A little over a week until Dalton!

And I could not be more excited! My best friend is coming into town and we are going to this together and then also have a girls weekend planned which will be wonderful. I need a little fun to tide me over until Spring when I can actually be outside and enjoy myself more. This winter stuff has gotten old, Tennessee has had more days with snow on the ground than I can remember for awhile.

I've also added another rabbit to the list that I'm bringing back from Dalton, she's a Broken Chocolate Otter doe. I'm going to try showing her for a bit I think and then afterwards give her a go as a mama. Oh I also should add that I ended up not getting the Broken Orange I had planned on, our central heat unit croaked on us and we had to repair it which took the money for that trip. I've emailed the breeder I was going to get her from to see if we could make other arrnagments to meet but I haven't heard back from him yet so idk. Anyways I decided to add photos of the rabbits I'm bringing home, I'll get more after they arrive though.

Here's the Siamese Sable buck I'll be bringing in, he throws beautiful babies :

And below is the Siamese Smoke Pearl buck, and then below him is the doe I will be bringing in. These two are a sibling pair though so naturally they'll not be bred to eachother.

Then here's the orange buck I'm bringing in and below him the orange, this is a non related pair so oh yes, orange babies will be coming when they're old enough if I have my way! lol

And then below is a little Black buck I'm getting who carries chocolate

And here's the Broken Chocolate Otter doe

I don't have a picture of the Chocolate doe on my computer but she is a BUD, and makes some pretty babies, I do have a picture of one of the babies from her last litter, it's below.

Anyways time for me to run and start putting some cages together, Tim and I are putting together a PVC frame for hanging cages this weekend so I want to get as much ready as I can. I'll post pics of the PVC frame in my next blog. Take care everyone!

Taking the bad with the good

Well this past weekend had it's good points and bad points. Blue and Melodie ended up going slightly over their due date and ended up having them while I was away from the house, when I got home Blue had delivered 2 on the wire DOA, and Melodie only had half of a baby in her nestbox :/ Later that night Blue delivered another (which looked to be a little blue otter) which was also DOA, I was out there when she delivered it, I felt so bad for her because she was trying to be such a good mommy and kept going to where her babies had been after I removed them and snuffling through the fur in the nest making whimpery sounds. Anyways this was the last attempt so both of these girls are retired now. Melodie is going to be listed for sale as a pet later today. Blue's my girl so she's staying.

But the good news, I went to my first meeting with the Central Tennessee Rabbit Breeders Association and it was great to meet everyone, I had spoken to Lynn and Donna before the meeting so I finally got to put some faces with the names. I also ended up lucking into a few Black Otters. Vera from the club doesn't deal with them but her daughter had begged for them and then totally lost interest so she said I could take them if I wanted. The Jr doe I brought home looks like she could be a good show quality prospect, so I may take her to the Louisville, KY show and see how she does. I'd take her to Dalton but my cages are going to be full as it is on the way home. The buck is a tiny little fella with a nice body and good head, his ears are a little toward the V'd side but I still think he'll be a nice addition to my brood stock. I have to give a very big thank you to Vera Smith for these otters!!

I also got back in contact with Twila Coffey which I'm really thrilled about. She has such wonderful blacks, blues, and black and blue otters. I'm hoping to get some good show Jrs from her later this year. I also am checking Dennie's site (Spring Creek Gems) everyday to see if she'll have any broken chestnuts for sale. She posted a picture of one on the ND Forum awhile back and I was in love! lol

So all in all this past weekend was really good (with the exception of the babies being DOA) the next few weekends I can not wait for. This coming weekend I'm going to see my best friend for her daughters 1 year birthday. We always have too much fun no matter what's going on. We joke that we have to live in different states or we'd get into trouble all the time and drive our hubbies crazy lol. The following weekend my Broken Orange doe is coming home, and the weekend after that DALTON!!! I'm so excited about that. I'm really praying it will be warm, this semi-constant snow is about to drive me crazy. I enjoy snow but enough is enough, let me see some green! Speaking of green I bred my otter does today and their due date should fall on St. Patty's day. I'll get my website updated tonight or tomorrow with all the new changes and pictures of the new crew.

Thanks for reading, take care all!

This next month is gonna be so busy and fun!

