Confessions of a NEW rabbit breeder.

We are now into the 3rd month of the Rabbit Program. So far $240US has been raised with the additional funding to start the project being roughly $600US.

For details on the Co-op plan and budget please review past entries or run a search with "rabbit" to see all entries.

I have ran into a few hitches of late that I am going to document here and I am open to suggestions from other rabbit breeders and animal lovers.

First some pictures of my rabbits which consist of 4 females and 2 males. Most of these consist of Flemish giants and New Zealand's, the breeder informed me that he had been cross breeding the two to try to create a breed that was better with the young but still large.


This is my large brown female, I believe she is a Flemish giant.















Here is the large white female which I also believe is Flemish. She has very nice markings.
















Here is my spunky female mixed brown, this bunny is very alert and can be aggressive. The other rabbit is my white albino male. Both I believe are New Zealand's, though who can be sure?
















This is my grumpy black, she has the most advanced ear infection. When I first received her the blockage was completely up the ear canal in the upper ear. It took at least 45 minutes just to clear it out. It looks like its come back a bit, but nearly as bad, I will be cleaning her up Saturday with my little helper Handy. She may be pregnant and her fur seems a bit thin around her ears and hocks.
















Hear is a picture of what appears to be an ear infection thanks to the tips and advice from my friends at http://www.rabbitweb.net/. I hope to get antibiotics from Castries from one of the vets, according to Jeremy I need Pen-G or Bipen an antibiotic that runs 10US in the states. I am hoping they have it and will not charge an exorbitant fee since I live on $546 US month to cover all my costs.
















Here is a picture of my big brown male who appears Flemish, he appears to have fur matting on hind legs, I am just wondering if it is an early sign of some sort of Hocks irritation. I put a board of wood inside just in case he is not getting enough support from mesh screen.
















My last major issue has been breeding. The females have not been receptive to the males keeping there rears flat on the cage floor to prevent copulation. I went with some tips from a chat group again at rabbit web to actually hold the rabbit up slightly in the air pulling the tail back so the male can get his business done.

I tried this morning and in the process received a hell of a scratch.















So that is the update, I think with the antibiotic and the mating assistance to help the males I should be seeing babies in 28-32 days. PS nothing quite like holding a female rabbit up with the tail pulled back having the male hump your hand. Jeez, wish me luck on the project!