New Year, New Beginnings

In just a few hours, a new year will be ushered in, and 2009 will come to a close. With the arrival of a new year, I am excited to announce the future of Choxic Rabbitry in 2010.

Tristar Rabbits is the new name of my rabbit program. Despite the makeover, the ideals and values of Choxic Rabbitry have not changed, as I plan to continue to aim for healthy, well tempered English Lops that compete well on the show table. However, as I plan on attending college in September, I will be phasing out of the rabbit show and breeding world this coming year. That said, I have a huge show schedule planned for 2010; I plan on attending the PaSARBA Convention, and am looking at exhibiting at Lop Nationals in Georgia, the Ohio State Convention, and, maybe, the 2010 ARBA National Convention in Minneapolis [big maybe!]. I am looking at possibly adding a full arch breed several years down the road, and I hope to continue along with my "heart" breed, the English Lop.

It is with a sense of excitement that I announce the end of Choxic Rabbitry. 2010 looks bright for Tristar Rabbits!

Tristar Rabbits
http://tristarrabbits.webs.com/

Tristar Rabbits Blog
http://tristarrabbits.blogspot.com/

Holy Update Batman!!!

This update is super crazy overdue. Between school, college applications, and a broken laptop, website and blog updates really haven't been at the top of my to-do list. I'm planning a huge website make-over hopefully before January, depending on how soon I can get my laptop fixed. Until then, rare blog posts from the not-so-reliable home desktop computer will have to do.

Anyway, I suppose litter announcements should be made first. Tris kindled 7 kits on November 17, 2009, with two DOA. The remaining five, all torts, are driving me crazy with their typical baby energy.

Newborn kits.

Itchy two week old baby.

It's looking like there's two does and three bucks at this point; it'll be interesting to see if that changes within the next few weeks.

Samson, the only charlie. He's quite the character.

I swear these babies are trying their hardest to give me a heart attack. They all decided to have sticky, nasty poop for a few days- very dangerous in baby bunnies. They were put on straight hay and mama's milk for a while, and I'm slowly reintroducing lower protein pellets and rolled oats. Their poop has thankfully cleared up; I just wish they would clean themselves off!

Like mama like baby!


Om nom nom nom...

Sparta kindled a litter of 8 very small, very bruised babies on November 27, the day after Thanksgiving and three days before her due day. The premature babies were extremely undeveloped for a while, but thankfully, 6 of the 8 pulled through.

New borns.

Sad as it is to have lost the two smallest kits, with the litter having been born premature, I know that it could have been so much worse.

Charlie agouti with one of the ones that didn't make it. Notice the webbed feet and bruised toes.


Three days old, just starting to get some fur.

Chestnut at twelve days old.

Aside from her early delivery, Sparta is an excellent mother. She'd nurse her babies all day long if I'd let her, and she loves to cuddle with and groom her kits. The contrast between her great patience with her litter and Tris' general annoyance of her brood is humorous.

"I love my babies!"
(Don't mind the nasty tray; I was in the middle of cleaning.)

"Get off my head dammit."

Yes, three babies can drink from one water bottle!

It's too early for me to tell gender yet, but color wise, I've got a nice assortment: Solid chestnut agouti, broken (charlie) chestnut agouti, broken black, broken (charlie) tort, broken tort blue, and solid blue.

"Oh hai thar!"

The two litters love playing with and interacting with each other. It's so adorable watching the different sized babies all cuddle together.

Samson with his half siblings.

One of these things is not like the other...

The house bunnies are all doing well. Pep scared me half to death with a GI stasis episode last week; I was so worried she wouldn't pull through the night. Thankfully, with some encouragement from her boyfriend and a lot of force fed canned pumpkin/water puree, she was up early the next morning chomping down on hay, to my great relief.

A very annoyed, pumpkin-covered Pepper.

In other non-bunny news, we got a little over a foot of snow on Saturday! It rarely snows here, so I was extremely excited to see the whole neighborhood covered in the white stuff. Nova had the time of her life in the snow... for about 20 minutes, and then she decided that she really doesn't like icy, wet, cold stuff.

SNOW!!!

OMG SNOW!!!!111!1!

"I can go inside now?"

Nova has really come a long way in the few months she's been here. She's finally learning some manners, and she's learned to express her high energy in ways other than destroying the house.

"Greenies don't taste as good as the sofa cushions!"

While her initial background story of being shifted around to so many different homes is disheartening, I can at least better understand why so many people opted to rehome wild Miss Nova. She's my "sheechul" girl, but she's come a long way, and it can only go up from here.

