We have a few new additions here in late May. 

The most exciting litter is from Lara and Joey.  Lara gave us a kit last mating which we had to adopt into Flopsy's nest to keep him warm.  We were fortunate that Flopsy and Joey were accidently mated and we had some kits here otherwise he would have died in the cold.  It has taken months and months of work but she now has a family of her own to raise.  She had 6 kits.  One was a peanut (double dwarf gene) and was dead on arrival.  Another peanut died a few days later.  So she has 4 healthy kits born on Wednesday the 19th of May.  Two have the tan pattern on sable colouring which tells me that Lara carries the self coloured gene recessively as the other two are dark sables.  The first couple of days after the birth Lara was off her food a bit and was struggling with the milk supply despite all the tempting green food gifts I supplied her.  Finally I gave in for the kits sake and gave her some bread which she loves as a supplement with her pellets  and the bubbys are looking much better but are still small.   Lara is a fussy eater and doesn't like the usual healthy mother rabbit diet unfortunately.  I had a quick look today and it appears there is two bucks amongst these kits.

The other surprise was Nina's and Monty's fabulous six born late Wednesday night on the 19th of May.  This is Nina's second litter.  She has no problems giving birth and is a very good mum.  She is also very clean which is nice when they do the housework for you.    This is Monty's first litter.  It was intended to test Monty genetically and see if he carried a chocolate gene which unfortunately he doesn't.  The whole litter was black which is common with a chocolate rabbit.  The gene responsible for the chocolate occupy's the same position as the black, so you have one or the other.  Unfornutely Nina is pretty plain genetically with no dilute/blue or genes that give us sooty's or pointed patterns.   She will work well with a chocolate butterfly buck one day in the future, but in the meantime she will need a chocolate fella since that is really all she is capable of having apart from black.   These kits I hope will have inherited Monty's placid nature.  At the moment they are so difficult to tell apart being all black and the same size.  I have checked their sexes and there are 3 bucks and 3 does.

The last litter born was a surprise in that it was so small, I was hoping for a larger number.  I was quite dissapointed.  Susie and Gary had two big boofy kits.  One buck and one doe born on the Thursday the 20th of May.  Susie is capable of having more kits because she is a big girl, but generally doesn't like the boys and won't co-operate.  Gary has done well to catch her and produce that.  Both kits are on a fine paddock all the same and are suffering from obeisity from a few days old.  They are both light in colour and look like seal points or iron greys. 

Jasmine's and Syn's kits born early May are all well and venturing out of their nests now.  Some have lopped nicely already.

We are proud to annouce two new beautiful litters born here at Erinlea sometime in the early hours of Sunday morning.  Sunday morning was fulll of excitement, getting the bunnies ready for show and then a fleeting glimpse in the nest boxes to reveal our newbies.  I didn't have too much time to check them all out.  Just a quick check to confirm numbers and pull a dead one out of Syns nestbox which either strangled itself with some hay or came breech.  Today I've taken some lovely photo's of Syn and Peter's 3 healthy kits which I'll post on the web site soon.  She had 5 in total, but struggled with the last which came breech sometime in the early Sunday evening I believe.  She did really well to have five as she is a tiny bunny.  I will leave Jasmines a few more days for photographs.  Jasmine and Teddy once again produced a perfect seven.  Being so many they are quite tiny.  There looks to be 3 nicely marked butterflies amongst them.  Not perfect on their noses which we struggle a bit with here, but nice.   There is two black and one sooty fawn butterfly.

