Rhythms of October

Today, every gust of wind is stirring up a flurry of yellow and red leaves.

It’s October 1, and that means that the ARBA Convention and Rabbit Show is a little more than a month away.

When you show your rabbits, especially in a prestigous show such as the ARBA Convention and Rabbit Show, you want the judge to run his hand over your rabbit and say things like "Excellent flesh condition, coat has extra sheen and is well-conditioned."

A month before the show is the time to start supplementing your show rabbits daily with a conditioning mix. We offer you one proven ‘recipe’ at our Conditioning Rabbits for Show page.

And if you’re headed to Minnesota for ARBA’s yearly big bang, the time to start conditioning your rabbits is NOW!

New Breed Information Postings on Raising-Rabbits:
We’re making headway on finding information for every single breed of rabbit in the world!

We’ve recently listed these breeds:

• Altex
• Belgian Hare
• Beveren
• Blanc de Hotot
• Champagne d’Argent - includes information on Argente breeds in the UK

And maybe there are more breed postings since you last checked. Links to all listings can be found at our Rabbit Breeds page.

Picture of the Month

Leanne, 15, is a lovely and intelligent breeder in the UK. She paired her harlequin doe with a tri-colored medium-sized lop rabbit, and here are her cute-as-a-button bunnies! I understand she already has homes for each of them. Thanks, Leanne, for sharing your pictures with Raising-Rabbits.com!

You can see a picture of these bunnies when they were just 3 days old at https://www.raising-rabbits.com/my-pet-rabbit-gave-birth.html.

Tip: Would you like to share your rabbit pictures and stories? You can do so at the bottom of many of our pages. Just submit your story, and include up to 4 pictures. We'd love to hear from you. Contact Us if you have any questions about sharing.

Rabbits in the News

Once at the sanctuary, it did not take long before some of the rabbits had dug under the fences and made a beeline for Farmer MacGregor’s hay field. (Okay, the name wasn’t given in the news story...)

The hay field was for horses, and horses break legs when they step in bunny burrows. So, the owner of the hay field whipped out his .22 rifle, and shot dead the 30 or so rabbits that were chewing on his hay.

The reason he took matters in his own hands was because he would have had to wait way too long for a solution to the problem of wascally wabbits. By the time the Refuge would have time to set out traps etc etc, those rabbits would have been well burrowed into the property of the horse owner.

You can read this story in its entirety here.

We can think of quite a few morals to this story:

• Know the species. Rabbits dig. And chew. All the time.

• Put up ample fences before turning rabbits into a corral! In the case of rabbits, you’ll need to dig down about 18 inches (68 cm) around the entire perimeter and erect a fence of a small enough mesh that the rabbits can’t escape or dig out. Unless you want to make the neighborhood inhabitants very unhappy with you.

• Not everyone buys into the agenda. Yeah, visions of dead rabbits drive a few grown men to tears. But the horse rancher was not only unimpressed, he was well within his rights to eliminate the very real risk to his horses (not to mention the thievery of his hay).

• People are of more value than rabbits, much as we love ‘em. The homeless of Victoria (or other Canadian cities) were the biggest losers in this story. The excess rabbits on the campus of the University of Victoria could have easily been skinned and cleaned, and then placed frozen into the coffers of, say, the Community Food Bank or the Union Gospel Mission. The missions lost donations and the homeless lost meals.

Healthy Rabbits

This Month's Focus: Bordetella

There’s a chance that instead of the dreaded Pasteurella, your rabbit might have Bordetella. Bordetella can cause symptoms that are similar to pasteurella. The big difference for pet owners and breeders is that bordetella germs can be eradicated by antibiotics, whereas pasteurella is incurable.

Sadly, the story isn't completely rosy. Learn more at www.raising-rabbits.com/bordetella-in-rabbits.html.

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Have a great October!