The best thing about Nova? She loves baby bunnies!



While she's a crazy, hyperactive maniac 99% of the time, Nova adores the babies, and she loves to lay still and let them cuddle with her. She's definitely supervised whenever she is with them, however, although I mostly just have to worry about her over grooming the poor bunnies!

How Nova REALLY feels about the baby lops!

Before I sign off, ere's a few more pictures I took yesterday of the bunnies. Sorry, none of Beau, I was getting way to cold to sit out there any longer. I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and a great New Year!

Domain Name Down

Just as a general FYI, I didn't renew my domain name when it ran out, so http://choxicrabbitry.com/ is no longer accessible. My new site is http://choxicrabbitry.webs.com, though my old address, www.freewebs.com/choxicrabbitry still works. I'm not sure if I'll renew my domain name, keep the free address I'm using now, or start up a whole new website with a new rabbitry name. Choxic Rabbitry really doesn't make much sense, and it's getting a little boring. ;)

Annnnyway, geeez I've been slacking in the updates department. Between school, animal chores, school, unbearably slow internet, and did I mention school?, I really haven't been able to keep the blog or website updated as much as I want to. I seriously need to get up a new layout on the site, and the banner at the top of the blog has got to go. I'll have to find time to do that... eventually... maybe.

I've been doing some breeding this fall, and I'm hoping to have my first litter since 2008 in just a few days! Sparta was bred at the Delmarva show in September to one of Matt Hoffman's bucks, and I'm anxiously awaiting her to [hopefully!] kindle this Wednesday. I'm not 100% sure she took; I'm horrible at palpating, she has had some weight gain, but not enough to be sure she's pregnant, and her little attitude snaps really aren't all that abnormal. I'm still crossing my fingers, though!

Although I said I would never rebreed her due to her sudden abscess issue back in July, I did go ahead to breed Tristynn. I reevaluated the situation surrounding that medical issue, and determined it was not due to her being susceptible to abcessing; rather, it was a combination of: Developing a small abscess at her injury-caused tumor site [normal], having the abscess drained [broke the encapsule abscesses are normally enclosed in and allowed the infection to spread], and being kept on a very ineffective medication for a week while I was out of town [allowed to infection to spread without any antibiotic intervention for a whole week]. Tristynn healed up perfectly fine from her endevure, and she's had no issues since. Aside from that experience and her humidity-related allergies, she's a healthy rabbit with a lot to offer to the breed, most notably, her thickly furred feet. Tris is an awesome mother who throws better than herself, and I can't wait to see what she produces.

I bred her two Fridays ago to Hips, a buck who is also from Matt Hoffman and who is vacationing down here with me until the Lebanon, PA Convention in February. I'm so happy to have this handsome boy visiting me; he's a sweet rabbit with perfect litter box skills and fabulous type. In the event that Sparta ends up not kindling, he'll be bred to her in a last ditch effort to get some babies out of her. I'm crossing my fingers both my girls took!

Back to the topic of abscessing... It looks like Beau's feet abscesses have reoccured. Groooan. I love this rabbit, but he's driving me insane! Beau has been put back on the Bicillian, but this time, he will recieve a dosage every day for six weeks, instead of every other day until his feet clear up. I'm so glad I decided not to breed him again. While I was lucky in that every rabbit from his past litter ended up with their mother's thickly furred feet, I am NOT taking the chance again of having a bunny end up with his feet problem.

I've got one more update before I wrap this post up...

Meet Nova!

We weren't really planning on adopting a dog so soon after loosing Tess... Nova just happened. She came over a for a visit back in mid-September, and she never left.


Nova is a year old [give or take a few months] generic retriever/hound mix, though she is quite the head turner. ;) She is a typical puppy with tons of energy, and she's definitely a chewer, as evident by her destroyed toys and torn leash.



Nova was originally an SPCA dog who was shuffled around from home to home before ending up with us. I have to give a major thanks to her most recent foster home for taking such good care of my pup, and for entrusting her to us. Thank you!

Playing with pit bulls! I never realized how hard young dogs can play...

Hopefully, my next update will have news of baby loppies! Keep your fingers crossed!

I'm a sucker.

Today, I walked in to the pet store to buy cat food, and I walked out with a bunny.

So maybe that's not entirely true. I may have known that the store was trying to rehome a drop-off, and I may have wanted to go "just to look"... and to buy cat food, too, of course.

Either way, I took one look at her and knew she was coming home with me.

Meet Vyncent Van Gogh, aka Vyncent, aka Vinny.

[I know, I know, the obsession with putting "y"s in the names!]

