Wheekers!

So we've taken another step forward today. My darling new babies are now in existence. So drumroll please! I am getting....

Pipsqueak Ebony Charm a gold, golden agouti and white texel. Currently sixteen months old. She's had two litters previously. The first litter was a single stillborn baby, she was postpartumed and ave birth to two babies today, one sow and one boar. Her mother was Pipsqueak Ebony Eyes. From here on she'll be known as Ebony.

Pipsqueak ? is a gold, golden agouti and white merino boar. He's 3-4 weeks old now and has just been removed from his Mum and is currently living with his brother. His parents are Pipsqueak Cosimo a merino and Pipsqueak Cosmopolitan. Cosimo has done okay on the show table taking out best baby longhair, best junior longhair and best junior in show. He has a touch of chewed/pulled coat on his back as does his brother so we'll see he goes, however I will attempt to coat him out. I'm allowed to name him for his pedigree and I'm toying with the name Pipsqueak Edmund.

I do have photos of this lil guy as well! He's the Golden Agouti with less white.

Pipsqueak ? is a baby gold and white sheba who's just a week old. The current crazy standard issues means I'm a tad doubtful that he'll get anyway on the show table, but hey since when has that stopped me? I also get to name this boy for his pedigree.

Pipsqueak ? is a junior gold, black and white sheba who I've met before. He's a darling but has an issue. He was born with a congenital defect, he's missing his left eye. However he has the coloring my mother loves so will become a much loved pet and assuming the rules haven't changed will be placed in the pet class. I get to name him too, which is awesome!

So I'll be collecting my darlings on the 26th of November so I am of course counting down the days. Juts four weeks today till I can collect my babies.

The other issue is I'll need to change my breeding plans as I don't want to leave Ebony till August before breeding her, it gives her too much time to get fat and lazy which is not conducive to healthy mother and babies. So I'd probably put her and 'Edmund' together in March, which would lead to babies by May-June and then assuming all goes well probably one more litter in August/September before retiring Ebony and using her as a companion for 2013's breeding sow.

A Big Fat Nothing....

So today marks five weeks till D-day. Basically nothing whatsoever is happening. I continue treading water as I wait, and wait. Of course there is plenty I should be doing, university work has piled up and I'm totally procrastinating. The issue is I have nothing to procrastinate with, so I'm watching a lot of old House episodes. Fascinating huh?

So I figure in a week or so I'm allowed to email the breeder again and see if any lovely babies have been born. Since we leave on the 29th, if it hasn't been born by the first, it obviously won't be coming with us.

Other than that our darling Luther has settled in well and I've even witnessed much binkying. Unfortunately as I should have expected, as rabbits go he's a tad defective. Not only is he allergic to hay, he can't eat any sugar, as in even vegetables are too much for his tummy. I'm thinking I'll make a warning sign to attach to his cage. With showing etc I'll be leaving him in others care for at least 3 days out of every month and the last thing I want is to come home to a rabbit with explosive diarrhea...

Right now his diet consists of compacted hay cubes (I've yet to see him actually go near one), free fed lucerne pellets and as much long green grass as he wants. I figure the grass should be able to replace hay and is probably the best possible food for him. So far he's still gaining really well (up to 2290g) so I must be doing something right...

The hay allergy is totally annoying. I have a rabbit who's allergic to hay and not grass, and me? Oh I'm allergic to all grass but not hay.  I need to buy elbow length gloves or something I'm starting to get a permanent rash from picking grass so often.

I still have pictures/plans of the animal room to post up, but I'm as always on the wrong computer so will share them when I get a chance.

Lu-Lu the Wabbit and Other random thoughts.

I figured it was time to update.

Firstly in regards to the bunny. Pet wise I can already see he's going to be a high maintenance creature. He has an incredibly delicate stomach that gets upset by like everything, so will be living on a diet that almost solely consists of a constant supply of fresh grass, hay cubes and pellets. Because not only can't he stomach fresh vegetables he's allergic to loose hay. Even so his weight continues rising and he's now 2270g. Unfortunately he's also decided I'm a busybody he wants nothing to do with and has claimed my Mother as is human.

