blog 14 'and we are melting...'

Welcome back TS bloggers :) and what a couple of weeks it has been....hot, hot and even hotter lol but shouldn't complain as it will probably snow by next week (though I should not tempt fate) anyway at the stud we have had a quiet week or so...with the hot weather all our show bucks (and a few does) have decided to go into moult so no shows unfortunately. No litters born either so nothing to report there, we do have a couple of boarders staying with us which is always nice to see stock when it comes back :) the first is a choc otter doe called Bella

Bella was a very small doe in fact we thought we were going to loose her as she was failing to thrive...in fact she was so week she could not use her back legs very well, we managed to pull her through but we realise we could not use her in the shed in our breeding as it would not be fair on her so we decided she would be better as a pet....and if she was going as a pet, that she would need a very special home to go to. Lynne came to see us with her daughter and they bonded fantastically more so for the daughter who could understand the special needs of Bella :) the only downside to Bella's life is that she does have fit's every so often and even with detailed vet intervention no one understands the cause of why she gets them? :( her quality of life is brilliant she is a very energetic rabbit, she is double the size of when we last saw her (not fat) and if the amount of toys are anything to go by when she turned up she is loved very much by her adopted family.

Our next boarder is an orange mantle buck who was originally part of a pair that went out the owner changed their mind about wanting 2 and decided to keep this little man.

 

He is a real little character constantly on the go , much to our young helper Ellie found out when he decided that he loved her arm....and I mean really loved her arm (grin) anyway he is another rabbit that has put on weight (in a good way...lots of muscle lol) he is only staying for 5 days so unfortunately has to go mid week.

 

Other bits of news is that all litters now have their eyes open with some ready to home now, 3 choc otter does are ready to go now in the mini lops at just over 8weeks old. Another litter of 4 has 3 already reserved so I wont worry about them lol, there are also  3 brown Siberians ready to go as well as 2 Perlfee's so hopefully once all gone I can concentrate on the stock still here for London :)

 

Another litter we are keeping an eye on is the F1 Glavcot programme, the 5 F2's of  Charlie's are doing quite well





3 opals with silver ticking already, 1 cinnamon and 1 lynx, once they are sexed we can think about the next stage of the programme :)

 

Other news in the shed is mainly to do with the hot weather....I wanted to leave windows open but not to allow gnats n flies etc. to be able to get in so originally I put up muslin netting except when they got dusty they clogged up and stopped the air flow around the place. I decided to change over to mesh netting and came across a site that did lots of various types and settled for a 6 metre roll for about £20 its brilliant looks good and has made a difference already :) the shed door is a stable door so was easy enough to do

 

In total there are 6 opening windows which were easy enough to cover as you can see in these photos

 I even had enough to cover Kim's Guinea pig shed which was a brilliant result and it stops the sun from being to strong for the animals

 The last thing I would advise anyone to try and purchase is an air conditioner unit, although our shed is insulated and does a good job of staying cool in there (there is a small extractor fan that keeps the air moving as well) it makes an amazing difference to the rabbits ...and ourselves lol if it does get to warm...well worth the investment :)





Ok that's it for this week bloggers as I have to feed the buns and am expecting  2 people  to look at rabbits so until next time ...l8rs