out with her babies all snuggled in the corner. I absolutely love the 2-5 week baby stage…adorable! And have a great Easter this coming weekend!

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17 Kits & Counting (bellasbunnies.com)

Snowflakes, babies, & dried apples

One of the newest members of Bella’s Bunnies, she still needs a name, enjoys her first taste of an apple treat!

Drat…it’s snowing again and we are expected to get 4-8″ tonight. It’s March, and it’s time for spring time already!!! I recently received a dehydrator and the rabbits devoured some homemade dried apple slices this morning…even the small babies tried to get in a bit before the treat monger (Tiger) snatched them up! The 4 velveteen kits are doing phenomenal. Looks like I have 3 girls and 1 boy. I’m going to hang onto all 3 girls and possibly the boy as well for now. It’s just a fabulous litter that I think will be great for our success here. Pokerface has 4 English Lop kits left, 1 orange, 1 fawn, 1 cream and 1 black tort. You can see them in the picture below. They opened their eyes today so all is wondrous I’ve been supplementing them (I’ll post a video later) with some extra milk since they’ve been skinnier than I would like to see at this point in the game. I think Poker wants a vacation for awhile after this litter (which she has deserved). The other 7 English Lop babies are doing well at Barnes’ Bunny Barn. I included a picture of them here but its best to keep up with their progression on our facebook page! I will be keeping 1 from each litter and the rest will be available for sale around May. Collins has not kindled yet but she should tonight or tomorrow…she is on my s&#^ list even though I love her. She is the perfect example of why a good brood doe is worth their weight in gold. Collins has been bred 6 times and she has ONLY raised 2 kits to full maturity!!!

Pokerface x Frosted Luck’s litter. Great example (from top to bottom) of different shades of orange. You can see the comparison of the solid orange, the broken fawn (middle) and a broken cream (bottom).

The litter of Miss Farrah and Mr. Cleo (officially ARBA red-seal registered). From left to right, broken chestnut, orange, broken opal (?), orange, chestnut, broken chestnut.

17 Kits & Counting (bellasbunnies.com)

17 Kits & Counting

Expecting two more litters which will be Collins x Domino (velveteen lops) and Penny x Mr. Cleo (english lops). Both of these ladies had litters that they lost so they were rebred. Penny had hers this morning and they didn’t make it, for a new mom this is typical. She had 6 total with a mix of broken and solid opals. I just missed the window of opportunity to save them unfortunately Pokerface (pictured making her nest below) is a good momma once again, and kindled 7 babies but lost 1. There is a mix of solids and brokens of torts, oranges and possibly cream or frost. The other English Lop babies are at another local breeder, Barnes’ Bunny Barn, as it was a co-breeding between their doe and our buck, Mr. Cleo. Tiger’s little guys are doing well still and their cuteness kills me everyday. We got quite a bit of snow the other day but it is all gone now! Been warming hope lately…we’re all ready for spring here!

Tiger’s Last Litter (bellasbunnies.com)

Spots, Stripes and Shades

Look at these little cuties They were finding their legs today during their little photoshoot and I saw a few baby binkies! It looks like the tri is a male and the other 3 are females but not quite sure. The broken orange is the definite runt of the litter but they are all fat, healthy and happy.

Tiger’s litter

2 black/orange (very heavily marked) tris, 1 harlequin, 1 broken orange, 1 orange, 1 broken black tort. Lost the orange and 1 tri to the cold.

Tiger’s Last Litter

Tiger (Velveteen Lop) kindled yesterday with no complications. She had 6 kits, looks like 2 REW (maybe?), 1 harlequin, 2 brokens (not sure of color, possibly black, opal or blue) and 1 broken tort possibly. Hard to tell at this stage. I will post a picture in a few days with some more updates. Lots of pretty babies either way Fingers-crossed she gets them all to adulthood but she has yet to disappoint me. This will be her last litter as long as I get a doe that I can use as her replacement. I want to retire her to a life of spoiledness just as she deserves.

Pokerface x Boom Litter and Other Updates (bellasbunnies.com)

Organized Buns

Good news and bad news today…bad news first. Collins decided to rampage the nest last night and although it was warm in the shed it was still cold enough for all the babies to freeze. So back to square one again with her. Rebred her again today to Domino. She had me fooled thinking she was actually interested in taking care of her babies. She will be replaced as a brood doe as soon as I get an offspring from her. Her next litter will remain in limited contact with Collins until they are about 2 weeks old. I will only have her nestbox in her cage twice a day for feedings. (Good) does only go into the nestbox a few times a day for feeding as to not draw attention or “predators” to their nest so the kits will be fine with this arrangement and I have done it successfully before. Needless to say, Collins is on my s*&$ list.

Good news, I got super organized this weekend and wrote the rabbitry’s standard operating procedures (SOPs). It is recommenced by the ARBA that all rabbitries have SOPs. In general they clearly define our day-to-day activities as well as long-term procedures and needs. In short if someone had to come into your rabbitry and take care of your rabbits they should be able to read your SOP manual and do everything just fine. They also make the rabbitry owner accountable to its practices and help avoid questions of rabbit welfare and abuse on the bad side of things. I also now have a clipboard of assorted forms that cover daily, weekly and monthly tasks involving cleaning, husbandry and general care. They are a work in progress still (I’ve already added 2 addendums) but its been a good starting point. I pleased to know that anyone can come in and view my rabbitry and see exactly what goes on a daily basis and the condition the rabbits and the barn were kept in over an entire year.

Feel free to contact me if you are interested in using my documents as a baseline for your own rabbitry. I most likely will post them on the site on the Resource & Links page so anyone can see the standards of care at our rabbitry.

My 6 Valentines

Collins, the black and white Velveteen Lop had 6 healthy babies last night! I’m expecting more so fostering kits to other moms should be easy if necessary. Below are some photos of Memphis playing in the snow, Pokerface looking very maternal with all of her curves and the new kits. It looks like there are 3 black and white brokens (1 lightly marked), 1 black and 2 chestnuts (???). I also saw that a box used for clementines would make a great disposable nestbox! You can ask to be put on the waiting list for a Velveteen baby. I will not be taking deposits till they are 4 weeks old (middle of March).