Belgian Babies I hope!

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canadagirl

Active Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2010
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Location
Northern, Saskatchewan, Canada
Well...I had been told that its hard to get a belgian hare doe to stand for a buck due to their panicked nature. But BOTH my fairly newly acquired belgian hare does stood for my buck without much fuss. I am really really hoping that I have two litters of babies around Jan 17th. I just talked to their breeder and he has been having terrible luck lately. Hopefully he didn't pass it on to me! I am pretty excited about this. I have seen baby belgians on videos and I am just dying to have some of my own. I can just picture them all scampering around my kitchen. :biggrin:
 
So Awesome! You must post many pictures. I assume belgians are just like my tans and will do daytona 500 around the cage. Congratulations!
 
So I did indeed get baby belgians on the 17th of Jan. Haven't had a computer for a month but I am back now. My younger doe surprised me with 11! My older doe had 1, but 14 hours later she had 4 but three were born dead and the other one died a few hours later. Not really sure....but the first one she had is doing awesome! I gave each doe 6 babies, but I lost two runts this morning. They just wouldnt suck properlyno matter what I tried. But the 10 I have left are lovely and strong and healthy.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150853205825307.739487.721200306&type=1&l=69380b6219

 
Thanks so much for the examples. They are impressive bunnies. I've never seen anything like them.

Just curious and hope this isn't a dumb question, and it probably is, but are these rare? Or just not sought after?

Boy strong looking bunny. And babies, congratulations. Hope you post pics as they grow.

K :)
 
So cute! They look remarkably like tans on Day one. Very gorgeous when they get fluff :) And LOL at EEK. I always have does that pull themselves naked!

Karen: Belgian rabbits are pretty hard to find in the states. At our state show a couple of years ago there were only 2 belgians. I have a feeling they will start making a comeback because a lot of people don't want to loose our gorgeous belgians. Aren't they hard to find because only a few were brought into the states so the chances of inbreeding are much higher?
 
From what I read in a book was Belgians were really popular in the late 1800 and were worth a good sum of money. So people were bring over a ton of them to the US in a get rich quick scheme. But then lost popularity because there were so many, like many things to happen.

Now they are quick rare. I think they are beautiful bunnies and would love one one day, when I have more room and more experience with rabbits.
 
Congratulations, and thanks for sharing pics! I have never seen a Belgian before. I can't believe she had a litter of ELEVEN! You get use to being thrilled about a pair of live kits with the Netherlands...I might drop dead of a heart attack if I had, like, 5, nevermind 11!

Keep us posted!

xx
 
Owh! Cute!
On one of the pictures you said one only had enough milk for
4...
How do you find out how much milk your doe is producing?
I'm so sorry for your losses in your litters :(
I don't think I would cope properly with still borns and what not.
 
Because when she fed them I checked them and only 4 had eaten. The others had nothing. I would have had 7 dead babies if not for the other doe. Reasons like that is why I try to always breed at least two rabbits at the same time. I have personally never had an issue giving babies to another doe, but I am very very careful about it and do everything I can to make sure the doe has no clue they aren't hers.
 
ZRabbits wrote:
Thanks so much for the examples. They are impressive bunnies. I've never seen anything like them.

Just curious and hope this isn't a dumb question, and it probably is, but are these rare? Or just not sought after?

Boy strong looking bunny. And babies, congratulations. Hope you post pics as they grow.

K :)
Click to expand...
They are fairly rare. Belgians area 'fancy' breed. No purpose other than to look gorgeous. A number of years ago they tried to turn belgians into a meat breed and tried to add bulk to them. It hurt the belgians and they started to lose favor at shows. I can't imagine the breed as being 'bulky'. Popularity dropped off after that. I have heard that too few breeders are persusing too few lines in the US. Mine are all totally unrelated. I have ever intention of showing them and trying to improve them. Going to be sorta silly taking them to shows in Canada though. As far as I know besides one other pet, I have the only Belgians in Canada. So there wont be anything to compare them too. I have also never been to a rabbit show. Its all brand new to me. But my goal is to have superior belgians, not just 'good enough' belgians. I will probably try and get down to some US shows with them just to see how I stack up with some real competition. I dont want to see the breed die out, which is my main purpose for breeding them. The three I bought had been shown and all three have many registered rabbits on their pedigrees. So its a start anyway.
 