This photo was taken about twenty minutes ago of the happy couple. You can't really see it from this angle but Lu has his back legs out in a full bunny flop.

Our time at the castle was fantastic and I have a tonne of photos of the new animal room, but will upload them a bit later with detailed chatter about everything I intend to do with it.

I've also received my VetnPet order and am very pleased with it. Lu has no issues with his new harness and leash inside but totally freaked out when I took him outside so this may take a fair amount of time.  The quality of everything I received was amazing. So I now have a complete first aid kit for my little darlings to be.

Sir Luther's Kingdom

We've continued making friends with the bunny and have discovered that he's an amazingly friendly happy bunny, who adores lounges. I've begun allowing him to spend time running around the house to get some exercise. He's such an active rabbit he must be going stir crazy locked in a cage. He seems to adore hopping around and seems to have no interest in cables at all, though I'm watching him like a hawk when he's out. He also adores the lounge, especially the doona we keep piled there.

I've also begun using a blower to groom him and it makes life so much easier. Ten minutes using a hairdryer on maximum blowing cool then five minutes brushing out any knots or matts that it picks up and voila brushed bunny. I'll still have to brush/pluck him when he moults but for now it works perfectly.

So I'll leave you with a pic of my darling, his bald patches are all velvety with new hair now...

More Shopping.

So in consideration of the fact that Luther is an overly curious rabbit who loves exploring and also currently has a weepy eye I rearranged my weekly purchases and just did a massive order at VetnPet. They had the perfect harness on clearance and I wasn't sure if it would still be there in a few weeks and the Terramycin ointment is marginally cheaper online, (though still expensive, one wonders if it's made of gold).

So the whole order was about $190 but it should be pretty much last for ever I hope, and is filled with all the necessary bits and bobs for successful cavy and rabbit keeping.

The complete list is


Lupine Lead Small Pet 1/2" Royal Gold - 4 foot        
Lupine H-Style Harness Cats/Sml Dogs 1/2" Royal Gold 9"-14"
2 x Nutrigel 50g  
Quit-Itch Lotion 250mL   
Debrisol 125ml   
Calcium Sandoz Syrup 200ml  
Divetelact Low Lactose Milk Replacer 375g   
Jorvet Mothering Kit        
2 x Wombaroo Latex Teats C  
Wombaroo 120ml Feeding Bottle    
Kramar Detangling Comb with Rotating Pins   
Stay Away Bitter Tasting Chew Deterrent
Scalpel Handle No. 4
Scalpel Blades Size 20 10's   
Terramycin Pink Eye Powder 50g
Aristopet Laxative and Hairball Remover 100g

The harness, leash and laxative are of course for Sir Luther, the rest for the cavies to be. The majority is for the first aid kit as well.

Sir Luther is going well. He's claimed the lounge and spends most of the day sprawled out on it. Occasionally hopping down when he feels we aren't watching and exploring the extremely-unbunnyproofed house. So far he's been very well behaved and just examines everything minutely. The minute he realizes we're watching him he races back and bounds onto the lounge. I cannot believe the height he can get, he can easily clear three feet.

We have a Wabbit!

Sir Luther has arrived. I'm very glad I took him when I did as well. They brought his cage around and there was an inch of urine in the litterboxes, no wonder his feet were always so stained. So we had another grooming session and after four days without being touched I only found two matts. Both were between his toes, a place I hadn't thought to look before. So I'd say we're getting somewhere. I also tried out my own super duper hair dryer on him which has been used on my hair all of twice (I still have no idea why I bought a $150 hair dryer, I have curly hair, hair dryers and curly hair do not go together, but it's fantastic for animals) which has a "blower" setting and wow it was amazing on his coat. Just a pity we have no outdoor plugs here. It kind of makes a 'hairstorm' as it blows out all the loose hair I didn't manage to comb out.

