Friday, June 5, 2009

The wonderful world of Angora and more baby news

It has been a very exciting week for us AND the bunnies: we had two matings ! We always try and do at least two matings around the same time period because it can help having two bunny mums at the same time. If disaster strikes and one mum doesn't appear to be able to give her littel kits milk, the other mum can be the foster mum OR in another scenario: when only one of the litter survives it can be smuggled in with the other litter and have a good chace of survival. On its own it would not be able to stay warm- since all bunny babies or kits as they are called, are born naked and blind.
We mated our gorgeous silver grey Mojo with our gentle silver fox Gandalf. Since they have a mix of smoke, silver, purple and grey in their heritage we can expect a wonderful mix of those colours, maybe even pink ....lol Our other two lucky angora bunnies were our chocolate doe "Chocolate Topping" and our chocolate buck "Chewbacca" (or Chewy as we call him). Since both are chocolate, we hope to get some "TimTams" among the kits but Chewy has been know to father Gold, Agouti and black as well ! So we are in for a surprise.
I won't really go into the details of the mating here ...too ..eh private....but all I can say is...:"it's over before you can say "Angora Rabbits obviously do not need to read the Kama Sutra to get in the mood" ....lol Angora bunny gestation can be from 28 to 32 days. We hope that the breeding succeeded but I can only tell after two to three weeks and even then a lot can happen. So you will just have to be patient.. I do have some photos for you to look at , so you can see what the whole birthing process of an angora rabbit looks like.
Minnes Magical Moments
These photos were taken when Minne had her second litter and I was lucky enough to be able to capture some of the magic moments!
Minne with a mouth full of straw getting her nest ready, just a few hours before giving birth
Gettin the right straw for the nest : Minne takes the straw and mixes it with the angora wool that she plucks off her belly. Minne gently places all the straw in the nestbox and adds angora wool off her belly. This serves two purposes : it makes the bed for the baby angora rabbits or kits as they are called, very cuddly and warm AND it also makes it easier for the kits to feed !
Minne is making a nice dent in the nest where the kits will lie in safely
Is it alright?
getting into the birthing position
Minne has just given birth. you can see the newborn kits underneath her and her nose is still red from licking and cleaning them
Newborn Angora baby bunnies. Minne has just hopped off the nest and starts cleaning herself. If we find an undeveloped foetus or dead kits we immediately take them out of the nestbox. If it was a really messy birth we gently clean the nest area and add a little bit of extra angora wool to make sure the babies are warm and protected.
I hope you liked these very special photos of a magical moment! You can see more angora bunny photos here: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny
There are some new hand dyed angorinos on offer I just finished yesterday so they are super fresh ! lol Have a drool and stalk me anytime when you want to give some of them a good home.
Hand dyed Angorino tops (95%merino 20m/5% angora) 150-160g AU$19
Rosehip Remedy -sold-
Seahorse Party -sold-
Heart Throb
Eucalypt Energy
Koala taking a bath
Waratah Rainclouds
Circus Clowns
HANDKNITTERS MINI WOOL EXPO COMING !
I am very happy to announce that I will be part of the Victorian hand knitters guild popular Mini Wool Expo again this year!! It is held on Saturday the 27th of June at the Brunswick Town hall. Doors open at 10am and I will be there with a huge display of all of my yarns and fibres and batts ! There will be some new stuff there as well: so do not miss out and come and visit me on the 27th of June at the Brunswick Town Hall on Sydney Road. You can take the #19 tram, it's close to Jewell station. Doors close at 3pm. Experience tells me that the early bird catches the yarn, and there are definitely going to be some bargains and super special yummy stuff !

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