Critters around here: September 2014

My mom used to raise rabbits when I was growing up...she never butchered any....always said that they were too pretty to butcher them...I guess that's why we went thru a 50 pound bag of Rabbit pellets every week....
Anyway, I raised rabbits when my hubby was first married and then got out of them...Well, Now have gotten back into them by accident...first off my cameo girl got a buck rabbit from a friend at that time was raising rabbits for meat and selling babies...

This is the first rabbit ....Duke , he belongs to cameo girl......
He has some meat rabbit in him along with lion head

then we got Juliet, my oldest daughter Rabbit

Juliet is a dwarf.., has had a couple of litters for us.

then we got Moe, a lion head .He was suppose to be a doe( female) but turned out to be a buck...

so /Cameo girl was looking for a doe so she could start raising Rabbits...so a friend gave her the one below.

She is named red Acorn, the previous owner had named her red...so we call her Red Acorn....she is part Flemish Giant and Satin rabbit....She has a couple of litters this year for us...

Then a friend asked if I wanted this one....I had rehome one of Juliet`s babies to her...so I took her...She has be named Black Beauty...she has given me a couple of litters as well, Big litters, her first litter was a litter of 10....the next litter in which she has now is 9....

These are the babies that are now on Beauty, as you can see Duke is the daddy of them....

We kept two back from the previous litter from Beauty.

Frosty and Cadbury....The daddy to these was Moe( lion head). Frosty was the only one in the litter to be solid white...the oldest took a liking to him...like I needed another buck...Cadbury I couldn`t pass up on keeping who doesn't like Chocolate bunnies....Beauty had two chocolate bunnies in her first litter....the other one I rehomed to the friend that gave us Red....and it is a buck as well...it doent have the lion head mane as Cadbury does.....

then came Betty Boop, We traded a Muscovy Drake for her....she is part lion head and mini lop...
Planning on breeding her to Cadbury next year as she is still young to breed.
Then the lad I got Beauty from told me she had a neighbor give her some more rabbits and they wasn't working well for her and her daughter...I really didn't want them but she threw in a cage with them and I so needed another cage....
So Needless to say here are the new additions....

Here is a spotted doe, who we have named Duchess, I am thinking she is part giant ,but not for sure...she is a big rabbit... though...if it wasn't moving into winter I would breed her with Duke...since this month she is old enough to breed...

Then we have a lop mixed with lion head, who has no name as of yet...she is only about 3 months old..she is so cute the way her mane is and those down ears...

then the buck Dutch Boy, a blue dutch...a buck in which I didn't need another buck, but maybe next year I could breed him to Juliet...and see what kind or what color should I say are produced...

Rabbits take just 30 days to have a litter after t he mating...the Doe( female) has to be 6 months old to breed and the Buck ( male ) needs only to be 5 month old at age of breeding....After the Doe has her babies, if you want , you can breed her back when the kits( babies) are I think 2 weeks old....I have never done this, I think that this is just to much on the does....I rehome the babies at about 4-6 weeks old....depending on the size and if they are eating good, like for example Red`s babies at 4 weeks old are the same size

Rabbits are good for the garden as their droppings or rather their poop is a good fertilizer, besides they are good to eat.....hopefully that doesn't offend somebody about eating them...but they are good....for that purpose as well...

Second I would like to introduce Bandit, the fearless Red Heeler. The above pictures are from when he was a pup...
He is a very crazy Red heeler. We got him from a neighbor who I have admired her red and blue heelers. Why I say he is crazy, hmmmm...he will try and catch raindrops as they are falling off the porch. He loves to try and attack your shadow....he just is funny at times....

this was token on the first day of school for cameo girl and the oldest daughter ( she is a senior in high school this year)

Bandit sure loves the water, any chance he gets he gets into the duck pond and the other ponds around here when we go for a walk...or mud puddles..

He will catch rocks in midair as well..as seen in the picture above. Why do I say fearless in the title of this post, well, he has killed several snakes, skunks( he smells bad when he has done this), possums, armadillos.......He loves to go after rocks in the creeks and brings them back up as well, it may not be the same rock...

We originally got him as a protector of our chickens, ducks, but he is now a value member of the family for both protection and funny to watch.