Discoveries...

I have learned a few things in the past weeks, about how to keep rabbits, how NOT to keep rabbits, habits my particular rabbits have and things that I need to change or modify in order to keep a happy home and rabbitry. 
*I have learned, for example, that you should always have casters on your stacked cages.  It is practically impossible to move two stacked cages with rabbits inside when you have to clean up a pee-pee puddle that has magically appeared UNDER the litter tray.
*I have learned that keeping rabbit cages on tile is not the best idea because when those pee-pee puddles appears, they like to soak into the grout and make me spend forever on my hands and knees with the bleach.
*I have learned that rabbits like to pee in the corner of their cages, as far into the corner as possible and since there is like a 3 inch drop to the litter tray, half of this pee will not make it into the litter tray due to basic rabbit anatomy and angles of trajectory.  Thus all of the previous lessons learned.
*I have also learned that they make pee guards for cages, and that they are a good idea.
*I have learned that rabbits like to play with whiffle balls, you don't even need to load them with hay.
*I have learned that it is important to look for hay that is LONG, not broken into bits to shove into a bag.  Rabbits do not seem to eat the little bits and they end up in the litter tray.  They like the long stalks, period.
*I have learned that rabbits have sharp little claws and you should NOT wear a sleeveless shirt when trying to make them do something they don't want to do.  Unless you like that I-just-survived-an-attack-from-an-angry-cat look.  Then by all means, go for it.
*I have learned that an apron is just as much a grooming tool as a brush.  It protects you from the errant scratch, protects your clothes from 800 tiny little fur balls that will never come off and makes you feel very official.
*I have learned that Gnomeo likes cardboard tubes filled with hay, Juliet thinks their dumb.  Gnomeo will play with it, eat the hay out of it, then chew up the tube until it's gone.  Juliet will pull the hay out to eat it, then never touch the tube again.
*I have learned that they will tolerate being accidentally poked in the eye by an almost 2 year old and not turn into some kind of evil rabbit bent on revenge.
*I have learned that water bottles with springs in the drinking mechanism are the most annoying water bottles on the planet, ball on ball is the way to go.
*I have learned that trying to watch t.v. at 10 at night anywhere near the rabbit cages is a bad idea.  You never realize how loud rabbits are until that point.  They drink a lot and it is LOUD.
*I have learned that plastic sheeting is my friend and protects my grout from random pee-pee puddles.
*I have learned not to let my husband touch the rabbit cages, to the demise of my beloved plastic sheeting.  See *I have learned #1 and know that without wheels, if you try to move rabbit cages you will just tear holes in the plastic sheeting used to protect the grout.
*I have learned that using newspaper to absorb the pee in the litter tray keeps the smell down as opposed to not using newspaper and letting it pool to be cleaned later.
*I have learned that it is almost never a good idea to give someone a detailed account of your trials in the rabbit world, unless they are genuinely interested.  When someone asks "How's it going with the rabbits?" They do not want to know all the details, no matter how interesting they may be.  Keep it to a "Great!" and move on.
*I have learned that every 3 days is a comfortable amount of time for us to go between litter changes.  The rabbits are in the house and it is a really hot summer, but we do not smell them at all until around day 4.  So 3 days is good for us.
*I have learned that the more newspaper I use to line the trays, the easier the clean up is...but then I have to use a lot of newspaper.  I am currently looking for an unlimited supply of free newsprint.
The list goes on and on, but to make a long list short, I currently have an order in for a set of casters, pee guards and new plastic sheeting to replace the one with the holes in it.  As soon as I get these things, I'll do a post about the set up that works for me - being a small raiser with cages inside.  I think those three things are going to make daily life SO much nicer for me...and the bunnies too, but mainly for me.

Oasis Water Bottles

This is not a compensated post.  I do not know anyone at Oasis nor did I get these bottles for free or anything like that.  I did, however, get some average water bottles at the local feed store when first setting up the cages for the rabbits.  I thought all the bottles looked the same and just picked one that didn't look "flimsy" or "cheap".  After two days of use, one of the bottles started a constant leak.  I mean it took about 45 minutes before the 32 oz bottle was totally empty and her waste pan was flooded with 32 oz of water.  Fun.  I checked out the bottle myself, limited as my knowledge is about water bottles and found nothing lodged in the tube, nothing blocking the little ball from falling back in place...I couldn't figure out how to fix it.  I called the feed store and explained to the lady on the other end of the line that I had purchased the bottles a month ago but had just started using them two days ago and that one was not working and could I bring it in to exchange or repair or something?  I had two long haired rabbits and it was over 100* outside, they needed water.  So I took the bottle in and she explained that I could not return it because it had been more than 30 days, but I happened to mention that I was starting a rabbitry and didn't have much experience with these bottles and wanted to know which brand to buy in the future so that as my herd grew I would not continue to buy faulty bottles.  I think the thought of future purchases softened her heart, because she recommended the Oasis brand and let me exchange the faulty bottle for one of the better ones.  She explained that the other bottle I had purchased relied on a spring to hold the ball against the end of the tube, keeping in the water.  Sometimes, the spring gets knocked lose and is no longer pushing against the ball, which allows the water to seep out.  This Oasis bottle has no springs and relies instead on two heavy metal balls, one behind the other.  Their combine weight is enough to keep the ball in the mouth of the tube.  So far I have really noticed the difference.  The other old bottle does seem to leak a bit, though it has not yet broken, while the Oasis bottle stays pretty darn dry.  I bought a second Oasis to use on the other cage, and am just waiting until Gnomeo drinks all his water so I can replace it with this one.  I will still keep the other bottle for emergencies - seeing as how I was not prepared when the first bottle broke, it seems a good idea to have an extra one now.  So if you are looking for a good water bottle brand for any small caged critter, the Oasis bottles come in a range of sizes and I haven't had any problems with it so far.  Seems to be quite the well made little bottle.  Let me know if you have any other product tips for me, and I'll keep you informed as to my findings as well.  Then we can all learn from each other and waste a little less money!

