Why I breed ...

Certainly in the hobby of raising and breeding rabbits, I do not make money. It's just that simple. Many people breed rabbits for pets, never improving their breedings for type or quality. Some have a small 4-H project to learn all the fundamentals, food, fur and fancy. Some breed simply because the rabbit atmosphere has to be the best of all other animals. I have shown horses, dogs, goats.... have been involved in 4-H for nearly nine years. No where in those divisions did I feel more welcome or more happy than I do with the rabbits.
Most of us involved with ARBA, breed rabbits around one sole reason. To improve breed characteristics through desired breedings, to create the ultimate rabbit. With 47 recognized breeds, each having their own groups and varities, unique characteristics and personalities, every breeder has their favorite, their specialty.
I choose to breed Mini Lops. Not only were they my first breed, but to this day I am still convinced they are the best breed for me. They are small (4 1/2 - 6 1/2 lbs) have great personalites, they come in a wide variety of colors (from the common chestnut to the rarer G.Tp'd Lilac Steel) and are competitive rabbits on the show table. According to most BIS won in Domestic Rabbits, they are always in the top rankings.
Mini Lop breeders have to be the best. We always want to help each other get each others rabbits to the table when we are busy, help each other with breedings and continually improving our stock and mingling at the shows. Often we know each others rabbits so well, there is no confusion on which rabbit is which, what lines they came from or who bred them!
I could personally thank some Mini Lop breeders here, and I will. (Not just because I have to in my royalty application) And I doubt half of these would ever read this, but here goes... Jenn Rose - for selling me Venice. Karin Vail - for letting me have Venice bred to your awesome buck Ganache. Andre Von Arx - for giving me the BEST advice on raising Mini Lops, what to look for, selling me Ollie, Julie, Logan, Paul and Jenie, being at the big shows with all your best rabbits, and best of all, to be the first breeder around the table to congradualte me when I win. Nicole Velotta - for providing me with the best and upmost quality stock. I love the personalities and temperments your rabbits have. Thanks for selling me Neilson, Milly (bred to Adson!) and Dean. For giving me Boomer, Stitch, Bridget and Renee (bred to Waltor!) They have helped produce my best animals! Jenn Hibbs/Joy Ekstrom - For getting into Mini Lops! For transporting Honey, Stitch and Bridget from Monroe. Jenn, for showing my ML's while I worked under Joy for my registrar's license. Petersen Family (Mike, Leslie and kids) - For doing a great job with my animals. I would have never imagined you could grand Minnow, Dean and Alex in the tough WA competition! For showing my rabbits at Canby while I worked with Randy Shumaker.
Well I think that's it for the Mini Lops..... I could probably go indepth more of why they are my favorite....But what about those Satins? How did I ever start raising those?
Summer 2005, I found myself going through the barn at our county fair. The bkn red and copper satins really struck me. I could have boughten any one of those Satins... but why should I? I knew a better Satin breeder just an hour away that could fufill my Satin order.
March 2006 - I was given two intermediate black does from Roger Hassenpflug (I told ya there was a better Satin breeder, well there you have it). They were JS and SJ respectively, which my cousin and I named Jessica Simpson and Sarah Jessica Parker. I had them bred in May for meat pens for county fair. I was given litters of 7 and 8 black babies and I took them all to fair. I entered 4 pens, 1 in open (which took 1st!!) and 3 in 4-H, which took 3rd, Res. Champ and Champ. I also had the Champ. single fryer. I decided to keep a doe from the open pen. I named her Brittney Spears.
Brittney and Jessica had litters on Feb 14 this spring. I kept a bkn black, but it was a buck. I sold him to a local breeder who also took Jessica. That winter I had bought a bkn red buck from Melissa Magee and a red doe and copper doe from the Fentons. I had used Porky in breeding to Jessica and I got a bkn blue! I kept this beauty and she's still here currently, PJ. I then sold all my Satins except PJ. I did not want to do the reds and coppers anymore. So that is where it has taken me now. I have now decided to do black, blue and broken only. I have 2 bkn blue does, a black doe and a black buck. I got those new satins from Roger and I am ever impressed. The Satins give off a different atmosphere, mainly because I am still new to the breed and I am one of the only youth breeders in my area who have them. All the others are old farts. But I respect them, I take their advice and I love learning everything about Satins!

Dealing with the heat

With it raining all night and this morning, I am *very* thankful for the weather break. Last week we were in the triple digits and it was just insane. I have always had good luck when dealing with heat, but what about those who aren't so fortunate to have a nice barn?


First thing you can do is invest in a fan just for the rabbitry. It doesn't have to be a fancy one, just somethign to get the air moving. Where we live in the Rogue Valley, the air does not move unless you move it! Circulating the air will take out a few extra degrees.


Cool water is extremely important, wether you feed from crocks, bottles or auto water. A rabbit will not drink warm water.


Ice bottles. No matter the size, but devote some freezer space to some ice bottles. Rabbits will love you for them.

Ears. A rabbit's AC system is their ears. You will notice those things get really warm when it's hot outside. Take some cool water and wet the inside and outside of them. This will cool them off quite a bit.

Do not handle your rabbits! Ever been in a bad mood? Don't want anyone to bother you? You should not handle your rabbits during the day. It will add to their stress they already are recieveing from the heat. I only handle mine in the weee morning or late at night. It's just not worth the risk.

Check, check and check again. You cannot know how your rabbits are doing unless you check on them. When I am home I check on them several times a day, probably every hour (esp in the hot part). When I am not home I ask of my family members to check on my animals for me. I am looking for rabbits that are wet in the nose, lethargic and unresponsive. I check to see how fast they are breathing.