For those of you that have been following our expected litters list, Lucy did have kits to Gary a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately she lost the whole litter of four again.  The good news is she is getting better, as the time before it took her a few days to deliver them all dead.  This time it was only a few hours which is an improvement.   For a tiny little girl the kits were quite big.  Lucy is no more than 1.3kg.  The weights of the kits were 37g, 35g, 38g and a kit of 32g with some parts chewed off.  A constant problem I have here with Gary is he can throw some of the largest kits with a very high percentage of breech.  Usually like other breeds of animals, breech kits are born with their tongues hanging out and often present dead with dark bruising on their noses which confuses some breeders.   If you have ever had to pull a breech kit like I have, this is what you will find.  Even though Gary is around 1.3kg himself he often throws very large kits, which the last breeder using him reported aswell.  So what I have tried to do is level out the size genes by mating him to small linage.  It is just real risky using the small does as I want to preserve Gary's good ear carriage and type.  The trouble is if the first kit comes breech then it is all over.  I lost Delta trying this, but there was another under lying problem so not all the blame lies with Gary's genes.  Lara also struggled with 4 of his kits that all came breech the first time I mated her with him.  Joey is now old enough so I now use him with her.   Lucy has had a break now and is ready to mate again and this time I think I'll use Timmy since he is old enough.  Timmy is distantly related with Gary's bloodline and there will be a better record of smaller bunnies in the pedigree of the kits produced I hope. Hopefully Timmy's offspring will know which way is out.  

You can all understand now why I rarely part with small kits from Gary, despite constant request.  Alot of matings and risk went into producing Timmy and Prince.  Their sisters a couple weeks old in Molly's nest at the moment are looking superb.  Being does I'm not fussed if they are a bit big if their type is good.

Owners often enjoy their minilops so much they often think two could be double the fun.  In many cases that is true, but it also means more work, time, feed, accomodation and vet bills. So if your thinking of keeping two rabbits it is critical you plan and take all these things into account.

For most families who want their minilop for a companion I suggest they stick to one, preferably a desexed buck.  Bucks are always super friendly, and it is best to spend your money, that otherwise would have been spent on another rabbit, getting him de-sexed to stop him from spraying.   If you introduce a second rabbit into the relationship equation then they are generally more focussed on the other rabbit than their human family.  So if you want your rabbit to focus their attention on you and enjoy your company, then just keep one and spend a considerable amount of time with them. 

Let it be made known that show breeders always keep their rabbits in separate cages.  This avoids a whole lot of problems and injuries that can occur from keeping two rabbits together.  Remembering we can't de-sex our rabbits if we are going to show and breed with them.  The only time I keep multiple rabbits together is often for a period immediately after weaning while I'm preparing new cages for them.   Mostly it is young does that I would keep together for a short period, but you finish up with better does if you separate them.  The other time is sometimes when I am mating a difficult doe I may room them in with the buck for a short period of time.  You need to be sure if your doing this that they won't fight as a doe can easily rip a good show bucks ears and ruin him for show.  Often it is very stressful for the doe as the buck won't leave her alone.  This situation should be carefully monitored and shouldn't continue for any extended period of time.

Talking to many customers on the phone I have found there are usually two main reasons why families think they need two or more rabbits in a cage.   Firstly they often listen to pet breeders who advocate keeping rabbits together for company.  These breeders usually just want to sell you more bunnies.    Secondly, sometimes parents think that they need several bunnies for several children.  They are usually thinking that each child can have a pet, and they can all live together in one pen.  This is a bad idea on several levels.   Ask any breeder and they will tell you rabbits are highly territorial.  I hear from many pet rabbit owners that are quite confused with the conflict of information they hear.  You can also find much information published on how to correctly bond your pet rabbits.  Now, if rabbits were highly social animals, and it was natural for them to occupy confined spaces together, do you think this would be necessary?   In addition owners have problems, when they remove one rabbit from the cage for an extended period of time, perhaps to play with it.   This time may be as short as an hour, but they may still have huge problems when the rabbit is returned to it's cage with the other.  Often there will be a fight.  This can be dangerous for a bunny in a confined cage space and serious injuries may occur as they tussle and re-establish their territories.  

Having made you aware of some of the problems now, I can tell you it is possible to keep minilop rabbits together if your prepared to de-sex them.  This can be costly for several bunnies,  and some families are not prepared to do this.  The problem is that bunnies mature very quickly and their hormones play havoc with their behaviour.  This causes them to become territorial.  Many will tell you rabbits are social animals because they live in colonies in the wild.  In the wild rabbits build their warrens in groups for protection from predators.  When they begin to reach maturity they dig their own residences and fiecely protect them.  In the wild rabbits are not forced together in a confined space and they will avoid each others territory.  By having your pet minilops de-sexed their sexual drives and instinctive behaviours are reduced, allowing them to enjoy one anothers company like when they were young kits.

