Dinner rabbits, Journal

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Feb 6th-
Had to get a few quick new pics of the SF.

This one has a hump of sorts, could see it in the previous pics, but i thought it was fur. See it? Idk why, but i guess I'm not keeping this one because of it.


Keeping this one.

 

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Feb 7th-
Amber's kits. Gotta choose the best, culling a bunch later this week & have to narrow it down to no more than 2.
Biggest are these two bucks, the whiter one looks to have better shape?
Then the black is the biggest doe, but blue looks to have the best shape?

Update-Decided to keep blue doe. Darker broken castor buck is heavier than the other, but I'll keep both longer to decide. Black doe in cull cage. Broken blue pending pickup.

 

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Feb 7th-
And the Lynx kits.
Again, gotta narrow it down to two.
First 4 are bucks. Broken & blue are heaviest bucks. Blue is best?
And the 2 does. Broken is the heavier doe. IDK who might be better here?



Feb 10th-
14 & Lynx failed to kindle. Rebred.

Grumpy has lost her bloody mind, now tearing up the urine guards and water bowl nonstop, plus never ending attacks. Tossed her into a cull cage and put up a water bottle. Looks like I failed to write down bred date, so will add a nest later. Will throw her in the freezer after this last litter. I'm totally over her bull

Water heater broke, so culling has been pushed to next week...


Feb 13th-
Had to dig up and fix some old pet crates.
Heaviest silvered buck left to his new home. Two feed bags paid for, 18 to go...
Brought others, but buyer loved the fur and that was that.




Amber × two sires; nz/rex & SF. Dec 31st litter. 6wks, 2 days.
Choc, doe, reg fur, 2.8.8
Choc, buck, reg fur, 2.10.0
Blk wht toes, buck, rexed, 2.3.8
Half nose castor, buck, rexed, 2.5.2
White leg, doe, rexed, 2.1.5
Broken opal, buck, rexed, 1.11.8
Castor, buck, rexed, 1.12.8
Blonde chestnut, buck, reg fur, 2.13.0
Chestnut, doe, reg fur, 2.6.3
Chestnut runt, doe, 1.13.0


Lynx × nz/rex, Dec 8th. 9wks, 4 days.
Blue doe, 3.7.6
Dark brkn castor, buck, 3.12.6
Broken opal, doe, 3.2.9
Castor buck, 3.4.6
Black buck, 3.3.8
Black doe, 3.7.8

Amber × nz/rex, Nov 4th. 14wks, 3 days.
Black doe, 4.5.8
Lilac otter doe, 4.0.5
Blue doe, 4.4.5
Dark broken castor, buck, 4.13.8
Lighter broken castor, buck, 4.11.2

 

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Feb 13th-
And pics & info of keeper does.

Absolute hot mess....Definitely hoping she has a nice doe to replace her...ugh. lol






Licky buns!

Caught Amber's 6wk kits nursing!

Tossed a bunch of pelts in a salt/alum pickle a few days ago. Been peeling membrain all day. Young ones are easy, adults are heck. My poor thumbs...
Hoping to be able to sell them once tanned to help with feed costs. 6-12 at the store, no idea how much I'll be able to get for each. Probably too small to make much out of them to sell for more.

And I have 6 bags of poop waiting pickup at 5 each. No interest at 10 each, hoping more people will want it for 5 all year long.
Update, sold for 40. Wants more when available.


500 in red minus 45 in a bun & 40 in poop, makes for $415 in the red.

 

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Feb 16th-
11 buns going into freezer tomorrow. All but one are silver fox, black older rex going. The older rex, goingtowatch the 2 bucks for longer & the blue doe, the broken blue doe is supposedly getting sold soon. The others are the younger rex and still too small to bother with.

Speckle pulled fur, waiting on kits.
Grumpy is still grumpy.

Amber's kits will be moved next week.