My rabbits handle the heat well with a fan in my rabbitry and the fact my barn is under a whole lot of trees.

More Babies!

Gigi kindled to 4 healthy babies this afternoon, 3 broken and 1 solid (which is the exact opposite of her last litter, 3 solid and 1 broken). She is being a great mom.

Sold 6 rabbits today.... guess that will give us some breathing space.

Satins with pictures and info are now up on the website.

Got Blue Bijou's litter chosen to a nice 5 out of 9. The blue doe is sold and going to New Hampshire in October. We are keeping the bkn blue charlie buck "Buster Blue" and then there are 3 does we couldn't decide on. A smoke pearl steel doe and 2 broken blue does. They are all pretty nice....

Also decided the choosings on Cloey's litter from March. She was bred to Hollywood Dun It. Of those 9 babies, we kept only one, a bkn black doe. We named her Hollywood Hannah and she is a very promising doe.

The Three B's

Went to Roger's and picked out my new Satins yesterday. Much to my amazement, he has more of a buck problem I do, having three bucks for every one doe. So.. there were not a lot of does to choose from.

I came across two broken black bucks I liked. The better broken buck was full sibling to the broken blue doe available so I had to resort to another buck. No worries though, there was a beautiful black buck, typey lil guy. I also chose his half sister, also a black. The black buck is named Boog, the black doe Bounce and the broken blue doe's name is Brook. Don't look at me, I didn't name them!



Kaluah and Peppercini are being good mothers. Waiting for Gigi to kindle. Went through B.B.'s litter and decided which juniors I want for sure from Cloey and Jenie's March litters. I held half of the litters back and I am pretty sure I made some wise decisions for my rabbitry.

Peppercini is a mom!

LHHR's Peppercini

Peppercini kindled 6 of 6 healthy kits this afternoon :) 2 broken, 4 solid. A couple of them look like dilutes! She nested and kindled well; she is being a great first time mom! Sire is her father, Velotta's Boomer.

Bad Storm, Does Nesting

Had a really bad storm last night upon arriving in town for a 4-H meeting. Over 3500 lightning strikes hit GP, hit a church steeple twice and hit the moutain ridge across from us creating a small fire. Helicopters from ODF snuffed the fire out this morning.

Kaluah and Peppercini are nesting well. Gigi will get her box tomorrow. All three does were bred to Velotta's Boomer incase we do sell him for Convention.

Speaking of Convention, we are still making plans. We have deposits on 4 rabbits and a few others pending. We will take 6 - 8 rabbits for ourselves to show.

With all this wacky weather, the bunnies are about to molt. Gosh!

Our next show is August 11th in Yreka, CA. It is a double open just over an hour away from us. Not that bad of drive. The following Monday, the rabbits head to fair. We have pre-fair on the 28th. Just two weeks away.

Saturday we should be getting our satins. We will bring home 2 or 3 does :) YAY!

Well.... today was 113*F. It was nuts; there was no air movement and we struggled to keep the bunnies as comfortable as possible. We didn't feed until 9:45, it's still 95* out. In addition, we now have dry lightning thunderstorms.... just what we need right?

Renee's litter is looking *awesome* Thanks Nicole for the breeding to Waltor. In Waltor x Renee the 1st litter, the solid opal buck picked up his 1st two legs at WSC!!!! We hope this litter is just as successful.

Have a rabbit 4-H meeting tomorrow and we're hopin to pick up the Satins sometime this week. Will have updates when we do.

Renee's cuteness :)

These are the two black steel does from Renee. They are too cute! Renee's litter will be nice and we will be holding onto them for a while.

July = No shows

Our next show is not until mid-august. We're going to go down to Yreka, CA again for the Golden County Fair, Siskyou County, California. It's a double open and hey, it's not that far to travel!
From there is our county fair, Josephine County Fair in Grants Pass. It is a cooped show, we coop from Monday evening until Saturday midnight. I always enter rabbits in youth, and enter in Open as well. I will be doing showmanship, judging and a few other events in my other club. Fair is a great time, it's an "all day, every day" event and I always sleep in the following sunday. It really requires a lot of time and dedication. I usually get home around 1 in the morning. We must report at 7:00 for morning barn duty and then there is a 2 hr indv. barn duty for every one in the barn throughout the day. The rabbits are *never* unattended and recieve constant care.
After county fair, we have a few days to prepare for Oregon State Fair in Salem. I am not sure if I am going yet this year, probably not.... Because they are a cooped show as well, and I cannot afford to stay up there a week (although we may take the chance if we can camp with other bunny/4-H friends).
Then, Labor Day weekend has to be THE BEST! RCRC holds a double open/double youth on Saturday and CRCS holds a triple open/triple youth on Sunday in Crescent City, California! Last year I had a *spectacular* time and now with the ML increase I can suspect this year's will go far better! I have been asked to register rabbits on Saturday, although I am unsure of who CRCS plans to hire/have hired.

So from mid-August on, it's all rabbit shows! (We also have 2 other weekends planned in Sept of shows and then it's MI National Convention!)
We'll sit here at home at let the rabbits start molting so they are ready for fair... ha ha.

New website, coming soon!

Our AOL site is down, and it doesn't look like it will be able to be fixed. We had meant to switch over to geocities soon, because I will be moving and won't be able to update my AOL one away from home anyways.... so it was all meant to happen. Anyways, it's not complete yet, but I will post as soon as it's near done :)