As a university student, I've had my share of classes about feeding and nutrition. I am no expert, but after 10 years of raising rabbits (and other livestock) I know when a feed works for my herd and everything that is dependent upon it. When Fibre 3 first came out, it was all the rave. I am not sure what different breeders expected to get out of it; whether it was the no corn, higher fiber and less fat that it promises. My intentions were simple; I wanted a feed that worked well for flesh and condition, that they ate well, and was cheaper than what I was already feeding. My genetics are solidly in place, all I need is a feed for my animals to show it.
When negative comments were starting to fly about Fibre 3, I will admit, I began to worry. When you are 4 hours from home and no "rabbit experienced" family members to tell you about flesh and fur condition you are running a rabbitry blind. Furthermore when I didn't do as well in my first show as I would have liked, I had to e-mail a reputable breeder who switched over last fall. When he told me his experience was going very well, I was relieved.
When I came home, I was uberly impressed. My older juniors, who are now seniors look amazing. My babies that are now juniors, look amazing. Even some of my seniors, who have had litters and went to shows galore, look impressive. The only one affected minorly was my herd buck, who is getting older and needs some TLC anyways. I had healthy litters of 3, 5, 8 and 5 all living with a great start. The feed works for my herd, and so does the price. So I will just let the negative comments fly; I'm sorry it doesn't work out for them.
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I spent a few hours out in the barn and I came up with two show lists. I was really picky and critical.... that's a lot of money to spend. I'm going to weigh two of the juniors tomorrow, with a month left, I want to make sure they won't go over. At Pear Blossom, I am going to show 5... and 3 does are in the same class... but I like them all SO much and with barn blindness, I can't really tell which one I'd pick best, so I'll let the judges suffer over that one ;)
For Mini Lop Nationals, I have chosen to enter 7. Six of them are juniors, and 1 senior doe. I will post my list later on when I have decided "for sure" that's who's going to make the trip.
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I have decided to sell the chestnut doe from Exclusive Getaway and Keepsake. Her Chestnut brother will also be for sale as soon as his first litter is on the ground. I have a chinchilla buck and steel buck from Summer and Stitch. They are very promising as show/herdsires but I will be keeping a doe or two. I also might have a chinchilla doe for sale, she's very nice... so if she doesn't sell I won't be unhappy to keep her :) I have also decided to let go of two senior does, so lots of opprotunties for sales and such.
I cleaned the entire barn today, every single cage. Moved some rabbits around, made some evaulations and did some tattooing. I have some breeder friends coming over tomorrow to get animals registered. I've then gotta head into town to go shopping, Friday is cleaning and Saturday is getting ready to go back "home" to Corvallis. This break has gone by way too fast!
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