Show Season Starts

Alex Stepnoski won Best 6 Class Youth with her Giant Angora.

BOB English Angora Shepherds Sweetpea.

BOB Jersey Woolie CR White Excitement.

Mid-Jersey Showroom during judging.

Show season started off for me with shock and awe. This show was one of the few time showing Jersey Woolies and I was looking at it as a learning experience. Much to my surprise, the white senior buck and the white senior doe were put in coops behind the table. When some of the breeders said "Dru, you won BOB!" I thought they were joking. He is a handsome buck from CR rabbitry but I still am in shock. Not expecting to do well but hoping for some judging knowledge to help improve my Jersey woolies, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I had high hopes for Shepherds Sweetpea as I thought she looked really nice (don't judge by my bad photo just when the wind started to blow). She went on to win BOB. It was a learning experience trying to chase around two breeds up for BIS at the same time.

The Mid-Jersey group always put on a great show, in the middle of the hustle and bustle of a large local fair, with people from all over attending. Many people had questions about the Angora rabbits and it gives all the rabbit breeders a chance to promote their favorite breeds.

Alex Stepnoski went ahead and represented the Angoras by winning Best 6 Class Youth with a beautiful Giant Angora. She does such a great job with her bunnies, she really deserved to win. Alex is major competition to the Open breeders and gives us all a run for the money. We all better watch out as she is 18 this year and soon will be no longer able to show in youth. We will all be trouble then. Congrats Alex.

Dog Days of Summer

Boy, it is hot.

I still like to sunbathe though.

Am I tan yet?

Just had to put this one in for cuteness sake.

This has been a really miserable summer weather wise. It has rained or been cloudy almost every other day and now is really, really hot. The Jack Russells seem to enjoy it as they are always cold. But the rabbits are another story. They do not enjoy morning temps that start out at 80*. I have tried a variety of cooling methods this year including frozen bottles, frozen ceramic tiles and a misting system plus the usual fans going non-stop. Yesterday, I pulled out a bunch of large ceramic feed dishes, filled them with ice and sat them in some of the cages. These were enjoyed by all and when they were done laying by them, playing in them, then they drank out of them. Mind you, I only gave these to bunnies who were clipped down for the summer otherwise we would have a a big felted mess. They also enjoyed a light spray of cool water from a spray bottle during the heat of the day. I don't often use air conditioning in my house but the bunnies in full coat are in cold storage with the a.c. running full blast. They share a room with two very old house cats that have been flat out all summer. Monday we are supposed to have a break in the weather, so here is hoping.

Bunny Beauty Parlor

Shepherds Hailstone, broken blue junior buck.

Shepherds Fern, broken black junior doe.

Shepherds Hydrangea, blue junior doe.

Shepherds Flores, black junior doe.

Shepherds Thumbelina, broken blue junior doe.

Woolie grooming day at the Bunny Beauty Parlor. They are so different from grooming an English Angora. Being so small with very easy care wool, I can groom 21 of them in 2 hours. They are not so cooperative though and spend alot of time climbing up the bamboo curtain, sitting on my shoulder for kisses or spinning around standing on their hind legs like a monkey. They will sometimes try to leap off the grooming table for no reason or try to put themselves into my apron pocket. I try to keep a hand and my eye on them at all times. Jersey woolies are much faster and more inquisitive that the angoras.

Many of my blue and broken blues come from GC PP's Tom Thumb, the "King of All" and they look so much like him. Many have his startlingly blue eyes. I used a variety of blue does with him to see who would turn out best and so far all of his litters have been very nice. The funny thing is that all of this babies have been does except one. That is Hailstone, above. He looks just like his dad. They are still a work in progress for me but I think they are starting to show some promise. There may be some of my juniors showing up on the show table this season. I hear one of my junior buck that went to a lovely new home in Maryland won BOS at the fair for his new owner. Congratulations!

Summer Ear

After taping.

Fluffy ear fountain.

Are you looking at me?

Some supplies.