The employees there today didn't know much about her, but from what I've gathered, she was dropped-off at least a week ago by someone who was threatening to release if the store didn't take her. The poor girl was missexed by the pet store [what else is new?], and was named "George" before I took her.

Overall, she's in decent shape. While she's at a normal weight, she has a pulled nail in the back from having ridiculously long nails. She's got some sunburn yet to molt out, and of course, there's those ears. I'm not overly concerned with her ears; whatever happened to them happened a while ago, as they are healed over perfectly. They could easily have been chewed by her mother in the nestbox, so I'm trying not to jump to the conclusion that someone did this to her. Despite all that, she's healthy as far as I can see, and the pet store did a nice job of taking care of her while they fostered her.

The thing that really drew me to Vinny is that aside from her ears, she is nearly identical to Calvyn.





They have the exact same body type and shape, the same coloring, and most eerily of the all, the same unique, silky coats. They even have the same mellow, shy temperment. If Vin wasn't missing her ears, I would not be able to tell them apart. I'm convinced that the same jerk who abandoned Vinny also released Calvyn. To me, it just seems there are just way too many similarities between two mix breeds to call this a coincidence.

Either way, it really doesn't matter. I may be the biggest sucker in the world, but at least Calvyn and Vinny are safe in their forever homes. :)

While I definitely wasn't planning on adding any more rabbits, I'm glad Vinny has found her way here. After loosing Tess so recently, it just seems appropriate to take in an animal in need.

Someone's made themselves at home. ;)

I will be at the Charles Town show tomorrow briefly, but I will not be exhibiting.

Tess

Yesterday, we made the decision to have Tess humanely euthanized. Her mobility was severally compromised, and that morning, she refused to eat. It was an extremely tough choice to make, but she told us it was time. While I desperately miss my girl, I'm glad that she's finally pain free at last.

As a puppy, the day she was adopted:

Six years old:

Last autumn:



This winter:

And this spring, not long after she was diagnosed:

Her 10th birthday in January:

Tess loved her doggy friends Buddy

and Mo.

She loved her toys,

her people,

and her bunnies:

Most of all, Tess loved being a spoiled rotten, misbehaved, good for nothing pet.









And I wouldn't have had it any other way.


RIP Tess
January 2, 1999-September 9, 2009

A Photoish Blog

Just a random assortment of photos from this summer [plus me rambling]. :)

While at the camp in Pennsylvania, Beau shared the "nature center" building with a litter of kittens!



Poor Beau wanted so badly to snuggle with the kitties, but they weren't so sure of him. :P



There was also a stinky hedgehog,



and two very friendly, very molty donkeys.

My favorite place at the camp to hang out was, of course, the horse barn. :) I've never had the opportunity where I'm at to learn how to ride, or even be around horses at all, so it was a neat experience to be able to learn about these beautiful animals.

All these horses there are geldings, and several of them were auction rescues; it was neat hearing the hoses' background stories.

Jude, the majestic mustang.

Half-Pint, a pretty pony.



My favorite, King. Such a short little boy; he couldn't have been much taller than me! :)



The sun setting over the fields was just gorgeous.




A few days before July 4th, we watch fireworks being shot out over the Susquehanna River



And for the actual holiday, we parked right outside Hershey Park to watch their fireworks show.


What a way to spend the fourth!

Sometime towards the end of my visit, I took a trip with my aunt to visit a friend of hers that does a lot of work with animal fiber. I got a very cool tour of "fiber factory" as I'd call it, and was able to see how the massive amounts of pure fiber were converted to thread. Very cool.

She had some gorgeous [and huge!] Friesian horses that I loved.



Fuzzy feet!



Of course, I was most interested in the angora bunnies. :)



The chickens made good photo subjects, too.

Back on the home front, Tessie had a nice July playing outdoors with her toys.

Her heat sensitivity issues are preventing her from staying outside for longer than a few minutes, so these days, she's enjoying loafing inside in the AC.

Showing off her new collar [and, unfortunately, her growing lymph nodes]:

Camera shy!

What a goof. ;)

Let's see, what else? I visited the Jersey Wooly babies when they were 6 1/2 [I think] weeks old.

Broken doe being adorable :)



Little otter girl I'd love to take home



Peanut!

I have no idea what to think about this guy anymore. He had all the symptoms of being a peanut, and even the vet the owners brought him to thought he was one, too. He's super tiny compared to his siblings, and his head does feel domed [to me at least]... But he's still kicking. He's completely adorable, whatever he is.


August 10th was Spot's first birthday. My baby's growing up!