So Luther has a cage on our verandah where he'll spend most of his time as well as the dog crate indoors for the days when no one is home as I worry about dogs etc. He's currently examining the dog crate in minute detail. He's so personality plus. While you hold him he does his dead-log impersonation which is perfect for grooming but put him down and he's off. I couldn't even keep him in one place to blow his coat out, I ended up just following him around with the hair dryer.

So he's still baldish, but the bald patches are now all velevety and spotty as the new coat grows through

I also tranced him for the first time today. didn't actually mean to but was trying to brush his chin so had him upside down on my lap as I patted his face and he was just totally out of it, twas hilarious.

He's currently proving to me that he's a much better groomer and he'd appreciate it if I stopped wrecking his coat...

Pics will come at some point.

After spending a few hours with him I've come to the conclusion that he's a lovely, intelligent personality filled rabbit with a behavior problem and very sharp teeth. He seems to know exactly where it'll hurt the most. I can now say with confidence I know exactly the level of pain that occurs when a rodent sinks very sharp teeth into your boob. That was great fun, not. He also nipped my arm several times and I have this lovely bruise coming up now. No signs of aggression, so I'm not sure why he's biting. He washed my hands and face and licked all over my clothes and then just bit down, and then hopped off unconcernedly only to repeat the whole thing several minutes later. I know the literature says with rabbits like this you need to give them space and let them come to you, but he's a cashmere that requires daily grooming who still lives outside. Nor can he run around our current house. So he has to be handled. I just hope he'll forgive me after we move.

He is extremely territorial over cage space to the point he'll growl, lunge and bite if I so much as drop a carrot through the bars of the cage, so these next few months should be fun. Generally I don't rescue because I'm know from experience that it doesn't matter how many hours of behavioral therapy you put into an animal they never lose the aggression and abused mentality they've learned in previous homes. However in Luther's case I've agreed to take him on and will put that time and effort into him and hopefully end up with at the very least a contented happy rabbit. He just may end up a very strange rabbit, though he is going to have to continue putting up with being handled, there is no way around that.

Dog Crate Arrived.

Well the Dog Crate arrived today. It's beyond huge. Once in the animal room it'll be perfect. For now it's in my bedroom. It is surprisingly good quality considering the price. There's a dent in the metal tray but not enough to complain about or bother returning it for. Now just to set it up for a bunny.

My bedroom is a narrow 3.5m x 1.8m space that contains an entire wall of stacked drawers of my Mother's art supplies, an oversized treadmill, my bed, a huge dressing table as well as everything I own and all the pig paraphernalia. There's less then a square metre of floor space now the dog crate is in there.

So seven weeks of supreme squishiness now begins, I will be very grateful when my bedroom once again has just a bed and not every random object we couldn't fit anywhere else.

This afternoon was vet checkups for both parrots which went okay. Atticus my Conure has worms and Echo my Mother's 'tiel is fat. Worming them will certainly be interested, they like fresh water and coke, wormer will not be so nice.

So not much else to report, however Luther is set to arrive tomorrow.

A house of ones own!

Sooooo contracts are exchanged and our gorgeous house is now marked as sold.

So I thought I'd share it with anyone who actually reads this blog (I'm a little doubtful that I actually have an audience).

But anyway here's the link to our gorgeous castle.


http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/Rural/NSW/Rocky-River/?adid=2009034039

And a picture....

Sir Luther.

So I went to see my pretty boy today. It's always an interesting experience visiting Lu. If the owners home there'll be three baby goats, eight dogs and various other critters wandering around the house. If one manages to make it the rabbit hutch unscathed you then have to remove three goats and eight dogs from the top of the cage while fighting to get the territorial rabbit out of the cage. This time round I arrived as the owner was leaving and she mentioned that though the dogs were locked up she couldn't get the goats into their paddock, would I mind? Since the goats follow me like I'm the pied piper it wasn't too bad but certainly a struggle with a big bunny in ones arms.