Review: Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits

A while ago I said that I would review the first book I read on the subject of rabbit raising, Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits by Bob Bennet.  It is the first book I have read completely about rabbits, since I figured I would need a little more information than the single chapter the average Homesteading book gives to them.  I bought the Storey's Guide because of their reputation, they are one of the best in business of "farm" infomation books and how-tos.  So I gave it a shot and figured it couldn't hurt, right? 
All in all, it was a good resource.  It was not right for my situation and did not offer any real solid information on anything other than meat rabbits.  Mr. Bennet does give a lot of useful information that would be of help had I been setting up an outdoor rabbitry or planning a large number of holes.  He also did have lots of great information on Tans, Californians and other breeds that can be used for meat.  But as I said, the focus was almost 100% meat and a large (small scale) rabbitry.  The author, for example, has a detached garage he has outfitted as a rabbitry.  He included plans for this and various other large outdoor structures, which would be great for people planning on having 30 breeding rabbits and various litters awaiting slaughter at all times.  For myself, with only one breeding pair and having to house them indoors, not much for me there.  There is a section with good information on showing rabbits and making sure that you start with a good pedigree pair of rabbits so that if you do decide to show them or sell them to someone wanting to show them, you can.  There is also a cookbook section, which would be helpful if you were doing this for meat production.  I may end up utilizing any unsold kits as freezer fodder, but I hope to sell them all off.  And there is a nice little section on ailments and breeding as well, since these tend to be the same in all breeds this was also a helpful section. 
I do think that this book has it's place on any rabbit breeders shelf, but it did not have a lot of the information I was looking for as a woman getting into the Angora breeding scene.  It has a lot of good general information and if I am ever able to move my rabbits outdoors, there will be great use for this book.  So if I were new to Angoras and looking for only one book to buy, this would not be it. But if you are looking to set up a good reference library for your rabbitry, this book will fit in nicely.

They're here...

The rabbits in their new digs!  Gnomeo on the bottom and Juliet on top and my 6 year old in there for a size comparison.  Big rabbits mean big cages.  As you can see, she is happy they are finally here.

Rabbit Road Trip, Part 2

So after all was said and done, we loaded Gnomeo (right) and Juliet (left) into their carriers and put them in the back of the van with the window shade over them to try to keep the sun for beating directly on them.  I brought some newspaper for the bottom of the cages and Sarah gave me some hay, I think they were as happy as they could be for the ride.  Rabbits do not eat or drink during travel, I did bring some food and water for the stops that we made but none of it ended up getting ingested by either rabbit. 
We drove from Fruhlingskabine Micro Farm 5 hours to my Mom's house, where I had dinner and we tried to give the bunnies a little food and water.  About an hour later I was back on the road to my house, which is another 5 to 6 hour drive.  I can't tell you how long it was, it was just kind of a blur at that point.  All I know is that I started driving at right about 7 am and made it home around 1 am.  Tired person and tired rabbits.  I got them set up in their cages, hastily, and crashed.  I would love to show more exciting photos, but really the entire drive home looked like this...

So you really aren't missing much.  Except that spot on my windshield which happened somewhere around Turlock - the first time we went through it.  So the rabbits are here and we are all still alive!  My total road time, up and back, was about 19-20 hours.  LONG drive for two little rabbits.  But now I have beautiful rabbits to build my rabbitry and that is awesome.  Thank you to my Mom for going on this insane trip with me and Sarah at Fruhlingskabine Micro Farm for being my friend, mentor and provider of beautiful rabbits.  If you're in the market for Angoras and I'm too far south for you, check her out!

