Tag Archives: rabbit

Our new look

What do you think of the updated site?! Mr. Cleo will be attending a show this weekend in Rhinebeck, hope he does well. Memphis was going to go as well but he is just misses the weight requirement for a senior buck at 9.3 lbs. (he needs to be at least 9.5). I’ll just have to beef him up alittle so he makes it for the next show which will be Ohio convention. All the babies are doing well, the rest of them all got their tattoos on tonight (which they weren’t that happy about). Hope y’all are enjoying the nice weather!

 

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!!!

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Bella’s Bunnies Guinness

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Bella’s Bunnies Clover

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Bella’s Bunnies Patty (or Pat, lol)

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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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Snowflakes, babies, & dried apples

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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!!!

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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.

 

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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!

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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.

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Organized Buns

20130218-120651.jpgGood 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.

Sales Policy

We have updated our sales policy to ensure those purchasing our offspring hold similar standards of responsible ownership as Bella’s Bunnies. We also are requiring that our buyers sign a purchase agreement basically verifying they understand and accept this sales policy and with basic contact information of the buyer if we ever need to get ahold of you. We have also increased the age at which we are allowing our babies to leave our care from 8 weeks to 12 weeks at least with the required ear length. This will help us better determine show quality versus pet quality rabbits. Special considerations may be made but in general these are the rules we will follow. Bella’s now accepts major credit cards on top of money orders, checks, cash and paypal as payment forms.

I hope no one is deterred by our stricter standards but we are trying our best to make sure our rabbits are cared for properly and we seek to protect that basic right in any way possible.

You can read our updated Sales Policy here.