Luther and I seem to be making progress on this whole bonding thing. I'd only seen him two days ago so though there was some dirt in his coat there were no mats (alleluia) and he just needed a good brush and fluff up. I'd brought a book so after we were done arguing over the brushing of his legs I settled him on his lap and read for a bit. Apparently the websites were right, rabbits hate being ignored. Luther had a huge grooming session of his own on my lap and since I was still taking no notice proceeded to hop onto the table, examine all the grooming tools minutely and lick every square inch of them before moving onto my iphone. Since I was still ignoring him he moved onto me and washed every square inch of my arms and had a good go at the apron as well.

The minute I put him back into his cage, instead of the usual running and hiding he sprawled out in bunny flop fashion at the front and supervised as I cleaned and refreshed his dishes.

I do believe that at the very least I've piqued his interest. So we may be friends yet.

Now as to housing his current cage is a metal lawn hutch 150cm x 45cm x 45cm. All in all not a bad outdoor cage though it's old and a bit rusted but I may allow Lu to use it occasionally after we move, however it's not appropriate for an indoor cage. So his new crate shipped today and measures 120cm x 75cm x 82cm, basically massive, and though shorter then his previous cage it has a larger floor space. I've sewn two purple camo fleece blankets for him which have ties in a corner so I can tie them to the cage to prevent them sliding about to much. They aren't the full size of the cage, they're just big enough for bunny snoozing. I also need to track down a litter pan. I really want purple and Woolies is sold out of the $6 purple litter pans, my local petstore sells a murkier shade of purple for $10 which I'll buy if needed. Food bowls I'm not sure on. He has some great ceramic ones at the moment but his current owner may need to keep them, so yeah, the only place that sells purple food bowls is the RSPCA for $15 each, so Luther better really work hard to earn such luxury items LOL.

I also want to devise some sort of hideyhole area for him. I found a pattern for a fabric cube that hangs from the top of the cage that might work, as it would be easy to collapse down to move the cage again.

In other news Mother never got into the castle so still no measurements, we'll have to organize another trip up in a few weeks now. The real estate agent has agreed to reimburse her costs at least. I have been able to work out, using my great powers of deduction, that one of the rooms is 3.5m wide and I'd assume at least 3m long, so I guess I'll just work with those measurements for now.

Bunny Love.

So two things of interest happened today,

Firstly my Mother headed to Armidale for the exchanging of contracts and to measure the house. Exchange of contracts is going ahead but our real estate agent has somehow managed to lose the house key. Conveniently everyone with a spare key is currently out of state. My poor mother who believes strongly in being kind to everyone has no idea what to do, I am encouraging her to get her bitch on and demand compensation for her motel room since she traveled to Armidale with the sole motive of accessing the house and doing measurements. If the key does not surface by tomorrow afternoon she'll have to make a second trip. With just seven and a half weeks to go and life totally hectic with our university degrees I'm not even sure if we have time to go back there again.

However Mother did make one interesting discovery. Not only is our house on a river, it also has it's very own sandy beach on said river, how much more beautiful could it be?

Secondly my credit card took a beating as I purchased a 48" dog crate for Sir Luther. Having seen one in a store I am astonished at the massive size but a 48" crate can easily be converted into four cavy 'apartments' when Luther passes on, or donated to a rescue in need so the 48" it was. I do hope he appreciates all I'm doing for him LOL. It also came with a metal tray which I believe will be hugely useful as Luther adores digging and chewing and I'm sure would make short work of a plastic tray. He's already destroyed his first litter box in less then three weeks. I wonder if you can buy metal litter boxes?

It looks like he'll be moving in soon. His current owner is struggling, she just rang me to see if I could go out tomorrow to feed, water and clean him out as she hasn't even had time to give him water, so it's probably time he moved over here where he can be cared for daily. If I can wedge his cage into my lil Mazda 2 I'll bring him over on Wednesday, if I can't she'll bring him over in a ute on Friday.

I've also pulled apart an old bird cage cover I made a few years ago in order to salvage the purple camo polar fleece it's made of and will be making Lu a couple of purple snoozing blankets.

