sickbunny
Well-Known Member
I dont think anyone could appreciate this story like a rabbit breeder, so I wanted to share it with you.
I'm new at breeding, I've had one litter, hoping for more someday.
I bought two 6 months old jersey woolies at the fair 3 1/2 years ago. The breeder said they were good breeder quality if I ever wanted to breed them. Smiley is a broken white and siamese, and Lily is a broken blue and white. They were sooo beautiful, they had wonderful circles with fantastic swirls around their eyes and sweet bow colored spots over their noses.
The next year at the fair I fell in love with a 2 month old blue male lionhead.
I didnt let myself buy a rabbit the next year at the fair, lol, I said keep me away from the bunny barn!
I bred the lionhead with the siamese wooly. i was curious- wouldnt it make a great rabbit with even furrier face? But no- we had 3 babies, one shorthaired tan, one blue like his dad, and a white one with crazy tufts of hair. I decided that if I was going to breed rabbits, I should breed the same breed. (not saying its wrong to experiment, but just wasnt right for me). I found them all homes no problem cause they were cute, but i wanted even cuter babies.
I went to the fair last summer looking for a good jersey wooly male for my two beautiful girls, and decided to make the lionhead a pet, because I didnt think he was such a good quality of his breed.
I'm walking around looking at rabbits, and I asked if they had any good woolies for sale. They sent this young man out to talk to me, and amazingly he was the one who sold me the two woolies 3 years before. And this is where the story gets amazing-
I told him about the two, and not only did he remember them, he was overjoyed to hear about them. He said, omg i am sooo happy to hear my rabbits are out there still breeding. i'd give anything to have a baby from them. I explained that I didnt originally intend to breed them, I'd never written him for the pedigrees, and he said he had saved them for some reason. I told him about the lionhead, he said you have to breed 50 rabbits to get one decent one with that breed. I said yes, but mine are mutts and I dont want to breed mutts, I want a really nice male for my girls cause theyre beautiful. He offered to give me a male in exchange for a baby, and then he told me his sad story:
He was on vacation and had people coming twice a day to check on the rabbits, they had just left. There was an electrical fire and the barn burned down. Of the 50 rabbits in the barn, only 5 made it out...
my heart broke at the thought. he said people had been nice and given him rabbits to start again, but he thought some lines were lost forever. he was doing good his male was in the top 10, but he'd give anything for one of my babies. and here is where i gave him the best ever present and made a great sacrifice:
I said I'll give you one of the rabbits in exchange for a decent male to breed to the other one. And i said the siamese still has her litter, but I will give you the blue one because she is the better looking of the two. He gladly said deal! and helped me pick the better of two males he had up for sale, I got benny, an adorable black male jersey who is sooo small.
I brought Lily to the fair. He looked in the box and I said this is Lily, and he said her great grandmothers name was Lily. He looked kind of mistyeyed, and I thought how wonderful, what seemed lost was now found. He took her out and examined her and said she was absolutely beautiful, and in fact, she was better than any female he had at home, and he was going to put her in some shows. He was just tickled pink with this rabbit, and said she looked really healthy. He said her only fault was she was a little big, that was about the limit on size, but would be good for breeding. I said we thought she was a runt, cause Smiley looks like a horse compared to her. That was why he sold them, he thought they would get too big. Smiley is huge, she is twice the size of Benny. And I tend to overfeed her, so she has a lot of "padding" lol.
My daughter was astounded. She said Lily was your favorite, you loved Lily, how could you give her away? I said it was easy! If you love something, you let it go- and by letting Lily go, I was giving Lily a better life. She would be in wonderful hands with a person who would take the best care of her. But even more important- he was going to breed her to his best male. By recreating little perfect Lilies, she would live on forever- just like her great grandma Lily lived on thru her.
Only a rabbit breeder could probably understand that.
