Sweet Cloverdale Homestead & Rabbitry

Water, who knew it was such a controversial topic 😅 When a calf drinks water, the water goes into the rumen, as does the starter feed. Milk, fed from bottle or bucket, by-passes the rumen via esophageal groove, and is deposited into the abomasum of the calf. Water in the rumen provides a medium for ruminal bacteria to live in. To ferment grain and hay, rumen bacteria must liberate in water, without water ruminal development is slowed. Moral of the story: calves need water! 💧

Good morning Monday, from a Lilac Rex kit.

Another load of beautiful orchard grass for the farm 😍 My animals go through roughly 1000-1100lbs of hay a week, so I am pretty much always thinking about hay in one way or another.

This load is from a farmer I just found this morning and it’s looking like he’ll be our supplier from here on out 🤞🏼 Not only is his hay beautiful, but he’s just 5 minutes down the road from us. So thankful for our local hay farmers 🌾

Quick trip early this am to the WRCS “Journey In Time” Show. We didn’t come to show, but to pick up a breeding pair of my very favorite breed of rabbits - English Lops . I cannot thank Wendy Lange enough for this opportunity and trusting me with her babies. This is just the beginning 🍻
Pictured is Wendy’s Bell Bottom Blues, Sr. Blue doe. Pics to come of Wendy’s Save a Horse (Cowboy), Sr. Broken Blue Otter buck.

Look who made their arrival! 4 dilute Rex kits.

Church’s Havana x Church’s Bolder make for some of the fattest kits I’ve ever seen 🤣

An Opal x Blue pairing means all of the kits will also be dilute but Havana and Bolder carry chocolate as well, so lilac based varieties are also possible - my guess as newborns is 3 Opals and 1 Lynx, we’ll see 👀
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Still 3 days out from Havana’s due date but she collected and carefully arranged all of the nesting material she dug and flung out yesterday and lined it with a very thick layer of her fur.

Her cage and overall appearance is disheveled to say the least 🫣🤣 But I love a maiden doe who prepares days in advance!
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Small town coffee shop pick me ups before the days chores begin 🤎
Where they know my order, name, address and where I was last Wednesday at 6pm 😉🤣
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Havana is due with her first litter in 4 days 🤞🏼Blue, Lilac, Opal and Lynx are all possible. I’m sure she’ll do great and everything will be fine but I’m super anxious as I am really hoping for show prospects for next spring/summer. Loosing this litter would set us back a minimum of 4 weeks.

First time moms always stress me out 🤣 especially in the ‘ber 🥶 months. All I can do is hope and rely on quality nesting materials and great maternal instincts.
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Let it begin 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️