Sunday, March 16, 2008

Kits and Kennewick.

Well now that all the buns and I are rested and all settled in from the Kennewick show I finally have time to write about the big weekend.

I have to admit the drive to Kennewick was pretty long! The weather on the drive down to Kennewick on friday evening was crazy. Overcast to pouring to sunny with a rainbow to drizzling to snowing and all of them repeated a few times. But me and the buns all made it the whole 5 hours. Whoa! The buns spent the night in the car and I stayed at the Clover Island Inn. My room was fairly priced for the amenities that I got. Cheap rooms are my liking...LOL..Saturday on the other hand started early with the showroom opening at 6:00 am. It was a great facility! Loved the concrete floors, all 15,000 square feet of it...nice and roomy!

At the show I was able to get to see many good friends and fellow breeders, along with some individuals who I met for the first time.

To name a few, it was great chatting with Becky and her son (I hope you like M an' M's Chairry!), Claire, Miranda, Karrie, and a bunch of other wonderful people whose names currently evade my brain!

Anyways, lets get to the wins. OK, so first for chins. In show A there were 5 chins, 4 exhibitors. Nancy Baskett's senior doe took BOB under Floyd Rudoulph. In show B there were only 4 chins, 3 exhibitors, so sadly my animals did not get legs even though they took BOB and BOSB under Cindy Wickizer. Oh well! Better luck next time.

M an' M's Mistro, a standard chinchilla junior buck was sold at the show to a lovely family and 4-H girl who wants to show him. She was so delighted that he already had one leg. Anyways, hopefully she will eventually want a doe to begin raising standard chinchillas!

Ok, so now for the woolies.

Well, for Show A and B there were both about 22 woolies. In show A M an' M's Miss-D-fy took BOG Self and Best of Breed. M an' M's Kandice, the little chin doe was Linda Bell's close second for Best of Breed. What good news! M an' M's Zane took BOG Tan Pattern and also Best Opposite Sex of Breed.

So M an' M Rabbitry animals took Both BOB and BOSB Show A for Jersey Woolies. *And M an' M's Zane broke the record for having the most legs won by a M an' M rabbit.* His current leg count it 8!

Show B was also quite interesting. Of course M an' M's Miss-D-fy was again in the running for Best of Breed with all of *her* wool. But we ran into a bit of a glitch in the choosing of BOB and BOSB process in Show B with Judge Floyd Rudolph. The problem was.....was that my cute little Miss-D-fy was a Mr-D-fy...Yeah truly. He has gone through 3 shows as a "she" and none of the judges noticed. Anyways, because of this little boo boo, M an' M's Miss-D-fy was DQed. But because the most beautiful rabbit was DQed on the table, the judge had to choose a new Best of Breed. This new best of breed and best opposite sex of breed were both M an' M animals....Yea! M an' M's Melodrama got his 3rd leg for Best of Breed Jersey Wooly (I kind of need to get him registered now...LOL). And M an' M's Star-Struck won Best Opposite Sex of breed getting her 2nd leg!

So M an' M Rabbitry Jersey Woolies took BOB and BOSB for both show A and B at the Tri Cities RBA!

Way to go M an' M animals!

OK WOW I DIDN"T REALIZE THIS POST WAS GOING TO BE THIS LONG...WE ARE ONLY HALF WAY THROUGH!

So now on to the kits news.

NEW BABIES WERE BORN TODAY!

Ok, so here is a quick little synopsis.

Because it has been pretty chilly outside and the does were nesting beside their nestboxes. I decided that I needed to bring all 4 does in that were due on the 16th, so that if they did have their kits on the wire, that they wouldn't freeze to death, like some kits did earlier this winter.

Anyways, so I brought all 4 doe's cages into my bedroom, so that it would be easy for my mother and sister to check on them to make sure they are doing ok.

None of the does ended up kindling while I was gone, but its better to be safe then sorry! The first doe to kindle today, March 16th was M an' M's Frida. She had 4 healthy kits that she is raising just great! And she had them in her box...what a good girl!


M an' M's Frida X RM's Grasshopper Kits
Kindled March 16th, 2008
Colors: 2 Blacks, 1 Smoke Pearl and a Broken


Rolling Hill's MacKay was the second doe to kindle today and made her nest on the wire, had the kits on the wire. Oh well. She had 4 kits, all which were alive. There was 2 normal kits and then 2 peanuts. I will get pics of the kits and peanuts, since I haven't done a blog post on peanuts yet, or have taken any pics of comparing a peanut to a normal sized kit.


Rolling Hill's MacKay X M an' M's Zane
1 Smoke Pearl Marten and 1 Smoke Pearl Kit
2 Peanuts not shown in image above
Kindled March 16th


Rolling Hill's MacKay X M an' M's Zane's Kits
1 Normal kit and 1 Peanut
1 Day Old
Note the size difference, and how pudgy the sides of the normal are compared to the peanut. This is because the peanut has not nursed, whereas the normal has. Peanuts typically have no desire to nurse, and usually do not survive even when you try to hand feed them.




Notice the pinched hindquarters of the peanut kit compared to the wide hindquarters of the normal kit. This difference is an easy way to tell the kits apart, if the size doesn't give it away.


Anyways, FT's Canadian Mist continues to nest every few hours and has only be building her nests on outsider her nestbox so she will most likely kindle on the wire too. *UPDATE* FT's Canadian Mist kindled on March 17th. She had one kit which did not survive. She will be rebred in hopes of getting some more beautiful babies.

Until more kits are born, or I take pics of the show winners. Toodles

-Ashley

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