Rabbit Road Trip, Part I

Rabbit Road Trip 2012

 Well to have a rabbitry, one must obtain rabbits, right?  So bright and early one fine July morning...okay it was actually dark, really dark and early.  But still hot.  Annoyingly so.  Who decided it should be 75*F outside my house at 4 am?  Anyway, I left my house in the dark, hot, early hours of the morning and headed up to the Central Coast of California to make a pit stop at my parents house to spend the night and pick up my Mom, who volunteered to make the long trek up to Sonora with me to get my new "livestock".  It turns out this was a GREAT help because most of the drive was exactly what I posted above.  LARGE expanses of flat, parched land.  I would have gone completely insane were it not for her - thank you MOM!

Ice cream stop at Cruisers in Copperopolis, Ca.  Very Stephen King, I was expecting to return to my van to find the tires flat and have to spend the night in the creepy little too perky town.

 

 

The next day, Mom and I jumped in the car a little later since we didn't have any reason to get going as early as I did the day before and headed up north.  We drove for about 5 hours, through a lot of cute little towns and tiny dots on the map...some dots not listed on the map.  We thought we were lost about twelve dozen times, mapquest can make anything difficult, just so you know.  Like I said, I am so glad my Mom was with me!  I never would have thrown caution to the wind and went against mapquest to get to Los Banos, but she did and we got there!  So when we reached the curiously named Copperopolis, we stopped for a bathroom break and something to drink.  We ended up getting an ice cream, since they had Mom's favorite Pistachio, and I just love ice cream so I'll go for it anytime.  But the longer we sat there the more creeped out we got.  Copperopolis, besides having nothing in the way of copper anywhere within it's limits, is straight out of a Stephen King book.  The people all know each other, there are only 5 buildings and one is the town hall, there are apartments on the second floor of those 5 buildings which make you think that the people who work here live here too...just creepy.  So we got out of there fast.  Now I regret not getting a tee shirt.  Oh well.

Angels Camp, Ca

We finally made it to our overnight stop, Angels Camp California.  Home to the Jumping Frog contest Mark Twain wrote about.  It had a cute little historic downtown area which I hope will someday be filled up.  It was about half empty, but what was there was cute.  The sidewalks were covered with plaques to the jumping frogs of the past - each year's winner had it's own star.  Really cute.  We also got to see this little gem -

I don't know why the writing came out backward, I promise it was right in real life.

Mom looks so cool on that old chicken ladder.  I personally thought this was a high point on the trip so far.  That ladder just went forever!  And you would totally need it too, that was a steep hill!

A girl's gotta eat.  We checked in to our hotel and went down the block to get some Round Table Pizza, which Mom and I used to get when I was growing up but haven't had in about 12 years.  Hanging out in the hotel with my Mom, watching movies on HBO, eating yummy pizza and drinking wine from those tiny little single serve bottles = priceless.  It was a nice night.  And even nicer to wake up to this...

I have never had a view like this out my hotel room window before, have you?  We got on the road just after 7 am, hit the first Starbucks we came to and headed out to Fruhlingskabine Micro Farm to pick up the bunnies!  Yipee!  I was so excited, but the directions were so bad (thanks again mapquest) that it took us a bit longer than expected to get there...although we did get to see some interesting sites. 

Mark Twain's Cabin on Jackass Hill

Like Mark Twain's cabin.  Who knew?  So when we finally got there I was a little tense from the drive not going as I thought it would, but I was still SUPER excited to be meeting my e-mail buddy Sarah and my new rabbits.  Sarah was so nice and introduced us to her daughter and her bees and of course, her rabbits.  It is nice to be able to see her set-up and that she was willing to show us around and tell us whatever we wanted to know.  My Mom now is considering a cob oven for her yard and I am trying to figure out how I can hide a hive from my neighbors, unless they happen to be reading this.  Then I have not, nor will I ever consider putting a hive in my back yard.  Ever. 
Sarah gave me a grooming lesson, taught me how to sex a rabbit, what a normal rabbit should look like and how it should behave, gave me a care sheet in case I forgot the basics (because I did), gave me my pedigrees and was just overall extremely helpful!  I was only there for a little bit, but I would have loved to have chatted for days.  She mentioned on her blog that part of the fun of rabbit "farming" is meeting people and I totally agree.  She and I would never have met, had I not contacted her about her rabbits and I dare say she will be a great friend. 

Rabbit Buddies!  Left - me, right - Sarah Cuthill of Fruhlingskaine Micro Farm

Readying the Rabbitry

Well here it is!  The finished set up and new official rabbitry of Cold Hands Farm.  I know this will be a work in progress and that things will change here and there as I find things that work/don't work for our indoor set up, but for now it is ready to go!  I am thinking that Gnomeo will go on the bottom and Juliet on the top.  I have read that the males are a little more tolerant of the pokes and prods of young fingers and I figure Juliet will be much happier to be out of the way of those little fingers when she kindles...has babies, not an e-reader...although I'd be glad to be out of reach of little fingers if I had one of those.  Anyway, it's here and it's ready for bunnies!