Put together a roughly 5×6ft pen. Thinking of tossing all of the silver fox weaners in there, if they're pulled around the same time. Rex are too tiny to do that with, until it's warmer out at night. Or maybe I'll mix the sf with the rex.
Raining today, but I was going to put a removable divider in and add a second level for more floor space. Either way, 5×6ft is a heck of a lot larger than splitting litters into 2×2ft cages. Will have to come up with a much larger feeder or two for the pen.

Janky looking. Needs new top, as square as it'll get these days, but predator proof once door is secured closed.




Today-
Speckle had 9!
She's been so grumpy the last two weeks & today, she's finally chill again.

Yesterday, she growled at me for peaking at the fur(no kits yet), but today, she's just watching quietly.
Didn't really make much of a nest, very little digging or arranging the hay I put in, but that's fine. Added fur yesterday and added more when she kindled.

Sire is ped SF, 3-5.

 

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Today-
Pics of some tanning progress. Getting that thick flesh off, ugh. All are mostly fleshed, so upped the pickle concentration for the next step. Will peel the last bits away. In 5 days comes drying & breaking!

 

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10 sf & 1 rex in the freezer.
Dropped one on the ground...other side was much dirtier. Still cleaning it up.
Will toss the pelts in the pickle after the others are done.
Lots of bits for the dogs, too.

 

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Keepers, temporary keepers. Rest slated to cull.

This one was supposed to be picked up, but didn't. The solid blue wasn't as nice, so it'll be culled & this one kept.

Closeup of shoulder. Markings makes it hard to see.


Might keep or cull & just keep the broken doe above.



Amber kit, regular furred. Typical rex genes, leans!!!!


Up n coming. Probably better than the older Amber broken castor buck below. Probably will keep this one & cull the other.



This one will probably be culled & one above kept.

 

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Feb 20th-
Put bottles up. Really hope it continues to stay above freezing. I'm so tired of crocks.
Hung up a temperature gauge DH bought. Noticeably warmer in there, not enough on bad days, but certainly better than outside!



Feb 22nd-


Is this how it works??
If I add both numbers and divide by two, idk if that's how it works, but...
Funny how the % rise slows each time!
No wonder people call it pure by 4th or 5th generation!!

0 by 100, 50 . 1st gen
50 by 100, 75. 2nd gen
75 by 100, 87.5. 3rd
87.5 by 100, 93.75. 4th
93.75 by 100, 96.875. 5th
96.875 by 100, 98.4375. 6th
98.4375 by 100, 99.21875. 7th
99.21875 by 100, 99.609375. 8th
99.609375 by 100, 99.8046875. 9th
99.8046875 by 100, 99.90234375. 10th
99.90234375 by 100, 99.951171875. 11th.....
It starts moving to each non-nine character after the decimal point. Wow. "True" pure would take forever!

 

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Feb 22nd-

And they think 50F is cold. Mom is the dark, earless one in center. Lol. Kit 10 is eating, so, 9 kit pileup!



Feb 23rd-

Almost 80F today, so, took a leap & tossed 3 litters together!
Did remove one older buck to the cull cage, 2 others in there as well, but from an even older rex litter.
Will replace the floor with proper wire once I know this will work out for them.
Made a super tall top to the feeder & hung up 4 water bottles. Will add a 2nd floor along the back when new floor is put on.
45's kits, except Choc doe, were moved in. Amber's kits all moved in. And 5 Lynx's kits moved in.
Only kits left with mom are 11's and Speckle's. Should be able to put new floor in before they wean.


Added another feeder, fully DIY this time.
The 4" pvc tube. Holds more than 8qt.




Two more big ones I need to peel a bit more, then I can wash & hang to, mostly, dry.



Update.
Started breaking them.



Still need to peel the 2 big ones the rest of the way. So hard to do...
Others dried for storage so I can work on them as I have time.
And the "hide pillow" thawing to go into the fresh pickle.



And to end the day...
Grumpy pulled fur!
Hope she has some excellent does to replace her!