You see, I colour code my animals, I've found if each species has it's own specific colour cross contamination is near impossible. So the bowls, blankets etc are all a certain colour for a certain species. Something that has to be considered when one keeps reptiles, birds and mammals. Since I'd already used pink for the pigs, Luther gets purple.

For the love of shopping.

Did some more bits and pieces shopping today. I found minature 90mL bottles of pantene shampoo and conditioner that are the perfect size for my showkit. I so don't trust a longhair to keep their coat clean in five hours of traveling so this means if necessary I can wash them the night or even morning before the show. Also bought a mini bottle of rubbing alcohol as it's always useful to have around.

I also bought two more $2 pink food bowls in a different style to the others. Though of course after I bought them I walked into a petstore that had $2 pink bowls with like twenty in stock, I could've had a matching stackable set. Oh well.

I still haven't bought paint as the weather is awful. I'll buy the paint on Sunday and get to work on those few days where there is sunshine.

Next week most of my money is going on health checkups at the vets before the move and on things for the rabbit who should be moving in with us on Wednesday. He'll start out in an old lawn cage but I'm going to need to dip into savings to buy him a new cage, I can get a massive dog crate for $90. The money I've saved is for new clothes but animals in need come first.

Upgraded.

The animals have just gotten an upgrade. My mother decided to rearrange the room plans and make the turret that was to be her room a guest/sitting room which also as the only completely tiled room can be used for Luther to free range at times. Mum is now taking the tiny weird shaped room previously put aside for the pigs and the pigs move to one of the largest bedrooms.

She's doing measurement's and photos tomorrow so will post pictures and info when I have it. I'm certainly happy that curvy bit was doing my head in. It dose mean I will now be sleeping next door to my bird (arrrgh) but oh well. The training is getting through and he offers a croak 50% of the time instead of a scream, but it's all going to fall out of his head the minute we move. Right now his cage is outside his bedroom door and he screams the house down the minute he hears me wake up. It's great fun, not.

Sidetracked.

So at the moment I've been a bit sidetracked by the rabbit. I'm still not sure if I actually like the rabbit, however he'll be given the best life possible and be able to live out his days in extreme comfort. I think I just prefer guinea pigs. I always thought longhair cavies require a lot of care but a cashmere rabbit's on a whole 'nother level.

So my times been spent researching the requirements of said rabbit and trying to work out how to pay for the supplies he needs. I've started him his own folder with all the bits n bobs I've collected for him and have been bargain hunting like crazy.

I found a 48" wire dog crate with a metal base for $90 which I think I'll dip into my savings and get him as he's already proven he loves to chew and dig, a plastic base would be destroyed in a week. Then I'm hitting the discount stores to find a litter pan and food bowls. I'll use my awesome crafty skills to make him some toys and he should be able to have free range in the animal room so I'm 'hoping' that will do him. Though food's going to be a right pain. He needs a decent quality pellet which I've yet to locate, veggies I can cover and for hay he'll get mainly hay cubes. He gets straight hay at the moment and gets it sooo twisted through his coat, the matts are horrendous. So hay cubes it is. If he's good I may build him a hayrack.

Guinea pig wise it's been absolutely pouring so I haven't done any painting yet, am hoping the rain'll let up soon as the cages need to air out before pigs go in and if I hold off more then a few weeks it's cutting it fine. Though I can probably house them in alternate quarters if my father ever fixes the cage that's at his house. It just needs some rusty bits removed and the divider replaced but he's been slack. I've also bought some more food bowls, pink of course at $2 each. I'm thinking each set of cages will have it's own matching pink bowls, so it's immediately obvious where each bowl lives.

I'm saving money for one last big order from a vet supply store as well as for the first four pigs (the beginnings of Samsara).

Anyway life is hectic but some very very good news is contracts are exchanged this Friday. The moving date is set at the 29th of November and I'm just holding off till contracts are signed before I let the breeder know when we'll be able to take on wheekers. I cannot wait. It will be wonderful to have a life full of wiggie-womps, wabbits and birdies.