Starting with this weekend things will get busy and stay that way for a bit, both with the rabbitry and just life in general. With any luck one of my does will give me some kits, they both are due Friday but they're also both older gals now so I'm keeping my fingers crossed but as of right now not really expecting anything. Might be going to a CTRBA meeting this weekend too if they were able to work out everyone's schedule for it, kind of in a holding pattern on that one just now.

My little girl will also be spending the night with her Grandma which I'm nervous about since this is really only the second time anyone has watched her, and I know I'll miss her. But on the plus side...SLEEP! lol That's a rare luxery since we brought her home from the hospital, she still isn't sleeping through the night. I have faith that she will soon though.....I hope.

Then by the weekend of the 20th I should have my new rabbit "barn" set up. I can't wait until we move and I can build a real barn setup and have electricity run out to it so I can keep the temp and lighting regulated year-round but, until then my new setup should do great. It's going to be a 10x20 carport canopy, the kind that's really sturdy and can stay up all year. I had the idea of it and then spoke to someone else who's used one for their car and they said it is really great, they've had it up for 4 years now and it doesn't have any rips or damage to it at all, and this is through Tennessee's crazy weather so I'm confident in it. Also that same weekend I'll be visiting my best friend, her daughter is turning 1 year old so we're going for her birthday. She's only 2 months older than my babygirl, weird to think she's already almost a year old herself.

The following weekend I'm adding a new doe to my herd, she's a Broken Orange doe, and a BUD. Her litter history is promising, she's almost 2 and ussually gives about 5 live kits per litter. The breeder I'm getting her from said he's had great luck showing her babies down there and when bred to a good buck she produces some real beauties. I'm so excited Orange is my favorite color (with the possible exception of Champagnes) so bringing home some to add to my herd is really thrilling for me. I know they are hard to work with but I think it's worth it.

Then that next week I'll be busy making sure my rabbit cages are all nice and ready in the new "barn" because the weekend of March 6th is the Dalton, GA show!!! This is my first show so I'm really looking forward to it, not to mention the fact that I'll be bringing home quite a few new faces. At least 8, but possibly 10. So it'll be exciting and busy and hectic. I'm going to love it,lol.

Plus it'll be really neat for me to get to meet some of the breeders I've been talking to. Dennie of Spring Creek Gems, Jennifer of J&J Harmony Acres, Kristen of Holdenabunny, and Christina of Spumanti to name just a few that I know I'll be seeing. All of which have been great helping me out, both with advise and then helping me find what I need to add to my herd.

So that's what is new around here. Oh a quick rundown of the color/sex of what I'm bringing in in case you're curious:

Siamese Sable Sr Buck
Smoke Pearl Jr Buck
Smoke Pearl Jr Doe
Orange Jr Buck
Orange Jr Doe
Chocolate Sr Doe
Black Jr Buck
Broken Orange Sr Doe

and MAYBE
Siamese Sable Sr Doe
Siamese Sable Jr Doe


Think I'll have my hands full for a bit? Naaahhh, not me lol. Anyways thanks for reading, take care!

Twitterpated Rabbitry..the Hopes, the Dreams, the..annoying Blog Post lol

Hey all,

Well since my previous post gave some info about me in general and my life, now it's time to tell about Twitterpated Rabbitry and how it came to be. It all began long ago and far away..... November of 2006 to be exact.

I decided it would be fun to raise and breed rabbits so, off to the internet I went to research all the different breeds. Naturally I was most drawn in by the Netherland Dwarf rabbit, they were small and adorable, had a great natural pose and came in such a wide variety of colors! So I did some research and brought my first ND home. I still have her, she's Lil' Blue. And I will probably end up selling other retired bunnies as pets but Lil' Blue is going to stay with me all her life.

Then I had some health issues and was unable to persue it for awhile again but finally in January 2009 I spoke to another breeder about picking up a few of her rabbits. Between the agreement to get the rabbits and when I was able to pick them up we also got a phone call from a birthmother. My husband and I had been trying to adopt and she saw our adoption profile and thought we were a good fit. So soon after picking up my rabbits, my daughter was born. She spent 5 weeks in the NICU at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and then after we got home everything was pretty busy with doctors visits, then getting the adoption finalised and all.

As of December 2009 things had calmed down and I was ready to get back into the rabbit habit. So I began the process of searching for new stock and getting things off the ground for my rabbitry by registering it with the ARBA. Twitterpated Rabbitry became officially registered with the ARBA on January 15th, 2010.