There are many temperature related problems with English Angoras and Summer Ear is one of the most disappointing. After raising a beautiful litter of bunnies all the way through 6 to 7 weeks of childhood, you look at them one day and find one ear is lopped down. The day before it was perfectly fine standing up in a perfect "V" shape and today it looks like it was broken during the night by a mob of bad bunnies. If left alone, the bunny will never be able to show and it can cause other ear related problems. The bunny cools itself through it's ears and if it is hanging down this makes that more difficult plus a bunny growing long ear furnishing can find them dragging along the ground.

The heavy furnishing growing out on a young bunnies ears in warm weather causes this problem. The weight of the new wool and sometimes bigger ears developing in the heat, puts stress on the ear cartilage. A solution that has worked for me is to gently give support to the ear base with tape. I have used 1" cloth surgical tape loosely wrapped around the base of the ears a few times making a tube to support the ear base but lately I have found plastic postage tape to give better support. I take this off once a week to check for improvement and re-apply. Or the bunny removes it for me. Sometimes it needs to be on for up to month or until the weather gets cooler. Most times the ears carriage will develop normally. The bunnies don't seem to even mind it after an initial scratch at it.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Black rabbits seem to just radiate heat.

They attract the heat right into their coats.

Keep them cool at all times.

Weather has been a big topic in New Jersey and across the country this year. June and July were very wet and cool around here while Seattle has hot and dry. Now all of the sudden it is blistering hot and being near the ocean, really humid.

Black rabbits really feel the heat. It seems to absorb into their coats and cause life threatening conditions for them. They will pant with ears shaking and mouths open. Sometimes they lay stretched out on their sides, flat out. Their ears will feel hot and they will be breathing fast to try and cool themselves. Mist them with cool water, put ice on their ears, give them a frozen water bottle or ceramic tile to lay next to. Clipping the bunnies down helps to make them more comfortable for the summer. When they are really in distress, I have seen people put them in a cool bucket of water. There goes a show coat but the bunny's life is saved.

When you are at a show, you can hold an ice gel pack under their chest or against their ears to cool them. I have even used a cool can of soda if I didn't have anything else. You can also put those gel packs under each wire floor of the travel carrier to cool the cage wire without getting the bunny wet.

I feed and water in the morning or evening, leaving them to chill out for the rest of the day. I added a mister hose last year and it really makes a difference to the air temperature. If you can, but them in air conditioning or in a cool basement. Stay cool everybunny.

Bunnies Sitting Still

Blue woolie with step sister.

Trying to keep her in line.

Another non-related nestmate.

A nap after breakfast with Mom as a blanket.

It is very hard to take photos of bunnies as most of them are in constant motion especially the babies. Sometimes I will put them in a show carrier to keep a litter together and I am able to get some close ups with both hand free for the camera. A small basket works well to keep them in one spot. Placing them on a small grooming table or pedestal keeps them stationary. Usually, I just end up with a bunch of tails, ears or blurrs. But sometimes the unexpected happens and you catch a tiny Jersey Woolie asleep under the back of English Angora Mom, Sensation, after a nice meal. Or one tiny Woolie step sister wrestling with her bigger English Angora step sister and holding her own very nicely. It amazes me that this whole group from 3 different litters are just one happy family. They even gave each other a nice bath after all of the fun was over. I really need to get a faster camera so I don't miss so much of the fun.

Keeping Up With Grooming

Sweetpea with her topknot.

Cute green scrunchie.

Lydia in the breeze.

Sassafras sitting nice and still.

Even though there are no shows for awhile, there is always grooming to keep up with. It was cool the other day so I took advantage of the low humidity and groomed 12 English Angoras. They all seemed to like the attention and I was able to get a few photos of them sitting still for a change. Some of the big girls are more comfortable with their bangs up in a scrunchie. It keeps them cooler and they don't miss any treats that might be passed around. Angoras seem to get alot of wool stuck around their eyes and the scrunchie keep the extra long furnishings out of the way. They don't seem to mind it and I have never had a bunny eat one. Although I did think that a junior doe had polished one off but found it in the bottom of the cage pan.