Baby Pictures!

they're getting to the cute stage

They're getting to the cute stage, so it's a good time for more baby bunny pictures. Although, it's always a good time for more baby bunny pictures, isn't it? Maybe when they're old bunnies we can embarass them with their baby pictures?

Who all do we have out there at the moment? There's quite a few new babies. There's been three litters this year with two more scheduled for the end of this month. Previously, litters hadn't appeared when expected and even when they did, there were only a couple of babies or very few in the litter. Things seem to be getting back to 'normal' now! Well, 'bunny normal', probably not normal for many other species, but now we're seeing more of the litters appear and a lot more babies in the litters. As folks say 'just like rabbits', ha!

At the moment, there are eighteen baby bunnies out there! That's the most we've had in ages. Since there's baby bunnies, there should be baby bunny pictures, don't you think?

We may as well go litter by litter with the oldest ones first. (I'll add in their genetic color codes, so just ignore the odd alphabet soup if you're not interested in color codes.) Also, there's other details of their parents and such, but you can just look at the pictures if you like.

Litter #1

1. Petunia, a white baby bunny, possible Vienna Carrier..... aa __ cc __ __, PVC
2. Lotus, a black baby bunny, possible Vienna Carrier..... aa B_ C_ D_ E_, PVC
3. Spot, a Vienna Marked black baby bunny..... aa B_ C_ D_ E_, VM
4. Speck, a Vienna Marked black baby bunny..... aa B_ C_ D_ E_, VM

Petunia, Lotus, Spot and Speck are our oldest four baby bunnies. Jessie is a pure bred English angora, however the sire of the litter, Nero, is a hybrid buck so this litter is hybrid angora. We don't know if they will have the fuzzy ears of an English angora or the clean head of a German/Satin angora. These babies are three quarter English Angora, one eighth Satin angora and one eighth German angora. Which is a hybrid, but they may have fuzzy English ears?

The four of the babies are all as fuzzy as Petunia, although I don't have any pictures of the whole pile of them just yet.

Litter #2

March 3rd, 2019
Olivia, a chocolate doe x Caesar, a tortoiseshell buck
(Genetic color codes..... aa bb Cc Dd Ee X aa Bb Cc Dd ee + Possible Vienna Carrier)

1. white baby bunny..... aa _b cc __ _e
2. black baby bunny..... aa Bb C_ D_ Ee
3. chocolate baby bunny..... aa bb C_ D_ Ee
4. chocolate tortoiseshell baby bunny..... aa bb C_ D_ ee
5. black tortoiseshell baby bunny..... aa Bb C_ D_ ee
6. black tortoiseshell baby bunny..... aa Bb C_ D_ ee

They are fifteen days old in the picture, just over two weeks old. They aren't really wandering too much out of their nest yet, but they are beginning to open their eyeballs. Pretty soon there will be little eyes everywhere.

The color of the one tortoiseshell baby looks almost like a blue or lilac tortoiseshell. I've got it listed as a chocolate tortoiseshell because that is a much more likely color. The mum bun, Olivia, is chocolate and Caesar carries chocolate. If the baby bunny turns out to be a blue or lilac, then both parents would have to have a recessive for dilute colors. As far as I know, they don't have the recessive gene, but we will give it another week or so and check again when the baby is bigger.

The whole litter is purebred English angora, however Caesar's brother, Julius, is a Vienna Marked bun, so it's possible that Caesar carries the Vienna gene. I should check to see if Caesar has white toenails, which is a disqualification on the show table as well as an indicator of the Vienna gene.

Litter #3

March 8th, 2019
Cassandra, a black hybrid doe X Augustus, a fawn buck
(Genetic color codes..... aa B_ Cc D_ E_ X Aa B_ C(C) D_ ee)

1. Chestnut Agouti..... A_ B_ C_ D_ Ee
2. Black Tortoiseshell..... aa B_ C_ D_ ee
3. Black Tortoiseshell..... aa B_ C_ D_ ee
4. Fawn..... Aa __ C_ D_ ee
5. Chocolate Agouti ? Not sure if this is it's color 6. Black..... aa B_ C_ D_ Ee
7. Black..... aa B_ C_ D_ Ee
8. Black..... aa B_ C_ D_ Ee

Cassie is a litter mate to Nero (the sire of Litter #1) so she's also a hybrid angora. She's 1/2 English, 1/4th Satin, 1/4th German so all the babies in this litter will be 3/4th English, 1/8th Satin and 1/8th German. Same percentages as Litter #1, so we will be able to look at the first litter to guess how this litter will turn out.

This is Nero, he's the sire of litter #1 and brother to Cassandra, the dam of litter #3. He's eight months old in the picture so he's fully adult at this age. He's not going to get fuzzy ears, but he does have nice wool.

There's two more litters planned for later this month:
DUE 3/20/2019 Jessie, a black doe x Phineus Phogge, a lilac buck
DUE 3/29/2019 Athena, a chocolate doe x Phineus Phogge, a lilac buck

All of the prospective new parents are 100% English angora so there won't be any more hybrid babies. I want to see how these turn out before having any more hybrids.

What with all the new bunnies, I've been hoping to clear out behind the garden to set up another hutch there, but it's been almost constant rain. The ground is really wet and it's hard to work outside. At the moment, one long hutch of one layer so it will be easier to keep it clean is what is planned, we will see what shows up.