I'm still not a breeder. I felt sorry for two little pet quality broken black and white females leftover at the end of the fair and took them home too, Bella and Daisy. And then the trouble started. Bella was sneezing from day one. I posted in infirmary about it, and it ended up being pasteurella, pseudomonas, e-cuniculi. Knowing there was a sneezing problem, I waited to breed Smiley and Benny. I'm still waiting. Daisy died, and Bella is still sick. All 4 of my rabbits are on e-cuniculi antibiotics right now. Even tho the adults have had no symptoms, I won't breed till I'm sure there's no health risk. its good i waited, since it took awhile to get a proper diagnosis, and now they are all taking the meds. but i dream of someday... baby jersey woolies, how cute they will be.
and now a question for the breeders- is it too late? Smiley is about 4 now, and has only been bred once. How old is too old for a rabbit to breed? i desperately want to get a litter or two and have little baby smileys. The breeder said benny is perfect because he is ultrasmall to balance the heifer lol, she is HUGE, and the black is perfect for a broken siamese and white. is it too late do you think? and what do you think about the disease problem? once the adults finish the antibiotic, since they have shown no symptoms even after 6 months with the other two in the house, do you think its safe to breed them? Bella is in another room near theirs, but the vet said it can be contagious from 3-4 feet, so she has to be away from them, even tho im sure she's lonely for bunny company. we feed her last and wash hands and dont let them exercise in the same areas. the adults have never had a health issue, and they are all fat happy bunnies. but im afraid, what if the babies are born and they catch this. but smileys getting older and the clock is ticking... what do you think?
i hope you all liked my story of Lily, and I wanted you all to know that sometimes, when you sell someone a bunny, wonderful things can come of it. some people really love their rabbits, and lily was Adored- she gave a good bunny kick on the table when he examined her, and altho some might describe Lily as having an attitude and being petulant and surly, i just grinned and said lily has a lot of personality! i loved her sassy spunky behavior, she was no placid dumb bunny, she never bit but boy could she kick when she didnt like something! Lily was a character and i miss her dearly, she was my favorite rabbit ever- but giving her away was the easiest thing i've ever done. you can understand that i'm sure.
I'm new at breeding, I've had one litter, hoping for more someday.
I bought two 6 months old jersey woolies at the fair 3 1/2 years ago. The breeder said they were good breeder quality if I ever wanted to breed them. Smiley is a broken white and siamese, and Lily is a broken blue and white. They were sooo beautiful, they had wonderful circles with fantastic swirls around their eyes and sweet bow colored spots over their noses.
The next year at the fair I fell in love with a 2 month old blue male lionhead.
I didnt let myself buy a rabbit the next year at the fair, lol, I said keep me away from the bunny barn!
I bred the lionhead with the siamese wooly. i was curious- wouldnt it make a great rabbit with even furrier face? But no- we had 3 babies, one shorthaired tan, one blue like his dad, and a white one with crazy tufts of hair. I decided that if I was going to breed rabbits, I should breed the same breed. (not saying its wrong to experiment, but just wasnt right for me). I found them all homes no problem cause they were cute, but i wanted even cuter babies.
I went to the fair last summer looking for a good jersey wooly male for my two beautiful girls, and decided to make the lionhead a pet, because I didnt think he was such a good quality of his breed.
I'm walking around looking at rabbits, and I asked if they had any good woolies for sale. They sent this young man out to talk to me, and amazingly he was the one who sold me the two woolies 3 years before. And this is where the story gets amazing-
I told him about the two, and not only did he remember them, he was overjoyed to hear about them. He said, omg i am sooo happy to hear my rabbits are out there still breeding. i'd give anything to have a baby from them. I explained that I didnt originally intend to breed them, I'd never written him for the pedigrees, and he said he had saved them for some reason. I told him about the lionhead, he said you have to breed 50 rabbits to get one decent one with that breed. I said yes, but mine are mutts and I dont want to breed mutts, I want a really nice male for my girls cause theyre beautiful. He offered to give me a male in exchange for a baby, and then he told me his sad story:
He was on vacation and had people coming twice a day to check on the rabbits, they had just left. There was an electrical fire and the barn burned down. Of the 50 rabbits in the barn, only 5 made it out...