Two Does Together:

If you keep two does together you will need to separate them usually around the 4 month mark.  This is because as their hormones begin to operate they will naturally want their own territory, and protect it.   When keeping young does together I find one will always dominate the other.  The dominate doe will usually boss, and sometimes even hurt the other.  In an extreme case, even the stress caused by one will kill the other. This is not good for the personality developement of the bullied doe.  Ultimately two does would need to be spayed if they are to reside with one another beyond maturity.  They have a better chance of getting along if they are siblings and have grown up together.  But this does not guarantee they will be happy as each has it's own personality, likes and dislikes.   Since they usually can not be desexed till they are six months old, there will be a troublesome period  where perhaps they will need saparate cages anyway.  So why not give them separate residences in the first place and allow them time together in the back yard on neutral ground to socialise.  I would still recommend that they be spayed if kept as pets.

Does are naturally shyer than their male couterparts and tend to grow into better pet adults if kept by themselves and socialised solely with your human family.  If roomed with other does they will become more timid and harder to handle as they will tend to stick together and prefer the other bunny's company while they are young.  As they age they are constantly distracted by each other, not usually in a positive way.   Their social position is usually the focus, often avoiding the others territory if they are not the dominate bunny.  When they live alone I find does more relaxed as they are not watching their backs constantly, and worried how they will affect or dominate the other.  You need to spend alot more time handling and patting does to achieve a similar friendly nature that comes naturally to the bucks.

Two Bucks Together:

I never recommend for anyone to do this.  If you were to try, I suggest you start with two cages just in case the plan fails at any time.  To give yourself the best possible chance of this working it would be best to start with two litter mates.  Then usually one becomes dominate when they are quite young and constantly tries to mate with the more passive of the two.  At this point you will need to examine the situation and decide if it is impacting on the more submissive rabbits development.  If you feel it is, separate them till they are neutered.  As soon as they are old enough, usually when they are four and a half months old, you would need to neuter them both.  Then you will need to slowly re-introduce them to one another on neutral territory and watch carefully for signs of hostility.  It would be common to see neutered bucks mounting one another to establish a hierarchy and express their dominance. There is no guarantee that this neutered buck senario will work that well, it depends on the personalities of the boys.  Their personalities may be such that they will never get along.   What may work, is that they still reside in separate accomodation and play on neutral ground together in your back yard for short periods of time under supervision.  If they fight, break it up by squirting water at them with a spray bottle.  You can also try putting them on leashes initially which will allow you to separate them more easily if they squabble.  Remember even if neutered bucks seem to get along well, you would be wise never to trust them entirely not to fight.  Bucks often fight in the wild to improve their position in the hierarchy of the colony.   Usually these fights lead to serious injuries that can cause death. 

A Buck And Doe Together:

If you are going to keep two rabbits, then a male and female combination is by far the best.  Usually they will enjoy the closest bond of the three senarios.  Littermates do well together but must be separated before they are 4 months old as they will do what rabbits do, incestruous as it may seem.   Pregnancy at a young age is not desired and dangerous for the doe.  It might be the best combination but clearly two cages will be needed initially.   Otherwise the doe will try and establish her territory and the buck will constantly harass her.  The problems should settle down after they are both de-sexed, and they can be re-introduced.  

If you really like the idea of two rabbits then what I suggest you try, is raise the doe first and get her desexed.  Give her a while to adjust and then try to introduce a young buck.  Hopefully they get along, but it would be best to have a back up plan in case it doesn't work initially.  If you find they are fine living together, eventually he will start to mature and harass her by mounting her regularly.   By then it will nearly be time to get him neutered.  In any case she should be able to handle herself for a short period of time being bigger and older.