Past Blog / Updates

October 21, 2021

Cooler temps means = growing out coats!

Misti Blue was just one of the bunnies we groomed today. I try not to leave the rabbits in coat in the hot months. I shave down 1-3 times over the summer. Then when the temps drop, I'll start letting them grow out again. This excludes juniors we keep and grow out of course. Never know if we will show them or just wanting to harvest their first coat. So we have a few juniors ready to harvest and a few seniors with half grown coats like Misti here.

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October 20, 2021

BunnyVac Time Again

We use the BunnyVac booster for all of our rabbit herd. It is that time again that they are due. I have been giving boosters, grooming and administering ivermec (topically this time because of the booster shot) the last couple of days. Tomorrow we should finish up on everyone (senior bunnies). It will be good to be finished but this is a definite plus to keep everyone current and not having any sick animals in the rabbitry!

For more information on the BunnyVac, we have a page dedicated to explaining its use and why we use it here for all of our rabbits and their offspring. Please understand that the first dose ever has to be followed up by a second dose, 30 days later. This means that all juniors given this vaccination, may not be here for their second dose. We release juniors at 8 weeks of age. This shot cannot be given until 6 weeks of age and I don't always get around to giving it at 6 weeks.

The bunnies here that have ever sneezed have been cultured and sent off to the lab for results. I am pleased to say that none have ever come back diagnosed with pasteurella. We have had tests show other forms of bacteria that were easily treatable thank goodness! Ever since we started using the BunnyVac, we have had great luck with keeping the sneezing down!

October 14, 2021

Fur Mites

Fur mites are a real deal in rabbits! Especially wool breeds. They love to get in their skin, make them itch and cause the flakey dandruff looking white specks that can ruin a nice coat or harvest! The way to prevent this is to be proactive on treatment. We use injectable 1% ivermectin on a regular basis here. Some give it oral, some use it topical on the back of the neck but my personal preference is to inject it sub-q in the back of the neck. It works quickly and if I find an active case of mites, I inject every 5-7 days until they are gone. I will never harvest and save a coat that has had mites. No one wants that nasty stuff in their beautiful fiber. We sell all of our raw fiber in our Etsy shop (click on Etsy icon on the bottom left under menu bar to visit or go to our Angora Wool/Fiber For sale link). I have actually read reviews off Etsy where people actually sold fiber with mite residue in it! That is terrible. So for anyone interested, a little prevention goes a long way.

Now there is a problem today with the epidemic causing Ivermectin to be pulled from store shelves. Unfortunately, there are ignorant human beings injecting themselves with ivermectin THINKING it will cure COVID. As my licensed veterinarian says "it is highly dangerous, stupid, and deadly to inject Ivermectin 1% solution into a human being and it almost killed my colleague who accidentally injected himself with it". I will follow the guidelines by my educated veterinarian and use the product as labeled and prescribed by an educated, licensed doctor. Because of this idiotic problem that seems to persist, I was left to order a simple bottle of ivermec from outside of the USA. It was not on purpose and it was done hastily. However, it had a very good outcome. I ordered this from the Ukraine and it took two weeks to arrive. I paid just $30 and free shipping! It came from homelabvet.com if anyone is in the same shoes as I and need to order it. We were completely out of it and needed it desperately to continue keeping our rabbits coats healthy. It is a foreign language but came with a translated direction sheet that confirmed it was exactly what we needed.

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October 13, 2021

Fiber and Culling

It's a rainy day here in central Illinois. Bunnies are all inside and staying dry. It has been a while since we have harvested any bunnies. So today is as good of a day as any other. Can't be out enjoying the day so we will stay in and groom. We normally clip down in the summer months but we always let our keeper bunnies grow their first coats out. You never know if we are going to have an opportunity to show them. So our juniors always get to grow their first coat 4-6 months. This gives me an opportunity to see what quality their wool is, how quickly it will need groomed in the future and if they are worth keeping for fiber production.

This brings me to a subject a lot of people look at as taboo. We have not had many rabbits that weren't good enough for fiber production. Sometimes playing around with color will mess up type and wool. We have certainly done that. Anyone who knows me well, knows I love playing around with color! We have bred colors and patterns to colors and patterns that are a no no. To me, it's not a waste if you utilize it. Meaning, making beautiful fiber or improving lines in some way. We do NOT hard cull for any reason other than quality of life. God gave us these beautiful creatures, disrespecting that gift is disrespecting God. If someone does not like the quality of rabbit they breed or the outcome of the litter and have no use for that animal, there is always a solution. Solutions might not be right or correct in some eyes but others it may. My way is to not kill and bury, unless it cannot survive a good life on its own. Bad type, coat or DQ's in showing are NOT excuses to kill an animal. Rabbits are livestock animals which a lot of people utilize as their meat. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this! Some use meat rabbits as a way to feed their cats and/or dogs. This is another perfect way to utilize less than perfect animals that cannot be pets or fiber buns. Whatever one chooses to do with their animals is their business. I'm just stating, that wasting a life that is purposely bred into the world is a slap in the face to our Creator...in my opinion. So, for those who might read this and are hard cullers, please find someone who can benefit from your culls if you haven't already. Not many breeds are wool breeds like our angoras. Some rabbits have gorgeous pelts and are put to great uses. There are so many wonderful uses for rabbits! I have eaten rabbit in the past. I have to admit, once you fall in love with these little creatures, it is hard to think of eating them so it is a personal choice that I do not prefer to eat rabbit meat. I suppose you can say it is psychological lol. I just can't do it and when I did as a child, my parents told me it was chicken so I would eat it. Apparently it worked.  I did not know this until I was an adult. Oh well. It certainly didn't harm me. I am a meat eater, just can't eat all meat.

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October 12, 2021

The last bunnies for sale in 2021

Life at CBB has been so busy that I haven't hardly had time to keep the website updated! We got our new bunny barn delivered but it still isn't ready to move the buns into. Lots of work and not enough hours in the day. It has all the insulation and wiring completed. Part of the ceiling is put up and the rest is just sitting and waiting on us to install.

We have a few of our older juniors still here looking for permanent homes and we are cutting back on our seniors so there are a handful of those available as well. The juniors are black, rew, and a japanese harlequin. The seniors are red, fawn, high rufus chocolate agouti, lilac PW bucks and we also have a lilac tort and self blue doe. The info on sales for seniors are on their individual pages in Our Herd. Their names are Penelope, Brooks, Butterscotch, Milkdud, Dr. Pepper, and Misti Blue.

The latest are the 8 new litters that turn 8 weeks old next week. We never did get around to posting them on the nursery page and just posted them on the for sale pages yesterday. Lots to choose from there and a couple of transporters coming our way in Nov and Dec. Take a look at the for sale pages!