my heart broke at the thought. he said people had been nice and given him rabbits to start again, but he thought some lines were lost forever. he was doing good his male was in the top 10, but he'd give anything for one of my babies. and here is where i gave him the best ever present and made a great sacrifice:
I said I'll give you one of the rabbits in exchange for a decent male to breed to the other one. And i said the siamese still has her litter, but I will give you the blue one because she is the better looking of the two. He gladly said deal! and helped me pick the better of two males he had up for sale, I got benny, an adorable black male jersey who is sooo small.
I brought Lily to the fair. He looked in the box and I said this is Lily, and he said her great grandmothers name was Lily. He looked kind of mistyeyed, and I thought how wonderful, what seemed lost was now found. He took her out and examined her and said she was absolutely beautiful, and in fact, she was better than any female he had at home, and he was going to put her in some shows. He was just tickled pink with this rabbit, and said she looked really healthy. He said her only fault was she was a little big, that was about the limit on size, but would be good for breeding. I said we thought she was a runt, cause Smiley looks like a horse compared to her. That was why he sold them, he thought they would get too big. Smiley is huge, she is twice the size of Benny. And I tend to overfeed her, so she has a lot of "padding" lol.
My daughter was astounded. She said Lily was your favorite, you loved Lily, how could you give her away? I said it was easy! If you love something, you let it go- and by letting Lily go, I was giving Lily a better life. She would be in wonderful hands with a person who would take the best care of her. But even more important- he was going to breed her to his best male. By recreating little perfect Lilies, she would live on forever- just like her great grandma Lily lived on thru her.
Only a rabbit breeder could probably understand that.
I'm still not a breeder. I felt sorry for two little pet quality broken black and white females leftover at the end of the fair and took them home too, Bella and Daisy. And then the trouble started. Bella was sneezing from day one. I posted in infirmary about it, and it ended up being pasteurella, pseudomonas, e-cuniculi. Knowing there was a sneezing problem, I waited to breed Smiley and Benny. I'm still waiting. Daisy died, and Bella is still sick. All 4 of my rabbits are on e-cuniculi antibiotics right now. Even tho the adults have had no symptoms, I won't breed till I'm sure there's no health risk. its good i waited, since it took awhile to get a proper diagnosis, and now they are all taking the meds. but i dream of someday... baby jersey woolies, how cute they will be.
and now a question for the breeders- is it too late? Smiley is about 4 now, and has only been bred once. How old is too old for a rabbit to breed? i desperately want to get a litter or two and have little baby smileys. The breeder said benny is perfect because he is ultrasmall to balance the heifer lol, she is HUGE, and the black is perfect for a broken siamese and white. is it too late do you think? and what do you think about the disease problem? once the adults finish the antibiotic, since they have shown no symptoms even after 6 months with the other two in the house, do you think its safe to breed them? Bella is in another room near theirs, but the vet said it can be contagious from 3-4 feet, so she has to be away from them, even tho im sure she's lonely for bunny company. we feed her last and wash hands and dont let them exercise in the same areas. the adults have never had a health issue, and they are all fat happy bunnies. but im afraid, what if the babies are born and they catch this. but smileys getting older and the clock is ticking... what do you think?
i hope you all liked my story of Lily, and I wanted you all to know that sometimes, when you sell someone a bunny, wonderful things can come of it. some people really love their rabbits, and lily was Adored- she gave a good bunny kick on the table when he examined her, and altho some might describe Lily as having an attitude and being petulant and surly, i just grinned and said lily has a lot of personality! i loved her sassy spunky behavior, she was no placid dumb bunny, she never bit but boy could she kick when she didnt like something! Lily was a character and i miss her dearly, she was my favorite rabbit ever- but giving her away was the easiest thing i've ever done. you can understand that i'm sure.