Oh wow, That's such a simple and smart way to tell.
I've read that the babies are supposed to have like
a full plump tummy... so I should have already known
that answer :baghead

Is it often to get still borns and runts?
I want to breed mini lops one day as I had to drive super
far to get mine as my area only breed dwarf lops.
But I think i'm scared to breed if it occurs a lot with
breeding...

I hope you become the altermate breeder and have like
the top of the range belgians with people waiting on lists
to have one of your babies :D
 
canadagirl wrote:
ZRabbits wrote:
Thanks so much for the examples. They are impressive bunnies. I've never seen anything like them.

Just curious and hope this isn't a dumb question, and it probably is, but are these rare? Or just not sought after?

Boy strong looking bunny. And babies, congratulations. Hope you post pics as they grow.

K :)
Click to expand...
They are fairly rare. Belgians area 'fancy' breed. No purpose other than to look gorgeous. A number of years ago they tried to turn belgians into a meat breed and tried to add bulk to them. It hurt the belgians and they started to lose favor at shows. I can't imagine the breed as being 'bulky'. Popularity dropped off after that. I have heard that too few breeders are persusing too few lines in the US. Mine are all totally unrelated. I have ever intention of showing them and trying to improve them. Going to be sorta silly taking them to shows in Canada though. As far as I know besides one other pet, I have the only Belgians in Canada. So there wont be anything to compare them too. I have also never been to a rabbit show. Its all brand new to me. But my goal is to have superior belgians, not just 'good enough' belgians. I will probably try and get down to some US shows with them just to see how I stack up with some real competition. I dont want to see the breed die out, which is my main purpose for breeding them. The three I bought had been shown and all three have many registered rabbits on their pedigrees. So its a start anyway.
Click to expand...

Go for it. You are truly to be commended. Belgians are awesome breed. Though fancy, they truly to me show a sleek, 10 point grade rabbit. Very classy appearance.

Wishing you all the success. I'm doing this as well with the Lion Head. Lion Head rabbits are not an accepted breed in ARBA. But people are trying. I think they are awesome looking. A breed that was created by someone in 1990 in England. Though they are not a true breed, they are a true line created. So I want to make sure this line that was created continues and hopefully be in on the acceptance phase.

My husband and I plan to go to our first ARBA Show in February. Looking forward to experiencing it and getting to see what it's all about.

Right now we are on stand-by waiting for our first Breeding buck, Neville. You can see him on my Blog, ZRabbits. Not mine yet, but boy am I proud of him.

Please keep me posted on your progress. Because it's very similar to ours.

Talk to you soon.

K :)
 
Bonnie Lee wrote:
Oh wow, That's such a simple and smart way to tell.
I've read that the babies are supposed to have like
a full plump tummy... so I should have already known
that answer :baghead

Is it often to get still borns and runts?
I want to breed mini lops one day as I had to drive super
far to get mine as my area only breed dwarf lops.
But I think i'm scared to breed if it occurs a lot with
breeding...

I hope you become the altermate breeder and have like
the top of the range belgians with people waiting on lists
to have one of your babies :D
Click to expand...


I also breed mini lops and I very rarely ever have trouble with them unless the moms dont build a nest. I keep my mini lops on wire so when they fail to use their nest box its a disaster. But that rarely happens. I had a litter of ten last summer than had one runt. I played a trick on the mom and I took away all her babies except that runt and another fairly small one for 12 hours (this does not hurt the babies) and the runt got a real good feeding and then I put everyone back and he was fine. Built up his strength enough to compete with the others. the runts dont always die. And stillborns is even more rare for me. The odd time you find one dead in the nest witha bunch of alive ones. which is why its very important to dig around in the nest within a few hours of them being born and see whats in there. The dead one can chill the others.