Currently I have 1 Black Sr Buck (Ninja), a Blue Sr Doe (Lil' Blue), and a Sable Point Sr Doe (Melodie). I'm only starting out with my rabbitry and I have big plans for expansion in the near future. Melodie and Lil' Blue will soon be retired, Melodie will probably be up for Sale as a pet to a good home within the next month or two. As I said before Lil' Blue will stay here and live as our pet.

Currently my rabbits are housed inside my heated garage but I should have a 20x10 rabbit building for them to be housed in by the end of Febuary.On the 27th I'm picking up a Broken Orange brood doe to add to my herd and am currently searching for a Orange Buck to join her. Over the next few months I plan to add a few Siamese Sables, Siamese Smoke Pearls, Sable Points, Oranges, Blacks and Champagnes. The last is a new color variety and is waiting for approval, I'm sure cheering Joe Powers on for getting this color variety recognised. He's got me on his waiting list for a trio as he has them available this spring/summer.

So even though my rabbitry is currently teeny tiny it will be growing quite a bit within the year. I'm also hoping to begin showing rabbits, I'm currently looking at a few Jrs to purchase with the hope of showing but, eventually I'd love to produce and show my own Netherland Dwarfs but I know it'll be a little while before I can do that.

I plan on bringing in the best stock I can to begin my herd, even though I'm new at all this I've been speaking with other breeders to learn all I can. My main goal in starting this rabbitry is just to enjoy it, which I'm sure I'll never have problems with (manure managment aside anyways, lol) but other than that I intend to breed as close to the Standard of Perfection as I can and make certain my rabbits always go to good homes, be it breeder or pet home.

Anyways here's my first blog directly about the rabbitry, I hope I didn't bore you too much. And I also hope you'll check my main rabbitry page often in the future as I hope it will grow and change quite a bit over the next few months and years.
http://www.wix.com/twitterpatted84/Twitterpated-Rabbitry

My first blog post

Hey all,

I'm starting this blog mostly because my rabbitry is currently so small I want people to be able to see what my plans are for future expansion of my herd, and also just to ramble on about my daily activities, thoughts, and other random things. I'll begin writing about my rabbitry in the next post but for now I want to tell you about myself.

So here we go, my name is Andrea Edwards, and I'm a wife and mother first and foremost in all aspects of my life. I've been married for 6 years and my husband and I were very blessed this past year,to have our first child, and she is the most beautiful little girl ever (I'm a mom, I'm allowed to be biased,lol) We had her via adoption and she was born with an omphalocele which we knew about in advance, the doctors and nurses thought she'd be in the NICU a minimum of 6 months...5 weeks after she was born we were able to bring her home and she has been consistently amazing in everything she's done. She'll be a year old in April and will have her final surgery soon after. I'm so blessed to have her in my life.

I am also a self taught freelance photographer, I'm by no means the best and hope to further my study and improve my skill, in my thoughts practise makes perfect so I learn by doing. I was fortunate enough to be able to start my own business and have very good luck with it the first year, although I've taken the time since my daughter was born off so I could focus on her. I love to travel though so far it's been limited to the US, my favorite place to vacation is North Myrtle Beach, SC and I can not wait to go back there. I love camping, hiking, swimming, and just being in nature in general. I believe in animal rights and think cruelty to any living being should be punished, though I also value human life above animals, please don't persecute me for this, it is my belief and you are entitled to your own.

I love art, and have a wide variety of likes that range from traditional Van Gogh to Angelo Filomino (wonderful artist, please see his work if it's near you, photos do not do the vivid colors justice). I also love music, I've lived near Music City most of my life and have been to dozens, if not hundreds of concerts, country, jazz, pop, rock, and many other genres. I have a unhealthy love of the Anita Blake novels by Laurell K Hamilton, I also love the Lord of the Rings series (including the Hobbit) I believe C.S. Lewis was a genius and an amazing writer, I love the Vampire chronicles by Anne Rice, Twilight Eyes which is about the ONLY book I like from Dean Koontz, everything else seems like he just rewrites the same story and changes the names. I, Vampire by Michael Romekey is another of my favorites and of course the Twilight series.

Anyways this is the short version of all the other parts of my life, the next post will focus on the rabbitry. Hope you've enjoyed this peak into my life.