All Hair Must Come To an End

After growing out his coat for so long, I decided that he is more valuable to me in the breeding program than to continue growing his coat out. Fingers crossed that he sires a couple of AWSOME litters for me. In the meantime, I’ll probably grown his coat back out for late spring shows. Now he can have all of the hay he wants and I won’t mind him playing with it, lol.

 

Un-groomed to Groomed in Minutes

Growing a junior coat takes time and dedication. A weekly blow out of the top coat and underside is all that this junior requires at the moment.  Every other day I take a comb through her cheek wool and the back of her neck to prevent mats from starting. Once a week I slicker brush her legs and underneath her chin. As her coat begins to grown, she will need frequent grooming throughout the week to keep her lush coat free of Matts.

Christmas Day for the Critters

Each rabbit and cavy at Fuzzibutt’s Rabbitry & Caviary was given a smorgasbord of treats for Christmas morning. Each critter received a small piece of carrot, apple, sweet potato, and parsley, spinach and cilantro too much on. Not only did they all receive some treats they also received new toys to play with (blocks, balls, plastic Easter eggs, and plastic baby toys. Hopefully there new toys will last them a while, lol.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas & Happy Holiday's

from Fuzzibutt's Rabbitry fuzzibutts.com

Harlequins No More

I’ll admit, I’m saddened by the thought of not having Jessica’s Harlequins around any longer. After the ordeal with Jessica back in September/October, her father and I decided to place the rest of her show herd and brood stock with youth across the country. Jessica and I have been working with Harlequins for over three years. Jessica’s biggest accomplishment was Best of Breed Youth at the Harrisburg, PA ARBA Convention back in 2013. Not to mention her big wins at Harlequin Nationals in the spring of 2014 in Dalton, GA.

For a few years now Jessica and I have been promoting the Harlequin breed. We (Jessica, Phillip and I) are even founding officers of the Eastern Harlequin Rabbit Club. My husband and I both hold offices within this club (secretary and treasurer). Our little club was awarded the honor of hosting 2016 Harlequin Nationals in New Jersey (which I am in charge of). Jessica was an awesome supporter of the Harlequin breed. Many of her rabbits were registered with ARBA and many went on to earn Grand Championships with numerous legs.

However, at the same time, they’ve been a bit of a stressful breed for my husband and I. With Jessica choosing to live with her biological mother, every time one of us went to feed the bunnies we would break down in tears looking at the Harlequins, so we made the toughest decision…which was to move them on.

It will be nice to get the rabbitry and caviary back to being angoras again, and start concentrating on my angoras more. Over the past two years my husband and I have been huge breed supporters of the Harlequin breed. For all most two years we (my husband and I) put our own breeds on the back burner for our daughter’s breed. You see with Harlequins there is a 99% chance that none of the kits born in the litter are showable. So we ended up with a lot of brood/pet quality kits to grow out which took time, money and space. One option we had was to cull (kill) the non- showable kits at birth and back breed the doe immediately. We chose not to follow that idea. We grew each bunny out until it was 10 weeks old and all the pet quality (non-showable) ones we took to the local auction barn.

Until my husband or I can be replaced as officers of the local Harlequin club we have decided to stay and help support the club. Not to mention I have a lot of work that needs to be done to prepare for Harlequin Nationals in the spring of 2016 in New Jersey.

If you are interested in the breed, we know quite a few people we would be happy to recommend to help you establish a small herd.

 

Christmas Wish List for Rabbitry & Caviary

I would love to have a new Shop Vac since mine bit the dust a few weeks ago. New water bottles, feeders, resting mats those types of goodies are always useful.

We are in the process of getting rid of our old cages that we have had for over eight years now, you all know the kind…the ones you started out with from Tractor Supply that are rusty and the bottoms are zipped stripped together on some of them. We need a few more new cage units to complete the rabbitry. The cages I want are expensive but I feel the quality of the units from Martins Cages is well worth the investment for the next 8-10 years. Next will be newer cages for the cavies. Right now most of them are in covered rabbit cages with the wire bottoms cut off.

My other Christmas wish for the rabbitry/caviary is a health, vigor and a nice selection of juniors to carry on the tradition of Fuzzibutt’s Rabbitry/Cavirary for the 2015 show season.

I do know that Santa has special treats for all of his furry friends at Fuzzibutt’s Rabbitry for Christmas Day (toys, treats, hay stuffed in toilet paper rolls with dried Papaya stuffed in the middle).

A busy next year

I was sitting down today thinking about upcoming rabbit and cavy shows that I would like to attend in 2015. I even marked them on my new calendar; boy will I be super busy! Living in Delaware I have to travel to other states to exhibit my rabbits and cavies. There are shows just about every weekend. Since I am showing by myself now Jessica is living with her biological mother, Phillip is working so I can enjoy this awesome hobby of ours and show our angoras, Flemish Giants and cavies.

It’s nice to know that I have support from fellow exhibitors who will exhibit my cavies for me at shows they are going to. It is such a wonderful feeling knowing that I do not have to choose between my rabbits or cavies being exhibited at shows I attend or do not attend. Thank You to Kim of Whirligigs Caviary in VA for being such a wonderful, caring friend to help me out!

Fuzzibutt's Salsa

Fuzzibutt's Jolee

Fuzzibutt's Piccadilly

Fuzzibutt's Piccadilly as she grows up....

Fuzziubtt's Mulan