The May 7th show in Monroe really kicks off my spring and summer show season. Most of my shows are in the spring and summer, although I have a couple in the fall and winter. Once May hits, I usually have one every month until September. This October is Convention - which I'm hoping a couple of my rabbits will be able to attend. 

This next Saturday I am going to be bringing Holly's Butterfly, Holly's Clementine, Holly's Glenn, Holly's Missy and Holly's Beth. Here are (what I think) their faults and strengths are and how I expect them to do. 

Holly's Missy, 10 weeks old, chinchilla SJD
I love Missy! I think she's going to be a brood doe when she's older because she's a big girl. She has the typical false dwarf qualities...longer ears, longer bone. But her bone is THICK! The camera just doesn't capture it that well, but it is. And her body is so nice and round. She likes to lean while she's posing, which is frustrating, but despite that she's a good poser. She has nice width in her chest but could use more width in her head. I love her ear shape and thickness. 
I think she'll do well at the show, I highly doubt she'll get a leg this time around since she's so young still, but I don't think she'll place last. Of course that depends on the other rabbits in the class though!

Holly's Beth, 10 weeks, Cream SJD
​For the life of me I could not decide which doe I like better - Missy or Beth? Beth is overall a thicker doe in the body, HQ, and chest. She is smooth and even throughout her body...and super THICK. She has a thick bone but it's long...characteristic of false dwarfs (which I'm pretty sure she is, too). Her ears are long and her crown is slipped, which I think are her biggest faults...that and her long bone. I don't know who would place higher, her or Missy. I like Beth's body better, so I think she might place higher, but she's starting her junior molt so her fur is all wonky - because of that, she might place lower in the class than she really is. 

Holly's Glenn, 10 weeks old, Chestnut SJB
Oh Man!!! I LOVE this buck!! I love his wide smooth body and thick bone. He has a really nice head shape. He is a lot smaller than his sisters, so definitely a true dwarf. I really wish he has a better crown. His front limb is a little long - but again, better than his sisters'! I think he will do really well - but he's also starting to molt and is super young, so we can only wait and see!

Holly's Clementine, 5 months old, broken orange BJD
I've loved this doe ever since she hopped out of the nestbox 4 months ago. As the only survivor in Butterfly's litter of 3, I'm so happy she ended up so nice. I absolutely L-O-V-E Clementine's body! She has a very nice HQ - so wide and full! I actually can't reach my hand all the way around her HQ and touch both back feet so when I "square off" her HQ I have to do it one foot at a time haha! Her topline is a smooth and even and rounds off so nicely! She has a beautiful big head and a lovely full crown! Her crazy ears are my biggest pet peeve on her...if her ears were down she'd be stunning! She also has longer bone. She has a nice wide head and a nice chest. I think she'll do really well - if she keeps those ears down!! At her first show back in February, she was only about 10-12 weeks old but the judges were in love with her. She was the smallest and youngest in her class so she didn't win, but she's matured so nicely since then and I think she has a real shot. 

Holly's Butterfly, 1 year old, broken black tort BSD
LOVE my Butterfly girl! At her last show in February she got 2nd place out of 5 in both shows but she was molting like crazy...blowing her coat....and the judges said she would've done better if her fur wasn't being so crazy. Well for this show, her fur is looking really nice. Her HQ is the same way Clementine's is - it's too wide for my whole hand to go around! she has a nice wide chest and head, and I love her topline. She's a pain to pose right now because she wants to be bred...her and Wicket, the pair of them, make posing such a chore....maybe I should breed them both....after this show, I will!!! And thankfully that settle down miss Butterfly but not Wicket. Why do these dang bucks want to be bred every day of their lives?! Anyway, I think Butterfly will do really well - as long as keeps her fur nice and poses for the judge! 

Just realized I'm showing a rainbow of colors....I used to show all torts, now I'm showing one tort and lots of agouti. I'm definitely not complaining! 