Nope, that wasn't his cake haha. That was my birthday cake a friend and I had waaay too much decorating. Can you guess the inspiration? :P

Speaking of the brat himself, it's Spotters!



Spottie has been way too busy running around crazy, eating mattresses, teasing the cat, and just generally being himself to stay still long enough for me to snap a decent photo. ;)

The other house bunnies are doing good. It's taken a long time, but Clover has finally settled well into his new home. He loves to binky, and he adores his girlfriend. I find it amusing that despite Clover being a very dominant rabbit, Pepper is obviously the dominant one in the relationship. She eats first, she's not afraid to hump him, and she just generally bosses poor Clover around whenever she feels the need. Despite this, the two are such a cute match, and they get along quite well.

"Food plzzz?"



"Is it dinner time yet?"

Calvyn girl is also finally starting to settle in. While she is obviously uncomfortable in the garage, she loves to spend the nice parts of the day lounging in her 5 foot long hutch outside. She's no longer terrified to come exercise inside, although she prefers to stay away from the mini lops' cage. My younger brother has adopted Cal as his pet, which works out well because Calvyn has really taken to him. Her fur is obviously sunburnt, though I can't figure out how; her hutch is in the shade 100% of the time, and after the last two escapes, she is obviously no longer allowed to play outside in exercise pens.

Just because I haven't shared anything about him in a while... Here's Maraca, my brother's Holland Lop.

Maraca is a tiny little thing at just 2.5lbs; he has major ear control, and is in general just not a very good show bunny. He's a nice pet, though... when he's not spraying or humping everything that moves. My brother wants to eventually neuter him, although that will need to be held off until other vet bills are paid off.

Herbs! Of course, I am a huge proponent of feeding fresh herbs. I've written before about how they have improved coat condition in my bunnies, and it's well known that some herbs such as parsley can boost the immune system, making for healthy bunnies. On a different note, feeding fresh herbs give the diet variety, and the bunnies love them. :) Pictured I have a bunch of basil, some lemon basil, and maybe a bit of chocolate mint. Yummy.


And what would a blog post be without pictures of the English Lops? ;) Beau and Tristynn have healed well from their abscesses. Beau is completely well, while Tris still has a small amount of pus up closer to her thigh. Considering how bad off they were, I'm so glad they've done so well with their treatment.

I've had no issues with gut problems while using the bicillin; the only issue I've seen is that Tris had a small reaction to the drug under the skin. It cleared up within 24 hours, and she hasn't had a problem with it since.

Anyway. With the feet problems finally being under control, I let the buns all out to play one cool afternoon last week.

Miss Sparta!



Most of her pictures ended up like this:



Snuggling girls :)



So cute



Sparta definitely has some issues with being that close her mama's butt.

Tristyn is infatuated with Beau. Maybe she's just being broody, but she was very convinced she was going to fit through the exercise pen bars to visit with Beau. I hope to neuter him by the end of the year, and eventually bond him with Tris. Maybe I'll throw Sparta into the mix after she's retired and have a trio... They'd be so cute. <3>





What a dork. ;)


What's Beau got to think about all this?

The end!

Bath Time!

Saturday was Doggie Torture Day... aka bath day. It was the first time I've washed Tess myself in years, since we usually send her to the groomers to get clean. With her not feeling well, that was definitely out of the question, so I broke out the kiddie pool and puppy shampoo and got to work.

Tess was really not excited about letting me snap some "before" pictures...





...and she was equally unimpressed with the whole "being wet" thing.








But she loved the bandanna she got at the end!







So, how's Tess been doing? To be honest, not so good. She's lost a lot of weight, and as the cancer spreads through her body, she's obviously feeling the effects. Breathing, especially at night, is difficult for her, and she hasn't been on a walk in months because she doesn't have the energy for it. She's content most days to spend all day sleeping in her crate, and her beloved games of fetch [aka, keep-away] in the backyard are things of the past. She's not the same dog she was three months ago, and I hate seeing her like this.

At the same time, there's many things about life Tess still loves, mainly food, her stuffed animals, and her people [in that order]. She still can get around fine by herself, and she's still eating and holding down food. So long as Tess is getting enjoyment out of life, I'm willing to put off the inevitable.

Quality of life is a funny thing. Of course I want Tess to stick around for as long as possible, but I also don't want her to have any sort of suffering. Would putting her down now be cutting her life short, or would it be an act of kindness? It's not a fun thing to think about. I believe, however, that when the time is right to let go, Tess and I will both know. Until then, the game plan is the same as it was three months ago when she was diagnosed: Keep her as happy and comfortable for as long as possible.

It's going to be a rough August.