Dan26552's Rabbit journal.

[Dan26552]

Hi, my name is Dan, I live in lower Alabama and have been breeding and raising rabbits for meat for about a year and a half now. All my rabbits are in tractors on pasture except Angie, Hamada, Jacquelynne and Joyce who are in a colony system. I have 36 rabbits currently, 26 grow outs, 8 breeders and 2 will be breeders come fall. Most of my rabbits are mixes. I have three breeding bucks, five breeding age does and two does who will be breeding age in the fall. One of my Does had a litter of seven last night, she's our best and favorite doe and is an amazing mom so we will be keeping a doe from that litter.

These are Jacquelynne and Joyce, they're half Flemish half Rex. They are both expecting in a week or two.


This is Granny, she just had the litter of seven. She's pure New Zealand.


Her kits. There are three blacks and four whites, two of the blacks are brokens.


This is Hamada, he's also half Flemish half Rex. He's the dad of Granny's litter and will be the dad of Jacquelynne, Joyce and Angelica's kits.


This is Barrel Rider, he's half New Zealand and half Californian. He's also Granny's son.


This is Sandy, we think she's mostly New Zealand, she's currently nursing a litter of 10.


This is Angelica, AKA Angie. She's mostly Flemish.


This is Bernard, we're not sure what he is. He's on the smaller side. He's father of Sandy's kits.




I will post pics of the older kits in another post.

 

[HeavensHens88]

Nice Dan!!!

 

[Dan26552]

These are Angelica's last kits, there are six, three blacks and three orange(ish) Barrel Rider is their dad.


These are Petra (left) and Ninja (right) they will be bred in the fall.


These are Sandy and Bernard's kits.

 

[Latestarter]

You are almost to Dr. Doolittle qualification. How do you find time for anything but your animals?

 

[Dan26552]

Lol! Well between the animals and the garden I am quite busy. I don't know how I do it.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Following!

Lol! Well between the animals and the garden I am quite busy. I don't know how I do it.

Plus BYC/BYH and school.

 

[Dan26552]

Following!



Plus BYC/BYH and school.

Yeah.

 

[Dan26552]

Petra is going to be big, she's only 14 weeks old and already as big as her mom.

 

[Bunnylady]

Wow, Dan, that's quite a herd you have there. Looks like you have some really interesting mixes!

I've noticed something that may be helpful to you - or not. This is something that we have kicked around a lot in the last few weeks in the rabbit sub-forum; you may or may not know about this.

I notice that several of your breeders are brokens. I love brokens myself - it's always fun to throw that in the mix and see what appears in the nest box. As I am sure you know, if you breed two broken-patterned animals together, some of the babies will turn out solid colored, some will be brokens like their parents, and some will inherit the gene for the broken pattern from both the mother and the father and be what rabbit people call "Charlies." A Charlie typically has color on the ears, color around the eyes, a smallish area of color near the nose, and very little color on the body. For a meat breeder, what they look like doesn't matter - they all taste the same, right?(lol) But the problem with Charlies is that the broken pattern gene doesn't only affect coat color, it has a major effect on the rabbit's digestive system too. A Charlie's digestive system runs a lot slower than that of a non-spotted rabbit, making them much more prone to the potentially fatal condition known as GI stasis. In addition, most Charlies (some sources say all Charlies) have a condition called megacolon - a situation where at least part of the large intestine looks like a blown-up balloon. These animals have a hard time absorbing the nutrients from their food. The degree to which a Charlie is affected varies - some may only grow a bit slower than their non-spotted littermates, but some may not even survive long enough to crawl out of the nest box. Megacolon can be progressive, so an animal that wasn't affected much as a baby may develop problems later.

What you do with your rabbits is entirely your business, of course, but I'd think a persistently unthrifty animal or one that dies before it makes slaughter weight would be seen as a waste of your resources. The way to avoid Charlies is to only breed broken patterned rabbits to solid colored rabbits. That way, you get some solids and some brokens, but you guarantee that none of the brokens can be Charlies, so the digestive problems of the Charlies can be avoided.

Just something I thought you might find useful to know when planning future breedings.

 

[Dan26552]

Wow, Dan, that's quite a herd you have there. Looks like you have some really interesting mixes!

I've noticed something that may be helpful to you - or not. This is something that we have kicked around a lot in the last few weeks in the rabbit sub-forum; you may or may not know about this.

I notice that several of your breeders are brokens. I love brokens myself - it's always fun to throw that in the mix and see what appears in the nest box. As I am sure you know, if you breed two broken-patterned animals together, some of the babies will turn out solid colored, some will be brokens like their parents, and some will inherit the gene for the broken pattern from both the mother and the father and be what rabbit people call "Charlies." A Charlie typically has color on the ears, color around the eyes, a smallish area of color near the nose, and very little color on the body. For a meat breeder, what they look like doesn't matter - they all taste the same, right?(lol) But the problem with Charlies is that the broken pattern gene doesn't only affect coat color, it has a major effect on the rabbit's digestive system too. A Charlie's digestive system runs a lot slower than that of a non-spotted rabbit, making them much more prone to the potentially fatal condition known as GI stasis. In addition, most Charlies (some sources say all Charlies) have a condition called megacolon - a situation where at least part of the large intestine looks like a blown-up balloon. These animals have a hard time absorbing the nutrients from their food. The degree to which a Charlie is affected varies - some may only grow a bit slower than their non-spotted littermates, but some may not even survive long enough to crawl out of the nest box. Megacolon can be progressive, so an animal that wasn't affected much as a baby may develop problems later.

What you do with your rabbits is entirely your business, of course, but I'd think a persistently unthrifty animal or one that dies before it makes slaughter weight would be seen as a waste of your resources. The way to avoid Charlies is to only breed broken patterned rabbits to solid colored rabbits. That way, you get some solids and some brokens, but you guarantee that none of the brokens can be Charlies, so the digestive problems of the Charlies can be avoided.

Just something I thought you might find useful to know when planning future breedings.

Thanks!

I did not know that about Charlie's, I've seen breeders don't like to breed them but couldn't find why. That is something I will definitely consider in future breedings thank you for explaining that.