Oh and one strange thing... when baby bunnies eat you can actually see the milk in their tummies. Thier skin is thin and their bellies are actually round and white. Like they swallowed a golf ball. I added some more pics to my album and in the one picture you can kinda see it. Its VERY obvious when they have eaten. They only eat once or twice a day so they take in a lot. They arent like puppies and kittens where you cant really tell.

 
ZRabbits wrote:
canadagirl wrote:
ZRabbits wrote:
Thanks so much for the examples. They are impressive bunnies. I've never seen anything like them.

Just curious and hope this isn't a dumb question, and it probably is, but are these rare? Or just not sought after?

Boy strong looking bunny. And babies, congratulations. Hope you post pics as they grow.

K :)
Click to expand...
They are fairly rare. Belgians area 'fancy' breed. No purpose other than to look gorgeous. A number of years ago they tried to turn belgians into a meat breed and tried to add bulk to them. It hurt the belgians and they started to lose favor at shows. I can't imagine the breed as being 'bulky'. Popularity dropped off after that. I have heard that too few breeders are persusing too few lines in the US. Mine are all totally unrelated. I have ever intention of showing them and trying to improve them. Going to be sorta silly taking them to shows in Canada though. As far as I know besides one other pet, I have the only Belgians in Canada. So there wont be anything to compare them too. I have also never been to a rabbit show. Its all brand new to me. But my goal is to have superior belgians, not just 'good enough' belgians. I will probably try and get down to some US shows with them just to see how I stack up with some real competition. I dont want to see the breed die out, which is my main purpose for breeding them. The three I bought had been shown and all three have many registered rabbits on their pedigrees. So its a start anyway.
Click to expand...

Go for it. You are truly to be commended. Belgians are awesome breed. Though fancy, they truly to me show a sleek, 10 point grade rabbit. Very classy appearance.

Wishing you all the success. I'm doing this as well with the Lion Head. Lion Head rabbits are not an accepted breed in ARBA. But people are trying. I think they are awesome looking. A breed that was created by someone in 1990 in England. Though they are not a true breed, they are a true line created. So I want to make sure this line that was created continues and hopefully be in on the acceptance phase.

My husband and I plan to go to our first ARBA Show in February. Looking forward to experiencing it and getting to see what it's all about.

Right now we are on stand-by waiting for our first Breeding buck, Neville. You can see him on my Blog, ZRabbits. Not mine yet, but boy am I proud of him.

Please keep me posted on your progress. Because it's very similar to ours.

Talk to you soon.

K :)
Click to expand...


Belgians are the most amazing rabbits I have ever owned. And I have tried a number of different breeds since I started with rabbits in 1992. I have them in long cages in my bedroom and they are constantly 'dancing'. Watching them is better than an aquarium full of fish. I dont know why they are not more popular than they are. If my doe had 11 babies first try they should hardly be 'rare'. I think a lot of belgian websites scare people off. Sure its a pain having to keep them on solid bottom cages that are bedded deep...but lots of people keep rabbits that way.


I am going to my first show feb 17-18...well I hope I am. I intend to go. eek!
 
That's a shame that the some Belgian websites scare off people. I think people would go that extra mile for their rabbit. So they need a different cage than what is considered the norm.

Variety is the spice of life. It must have been an awesome time since 1992 when you started with rabbits, experiencing different breeds. I'm just in love with my rabbits. Can't wait to experience a Liion Head.

I'm going to see a show on Feb 4th. I'm not entering, but hope to experience what it's all about.

Wishing you luck at your show. Let me know how your Belgians did.

K :)
 
Ooooh Belgians are absolutely gorgeous, and it really is a shame that they're so rare. Although, I suppose I'm a bit partial to the running breeds myself. (Tans!
 
Any updates on the babies?!

Edit: I checked the Facebook pictures! Sooo cute their eyes are open! Are you able to tell type on them yet it looked like one of them was already posing
 
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