Genetics Part 1: A Primer and a Quiz

Rabbit Genetics, Part 1:

Genes control everything in an animal, from temperament  to maximum size and growth potential.  It is why peanuts are born to dwarf rabbits and not in normal lines, and why some rabbits are lops or wooly. The easiest type of genes to see and study are the color genes, because it produces an obvious result that is only rarely affected by outside factors.  For this reason, I’m focusing on color so that you can get the idea.  

I’m going to assume you have the basics of genetics down, and can understand words like dominant and recessive.  I’m happy to answer questions in the comments!

You can find some well-written and enjoyable primers at these links:
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/rabbit-genetics/
http://www.threelittleladiesrabbitry.com/rabbitcolorgeneticsindex.php

Why do some litters look like a rainbow and others look nothing like mom?

Preparations For Litter 2, and Reality Reminder

Dawn has begun nest building preparations for her second litter as of this morning. When the Lady of the House went to put hay in, Dawn was so eager for it she was taking hay from the Lady of the House's arms. We were a bit surprised by this turn of events needless to say, given that this is day 24 of her pregnancy, and we wouldn't be expecting kits for 4 more days.

Moving The Litters

The growing out hutch is complete, and all of the babies are in the hutch giving their mothers some much needed peace before their next litter is born, which should be around the 16th or so for both Dawn and Sunny. As you can see, the babies are no longer so small, and are very actively curious about everything going on in and around their new home.

End of (this) Heat Wave

The heat wave finally broke fully a couple days ago much to everyone's relief. All of the rabbits made it with liberal application of shade and frozen water bottles. In the aftermath of the storms that marked the end of the heat wave, we got to see the beautiful side of our driveway on the way out to get some supplies. The Lady of the House got a good picture so I figured we'd share it with you.

Making the Growing Out Hutch, and HEAT!

Work continues on the hutch, and despite my desires it isn't quite done yet due to some in process design changes to account for reality. The other part of it not being done is just how hot it was yesterday. Temperatures in the mid to upper 90s with near 100% humidity doesn't mean you can't work. It just means you should do so slowly and with awareness of your body. Between that and needing some new materials to do this properly, we are currently 2 doors short of a hutch.

Life Moves Along

Today I have no new photos, not because the Lady of the House didn't take any. No, I don't have any new photos because I forgot to grab my thumb drive with them loaded onto it before leaving this morning. So, for today the picture for the blog is this one, because we have yet to see just one rabbit drinking at a time. We've decided that we do need to get more water bottles for the hutches with babies in them because we are filling in the morning when we find it empty, and early evening when we get home to an empty bottle. Given that for best health rabbits should always have access to fresh water, that's not optimal.

Advice on Weighing Babies, and General Updates

As you can see, Twilight is settling in nicely and enjoying her new home. I miscalculated how much pellet food I had left today so she suffered having her entire meal for the day being Hay. As you can see, she is terribly upset. So upset that when I did a health check and ran my hand down her back she didn't even stop eating. Such an awful situation. Overall she is a bit more skittish than say, Dawn, but she is getting more friendly by the day.

A Busy Weekend and Data Sets!

Things have been a little hectic since the last post what with settling into the new job which is great, the Lady of the House being out of town, working on the studio, and life in general. I don't have a lot for you today because of that, and because I spent most of last night when I would normally be working on writing the blog creating data sheets and putting data into said sheets. That said, here is a cute photo for no reason.

New Arrival: Twilight

Today I went down to Michelle Chandler's Blessed Acre Farm to pick up our 4th breeder, an American Blue doe named Twilight. Between that and the rest of what is going on today the post is obviously a little delayed today. Below you can see Twilight investigating her new hutch.

Work Progressing, and Babies Growing

Things have been fairly busy this week, as I got a new job mid last week, and yesterday was my first day. The Lady of the House is also preparing to go to Anime Next. That said, even with the rain we've managed to get a fair amount done around the house. Most of it normal cleaning and general house care, some of it though has been more exciting, like the work progressing on the studio.  We've also continued to see rapid growth in the babies. I was also excited this morning to be able to get a picture of a baby sitting on Sunny's head to eat.

Learning Experiences, and Growing Out Hutches

We've had a couple of learning experiences over the last two days. Fortunately none of them have been devastating like some of our earlier learning experiences. As you can see in this photo our driveway is still here, and with minimal damage. We had some sudden and very hard rain on Tuesday night. Fortunately the lady of the house managed to get home in time to put down 2x4s angled towards the edges of the driveway every 30 - 40 feet or so to slow the water down and prevent major erosion.

Heat Considerations

This post somehow disappeared between Wednesday during the day and the morning today when I logged on. This is a quick reconstruction of the post.