Zuzu had her kits almost 2 weeks ago, but I still wanted to post her birth story even though it's a bit *late*. This litter has been quite unique, I am loving these babies, and I am really enjoying watching Zuzu as a mom. 

Zuzu's first litter had 4 kits - 3 were DOA, and the survivor was killed by rats at 5 days old. When I found the baby, I initially thought it had been Zuzu - and that she was taking after her mom. But when I investigated further and talked to a friend of mine, who had dealt with rats before, I knew that rats had done this. And now that the rats are gone, Zuzu's precious litter of 3 is growing healthy and strong and beautiful. 

I checked on Zuzu at around 10:00 PM on April 14. I was just about to go to bed, but wanted to see if she was making any progress first. She was pulling fur and in active labor, so I stayed up to see how her birth went - I couldn't go to bed then not knowing what would happen! 

At 10:30 I checked on her again. She had 5 kits, 2 were snuggled in the box nicely and 3 were outside the nestbox on the wire. 2 of them were also peanuts. I saw one, twice the size of the normal kits, in the back and I thought it was dead. It was black and blue and bruised, indicating a harder labor and most likely being stuck for a short time. I went back into the house to get some treats for Zuzu and her successful delivery, which is what I do for all my does after they give birth. My veteran does have come to expect their after-labor goodies (trust me - they remember!). 

When I gave her the treats, I think she had carrot tops, I put the babies into the nestbox and covered them with her fur. I picked up the *dead* baby and realized that it wasn't dead - to my surprise, it was alive! It was still warm, as were all the other babies, so I placed him in the box with his siblings. 

I've never had a big stretched kit survive - usually those kits die in the birth canal because they are stuck and can't get oxygen. I'm so thankful Zuzu successfully delivered it! I'm sure it was because she was bred so close to giving labor last time, only a few days after her kit was killed from rats I rebred her. And because of that, she was probably still stretched out from delivery last time and was able to give birth to the bigger kit. 

Now that the babies are almost 2 weeks old, they are adorable. And I love watching Zuzu with them. She remembers what happened to her previous litter; she watches these babies like a hawk and she didn't do that with her first litter. Her babies are FAT. The bigger kit is still much bigger than the others. At first I thought all three kits were chestnuts, and I was wondering how I would tell them apart. But all three of them are different sizes. One of them is bigger than normal, the big kit Zuzu barely delivered alive. Then one is normal sized, and then one is slightly smaller than normal. At first I thought the small one was a peanut, but it's ears weren't small enough to be a peanut's ears. I think it's just small because there were so many babies in the stomach (5) and one of them was huge - so some of them had to be smaller. It reminded me of litters I've had of 5-6 kits - usually in litters like those, all the babies are smaller than average. 

This small one is actually a chinchilla! Yippee! I'm really hoping it's a buck - I don't need another solid chestnut buck (right now I have Wicket and maturing Glenn), and I would love to breed a chinchilla buck from my line to my chinchilla doe, Missy, when she's old enough! Chinchilla has always been one of my favorite colors of Holland Lop and I'm really excited I'm producing nice Hollands in that color. 

I also just wanted to say that Muddy Creek's Maybeline delivered her litter of 2 last week, but one baby was a DOA and the other died at 2 days old. It wasn't staying warm. We brought it inside that night to keep it warm, but it died by the morning sadly :( I will be rebreeding May soon and I might breed Butterfly at the same time in case something like that happens again, and I need to foster. I didn't want to foster a brand-new baby to Zuzu's piggy trio because I was worried it wouldn't get enough milk, or would get squished, or wouldn't get the right kind of milk it needs (colostrum). I really want to breed Butterfly again (to Wicket) to get more babies like Clementine. I really really need a broken buck, but I don't want to buy another buck...I would love one of my line from the Wicket x Clementine cross. So that's what I'm hoping for!!!

That's all for this blog, so see you next time :)