Bunnies Are Here!!!

The bunnies are here, the bunnies are here!!! Who cares about anything else that happened this week, the bunnies are here!

Meet our tort doe (names not decided yet, coming soon!):

Our broken tort doe:

And our black buck:

The three cages, all put together and full o' rabbits! My mom is standing next to the cages for a size comparison.

We've already discovered that our black buck is a lover, so I caught some adorable candids of him and Mom:

Yay rabbits!!! We also picked up some rabbit food, salt spools, and put together some water bottles. But who even cares because we finally got RABBITS!! Can you tell we're excited?! The best part is the rabbits would even work as a breeding trio if we decide to breed them someday.

So, to summarize, we're thrilled with the rabbits, we're thrilled with the cages, and everything is running smoothly thus far. Now we just need to start making some money!

Tip of the Week: Rabbits claws are sharp, so if you don't want to get scratched, be sure that your cat isn't waiting outside the cage when you lift the rabbit out. It scares the rabbit, and then they scratch you really bad. Not that I know from experience or anything....

Some Assembly Required

This week there was some cage assembly, some appointment making, some list making, and some reading!

The big news of this week: We have assembled two of the three cages!!! It is actually pretty easy to put them together when you have an assistant, but the J-clip pliers are hard on your hands. After two cages I have a bruise on my palm and a blister on my finger! We have one cage to go, but it will have to wait until a later date. Here are some pictures:

First they looked like this:

 
Now they look like this:

The mop in the picture is to give you some gauge. The top of the two cages is chest-high, and the third cage, once assembled, stacks on top of them, so they'll end up being pretty tall!

We are really pleased with how the cages are turning out! I think we really got our money's worth, and when it is time to expand our herd I'm sure we'll be going with the same company.

After setting up cages today my mother and I made a list of things that we need to purchase to finish getting ready for rabbits. We still need to pick up feed, some barn lime, and salt spools. We're hoping to pick this up at the local farm/auto store. We also need to get some 2-liter pop bottles, so we'll need to increase our soda consumption this week, which shouldn't be a problem for us! 

There was some discussion between us and a breeder this week. We're hoping to meet up and check out some rabbits at the beginning of next week, hopefully Monday. Cross your fingers it works out!

 We finished up some holiday shopping yesterday, and with the aid of a great coupon (50% off!) I picked up this:

It works like a charm, and it will be SO convenient when we need to wind yarn we have spun. Now I just need to construct a homemade swift and we'll be set.

We also spent some time reading this week. I learned about grooming Angoras, including using blowers versus combing. We need to purchase some combs! My mother spent some time reading Basic Angora Farming and learned about different housing options, feed, and basic rabbit care.

We're so close to having rabbits!!! We're still stir-crazy, but putting up some cages this weekend made us feel a little better. We are ready, let's get some rabbits!

Tip of the Week: If you're putting together something using J-clips, wear gloves! I'm sure that my "injuries" from assembling the cages could have been prevented with a good pair of work gloves.

Cage Photos!

Unfortunately there isn't much new in the "Adventures in Angora" world, so today we're having Show 'N Tell Time!!

The one new thing I have to report is that we will be meeting with a breeder over my Christmas vacation to see some rabbits. Woo hoo! The breeder raises English Angoras and they have three different animals that we may be interested in, so here's hoping! *crosses fingers*

On to Show 'N Tell: Pictures of our unassembled cages!

 The J-clip pliers that we got to assemble the cages, plus a little free advertising for the company.

 So  many J-clips!! These are used to hold the cages together.

 The cage sides, ceilings, and floors, still tied together. They're massive! (See the litter pan pic below.)

 The wheels for the bottom of the cages, along with a hand for size comparison.

 Me with the litter pans. Aren't they enormous!!!! These aren't cages, they're condos!

 Urine guards!! Oh how nice they will be.

 Piles of parts. The urine guards are in the back, legs are in the front, and I'm not even sure what the middle things are yet.

 These are the three big boxes that showed up at my house. They're in front of or on a twin bed, for size comparison.

 The feeders we bought. The bottoms are mesh so the "fines" (dust) from the feed can fall out.

Final pic: the kits that make water bottles out of 2-liter pop bottles. Nozzles, springs, and clips, Oh My!

Well, I know it's not as exciting to look at cage parts as it would be to look at bunnies, but they're coming soon, I promise!! We are still anxious to get this going, so let's hope that the breeder we're seeing later this month will have some promising critters for us!

Tip of the Week: This week's tip is more like trivia, I admit. I learned while reading one of my rabbit books that the kits (baby rabbits) only eat about once a day. Rabbits are notoriously bad mothers, and some more aggressive mothers will attack or eat their young. Breeders will actually remove the nest box from the cage and keep it elsewhere, bringing it back only to let the mother feed the bunnies. I also learned that rabbit mothers aren't particular about who they're feeding, so if you have an orphaned kit you can often foster it to another doe.

The Hunt for Rabbits

Not much has happened this week, unfortunately. I feel like we need to put out a want ad: DSAR- Desperately Seeking Angora Rabbits!

This week I got the parts of the cages that were backordered, which is a definitely "win" for us. This next weekend my mother is going to come help me put them together, which should be fun. I'll be sure to post pictures ASAP.

Also, I set the twist in the yarn that I spun over Thanksgiving:

It's rough around the edges, for sure, but it will make me a very warm scarf in the future.

Also, I tried to needlefelt a rabbit out of some angora fleece that I had laying around. There are no pictures because it failed miserably. I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong or if the angora just wasn't cooperating. I've been successful in needlefelting before, so perhaps angora just doesn't like to felt? I took the last bit of it and spun it to make just a little line of yarn, just so I could get the feel of it, and it worked out pretty well.

The big news of this week is that we want a rabbit already!! We've done the research, we've got the cages (although they're not put together yet) and we've even purchased hay for them, but we haven't had any success on the rabbit front yet. Either breeders don't have what we want, or we're having a hard time getting in contact with them. I guess it is an "off" time of year to be buying a rabbit, but we have a contact that we're hoping to reach that has English angoras that we are interested in seeing. Here's hoping that by the next time I write in here we have some more news on this front! *crosses fingers

Tip of the Week: Before trying a craft that you've done before with completely different materials, do some research on it!! I'm sure that if I had done a little research on needlefelting with angora before I attempted it I would have been successful. I'll have to look that up this week and see if I was doing something wrong.