Over the past couple days we have had some high heats sooner than expected for the area. Given that rabbits can die from heat with the temperatures as cool as 80, we were concerned. The normal method of dealing with this issue is to put frozen 2 liter bottles of water in the hutch that they use to stay cool. Unfortunately that only really works for 4 - 6 hours. Given that on Tuesdays the soonest one of us gets home is after 10 hours, that doesn't work. Yesterday we brought the rabbits inside quickly to prevent them from having health issues.

The Rain Keeps Coming

Which has been of great inconvenience to me. Dawn's babies are rapidly approaching the age when they will be getting weaned from their mother. While I do have a spare hutch to put them in, I don't have a full sized growing out hutch made which is what I want them to be in. It isn't built simply because it won't stop raining long enough for me to mow the lawn, much less construct a new hutch. Below you can see our hutches right next to our house. Unfortunately due to the constant rain mixed with when I'm working I haven't even gotten to paint them yet. Of course this weekend when I will be working the whole time it will be gorgeous. That said, the babies are doing quite well.

Behavior, Rain, and Other Environments

As you all know, this weekend the Lady of the House and I went to Nauticon to sell her art. While we were away the baby rabbits grew apace, as did the lawn due to the combination of regular rain and a sunny weekend. On our return we found the babies substantially larger in both cases, and very alert and mobile in the case of Dawn's babies. Below you can see all six of them wondering why we have so cruelly woken them up. I should say, all six of them are in the picture, actually seeing all six is difficult.

Active Babies, and Going to Nauticon

I'm getting this post done as the Lady of the House finishes last minute artist con prep for going to Nauticon to sell her art. We managed to get quite a number of good pictures of babies of the nearly newborn and older both for this post. That said, it is harder to get pictures now of both litters. For Dawn's litter it is because they are moving around quite a lot now. For Sunny's litter it is because they move more than Dawn's did at that age, and because of Mama Sunny's baleful attentions. The picture Below is an example of her being calm. When I am weighing her babies I have to do it quickly because she gets upset and indicates that she Will do something about my presence if I harass her babies too long.

Kits Open Their Eyes, A New Birth, And The First Luna Moth

An eventful last week all around including assisting with graduation at the school the Lady of the House works at. On the homesteading front, the lady of the house has been working on growing herbs, and for the most part they are doing well, though we just can't seem to keep the Dill alive. The babies are growing well though, and Dawn's babies opened their eyes over the weekend. They are getting very active and inquisitive.  As you can see below, even the smallest of the litter is very active, and looking like a baby rabbit now.

Baby Growth, and the Bear

We've had a lot going on this week in the homesteading department, the baby rabbits being the obvious major part of that. The other part of what has been going on is that on Saturday we got a bunch of herbs, some vegetables, and some grape vines and planted them. I don't have pictures of what we planted, nor do I even remember exactly what all we planted since that was mostly the Lady of the House's project. I just know we've got a good number of cooking herbs growing, and 4 grape vines planted in the side of the hill. The babies are getting tough to take good photos of because of how much they move.

Dawn's First Litter: Details

As I posted yesterday Dawn's first litter was born! I didn't go into much detail about what was going on with them, and didn't have much in the way of good pictures. Today I hope to remedy those two lacks. Yesterday at about 9:55 AM I got home from bringing the Lady of the House to work and found that there were noises coming from the private section of Dawn's hutch, which she nearly never uses. I went to check, and found her hovering over the nest. By petting her and putting out hay for her I got her to let me see the babies. I took out and counted all 8 of the babies at that point, and got pictures of her cleaning herself off. There was a fair amount of blood on her, which I'm assuming is normal for giving birth. She efficiently cleaned it off which I'm guessing means I arrived JUST as she finished giving birth. The babies at that point were completely naked, and very warm. When I weighed one a little later that one ended up being 66 grams, which is quite large for just born baby rabbits, even meat breed rabbits apparently tend to start off in the 45 gram range. Dawn has been very accommodating to let us look at and handle the babies without issue. She also appears to have been feeding them.

We've got babies!

 To the left you can see one of the babies from the first litter This little one is 66 grams, and rather active for all that he or she doesn't have eyes open yet! I came home from dropping the Lady of the House off at work, and found Dawn in the nesting area looking a little stunned, and when I got her to move, a pile of baby bunnies covered by an awful lot of fur. Dawn herself was amenable to me checking in on the babies, and didn't bite me, or make any advances at me when I did go in and check.

Below the cut are some pictures of Dawn cleaning herself off from the blood from the birth, and a few more pictures of the same baby. I didn't want to bother too many of them in this weather.

No Baby Bunnies Yet

I was holding off on writing a post in hopes of getting photos this morning of baby rabbits in the nest. Unfortunately that isn't yet the case, or at least wasn't when the Lady of the House and I left this morning for work. Instead, Dawn is still rotund and grumpy, and the nest is still empty.  So instead of pictures of pink baby bunnies, and likely a bleeding hand from trying to move Dawn, here is Dawn in all of her joyful glory. Below the cut are pictures of the nest.