Merry Christmas!

Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! It's going to be a white Christmas here, as we have about a foot of snow on the ground, and it's snowing yet again. It's been snowing since 4 this morning, so needless to say my family is snowed in for Christmas.
In litter news, I had three does due yesterday. Only Trelawn Ruby D bred to Bentley has had a litter. She had five, but sadly three of them were frozen by the time I found them yesterday morning. The two remaining were almost frozen when I found them, however after having them on the heating pad for a couple of hours, I was able to revive them. They are living in the house, except to be taken out for 10 minutes each morning to be nursed. They both look showable. Not the best, but regardless I will most likely keep both of them for breeding, as I've been having trouble with getting anything from Ruby since she came here last June. Also, especially since this will be my last litter from Bentley :(
Bentley has not improved any, and will not eat feed. He's been drinking and eating a bit of hay though. He still does not have any movement in his legs.
On the bright side, Pipsqueak is doing great. She's still slowly filling in. You can't quite tell by looking at her anymore, unless you pet her along her back for how skinny she is. She loves getting her nose rubbed whenever my mom or I go by her cage.
Hope everyone is staying warm with all of this snow, and once again, have a very Merry Christmas!

I hate snow

So we've had snow on the ground for about a week now, it never lasts that long where I live. It was going away Wednesday, then decided to snow again that night. We're suppose to get more tomorrow. I've been bringing the water bottles in every night, as it's been down to the teens at night, and have had to check several times a day to make sure everyone still has working water bottles. The little doe that is living in the house (whose been renamed to Pipsqueak) is no longer the only rabbit in the house. Yesterday I noticed Bentley dragging his legs. I'm not sure if something scared him, causing him to pinch a nerve or what. I have him in a carrier packed with hay, to prevent him from moving. This morning I moved Sushi's litter in, as one of them was looking a little small, and seemed to be having trouble with it's eye. Sushi has already lost three to the cold this week (two of which were showable), so want to prevent losing this one. It was 15 degrees when I took the water bottles out this morning!
I have three does (Sasha, Maybelline, and Trelawn Ruby D) due on Tuesday. They will be getting their boxes today. Hoping all goes well with these litters, as I have no good upcoming show prospects... If it's still this cold when they're born, I will be bring the boxes in the house.
On the feed front, since we hadn't heard anything back, we did some calling the other day ago. The people at the headquarters were very concern over this when talking with them. Then when we talked to the rep who sent our sample back to them, he said it's defiently not rabbit food. It's his guessimation that it's cross contamination with another feed (as we were thinking).
I haven't been completely happy with the new feed. The rabbits haven't been finishing it up like they were with the other, plus it's so expensive. Once I use up what I have right now, I will be going back to my former feed. I will just be examing each bag big time before feeding it to my rabbits.

Here's a picture of Pipsqueak just three days before she became sick. She's doing a lot better, and is now eating a day's worth of food, plus unlimited hay. She's slowly starting to gain weight again. Only time will tell if she'll be able to get back into shape to show again. My next show is not until March, the Yelm show. I had been debating about going to the Saint Helens show next month, but with all the bad luck happening here, and the fact that I now don't really have anything to show, I'm going to skip it. Even at Yelm, I will probably only have a couple of Dutch to show. I should have several Silver Martens though, as Nicole and I have 6 young juniors coming up.

Feed Change & Mount Vernon Show

So a lot has happened since I last blogged. Two days after the last post, my best upcoming junior and only offspring from Belle Starr went off feed. She had all the same signs as the other three that dead. I called up a few breeders that lost a lot of rabbits last year to feed problems (the one is still losing rabbits) to get advice. Mine had all the same signs as what their's did, going off feed, bloating out, grinding their teeth, etc. I was told by one to use Terramyacin and pineapple juice, to help break up the blockage. Nicole told me to use pedialyte, since she was dehydrated from not drinking. Two days later Aurora, who had a week old litter at the time, started having the same signs, and the next day DDT5, a Blue jr doe that I was getting ready to sell, had the signs too. Between a mixture of what I was already syringing them, plus this Critcal Care that Nicole sent me (for rabbits that go off feed), Aurora was back eating within 5 days. Didn't lose any babies in the meantime (other than one that came out of the nestbox too early...). DDT5, sadly dead the same day Aurora started eating. The night before, her stomach was bloated out too much, and I could not get her to take any of the liquids. Then Belle Starr's baby, my little fighter, has stuck it out. She's all bones, and it's been two weeks, but Wednesday night, she touched her water bottle on her own for the first time, and just yesterday she finally touched her food for the first time in two weeks! Very relieved, as she's finally looking like she's going to make it! Needless to say, the last two weeks have been very stressful. Little Calamity Jane is currently living in the house, and becoming a bit of a spoiled house rabbit. Will be hard for her to readjust to life outside, however that's a ways off until she puts on some weight.
We took some of that weird looking feed into my feed store, and it's been sent off to a rep for the brand, to be tested. Still have not heard back... We did take some of it last weekend to the show, and I had several breeders say it looked and smelled like pig food... So this makes me think that my theory is correct, to cut charges, they are not cleaning their mills inbetween different feeds, hence my bag having all this weird stuff in it. My brand puts out 5 different feeds (that I know of) for just RABBITS, plus they have all the other animals. I think they're sacrificing quality for quantity.
In the mean time, I have switched feeds for now, might be permanent though. It's only been a few weeks, so hard to say if I'm happy with this feed yet. It cost $5 more per bag than what I was paying. My former feed, I had used for 8 years, and had been very happy with it up until recently, as I had the condition I wanted on my rabbits. Only time will tell with this feed. However, since changing, I haven't had anyone else get sick.
Moving on, last weekend was the Mount Vernon show, a single show. I judged the Mini Rex specialty, which was fun. There were several very nice rabbits. I didn't have much to show, only 4 Dutch and 4 Silver Martens. Everyone was either a first or second in their class. For Dutch, Revolver was BOV and BOS for his 5th leg. Jan won BOB with her really nice Blue doe.
For Silver Martens, our Black jr doe was BOV Black for her first leg. Stormy won BOS, but there were not enough for a leg. Not sure who the owner of the BOB rabbit was. Our other Black doe left at this show to go live in BC Canada with Sunny Brook Rabbitry, as they start up in the breed.