Fuzzy Lop Nationals 2009

Eeek! I'm so excited. Yesterday I sent off my entry for American Fuzzy Lop Nationals, 2009 in Farmington, Utah! It will be held the 3rd-5th of Arpil. It's going to be sooo much fun! :)

I entered one Fuzzy Lop, as well, I only have one that may look *decent* when the time comes, Twin Elm's Independence Day. I also entered three Jersey Woolies for the All Breed Sunday Show, WWR Alladin, Opal Senior Buck, Wooligans/WWR Ro Sham Bo, Chestnut Senior Buck and WWR Raquel, a Broken Black Senior Doe.


WWR Raquel

Traveling wise looks like we will have to go through Nevada. BORING. But I've never been to Utah, and hope to see something new. I'd love to go to the Salt Flats! It'll all matter what time allows us. I wonder if there are any haunted places? :)

I can't wait to meet some more new people. I especially look forward to the Burbidges who are hosting the show. I've heard too many good things about them!

This is going to be short. It has been a LONG day for me, I'm not feeling too awesome. So I hope everyone else (in California, at least) is enjoying this BEAUTIFUL weather, I love Spring!

Speaking of spring, I love the lighting it gives us for photos... they turn out so clear.


Skyview's Brittany

Have a good evening all...
Susie Cederlof
Wooly World Rabbitry

Finding Out Recessive Genes?

I've wondered quite a bit on ear carriage. I did two Jersey Wooly and American Fuzzy Lop crosses, and all of the kits had ears that went up! (that was 7 kits!) Note: This is just a fun post, I'm not trying to say the following is true or that I am proving anything, because I'm not! LOL. It's pure thoughts!

Now, we know that wool is a recessive trait. This was discovered when Angora was bred into holland lops for better fur. Later along the line, "fuzzies" started popping up. These rabbits were originally sold as pets until Patty Greene-Karl, who founded that the gene was recessive, started breeding them amongst themselves deciding to make them a breed of their own.

I have a AFL/JW cross still, I planned on breeding him into my Jersey Wooly herd. I would love to know if lop ear carriage is recessive. I wish I had kept a doe to breed to him to see if any of the kits would lop, proving the gene is recessive.

I'll probably end up breeding him to a Fuzzy Lop, too. I guess, if I really wanted to study it I'd have to do several combinations.



Capital "R" is for dominant (up-eared rabbit) and lower case "r" is for recessive. The rabbit on top who is "Rr" would be our cross buck, who has upped ears, however is out of a lopped parent. "rr" is our example of an American Fuzzy Lop, obviously, with lopped ears.



Our top parent "RR" would be an up-eared rabbit. And again, our crossed buck "Rr" All babies would have up ears, however, a 50% chance each kit could carry the gene recessive gene.

What I could do, is, breed my buck to a lopped doe, and take an offspring with up-ears and breed it back to the father. Giving each kit a 25% chance of being lopped.



All in all, this is all in my head. :) I might go about seeing if I can "prove" anything, but am unsure of it. I've gotten rabbits with up-eared ears from two "lop" rabbits, and if being so, this would make it all false as you cannot get a dominant out of two recessive.



I've only noticed it in the offspring though from parents with "ear carriage". What could this possibly mean? Maybe is it the other way around? Phenotype or genotype? LOL. Just thought I'd ramble of a little bit that goes through my head some days. Hope ya'll learned how to use the Punnet Square! :)

Here is a picture of the buck. He is very nicely typed, except his ears are just a tad under 3 inches!



Most likely, it is just a polygenic trait. Meaning, they can fall in between being lopped and upped. (best example is the mating of a light-skinned and a dark skinned persons, the offspring having intermediate skin colors) I do have a couple Woolies who have "airplane" ears. They lop strait across like airplane wings, I just assume with the size and shape they can't lop any further. So who knows! :P

I'll stop rambling! Good night everyone!
Susie Cederlof
WWR

Updated Website!

It's taken me long enough, I have updated my website completely! *phew* I'm proud of myself for finally getting it done... :)

Next project is to take current pictures of everybody! Any rabbit breeder would understand that this is a process cause of course now that the words come out of my mouth everyone will start molting or loose condition... hehe it's the "murphy's law" of the rabbit world...

The link would be:

Wooly World Rabbitry

Let's talk a little about it... I spent lots of time with the HTML. Several time I was accidentally saving stuff on the WRONG page having to re-do the Juniors page, several times, let me tell you, almost blew a gasket after I did it the third time! LOL.

Our home page is featuring "WWR Kiki" who is a blue doe out of WWR Sleeptalker, who now lives in Oklahoma with Melanie of Lil' Bit Farms and Erb's Ariel who lives with Amy of Amy's Barn Rabbitry. She is unfortunately unshowable but I hope to get some fine youngsters out of her for our 2009 Convention Show String! :)



I made a big list of rabbit shows we plan on attending. A couple I am thinking we will not make it too. A week after the big National show(ARBA Convention) Rita, the secretary for Convention is the secretary of another show a week after! Kudos to her! She is a wonderful secretary and hope to attend that one too, in Stockton. That will be ending our year unless otherwise heard on a Red Bluff show, which I'd love to return too! Good times with friends!

I'm awaiting to add more dates. The Summer Show held in Carol's backyard we will be attending, unsure if there is a date made. I want to also attend Solano County Fair I believe in July in Vallejo, CA. And on top of it all, I'd love to make it to another long distance show, say OR or Central/Southern CA. I'd love to see old friends and make new ones!

Oh, and the nursery page! I've bred a few does! Check it out and see what we may be expecting in the next month... I hope to have some Convention babies... It's been a while since we have had kits! My last litters born were 7 months ago! :(

I must make it clear though, the color combinations for the woolies are not that smart. I did them because Ro Sham Bo is a proven buck(which to me means he gets the job done and has healthy babies) and since the does have been "sitting" I'm depending on him... LOL.

I plan on doing some "tutorials" on things... any recommendations on what I should do? I'll probably do grooming, tattooing, and other fun things. hehe. Crossing fingers to "follow through"... (I'm a busy girl, you know!) :)


WWR Josh, a chestnut senior buck.

By the way, check out my current standings on NJWRC.net! For Youth Overall Sweepstakes, I'm #14. For Youth Herdsman of the year, I'm #10! #1 in my district(2), too! Not too bad with limited showing AND only showing a few animals at a time! Woo! I'm quite content. :)

Thanks for reading! Be sure to sign my Guestbook and tell me what you think of my website!
Xox,
Susie Cederlof
Wooly World Rabbitry

Pika!

Today when checking my mail, the daily featured photo caught my eye... A PIKA! I Pika is a small, hamster like animals who live in cold climates. They are the only known animal related to the lagamorph(rabbit and hare) family! From my understanding this is because they have a pair of gnawing incisors, just like rabbits. (look behind your rabbits top teeth, you'll see a second pair behind them!)


Aren't they just ADORABLE?!

Now... you may be seeing some relation, what does a Pika look like to you?!



Yes, your favorite crime-stopping poke'mon, Pikachu!!!

Now, when you really compare them they look nothing like, but still adorable. I don't quite recall the name of the second version of Pikachu, however, I think he looked more like the actual Pika. LOL.

So, here is what inspired me to write this quick post. The website who hols my email account... :P

http://www.live.com/

If you hover your mouse, it'll give you little facts about the cute mammal.

Also Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika


Until next time...
Susie Cederlof
WWR

True Quality- A Desire.

Most of us in the rabbit world have been there. There's no hiding it, there's no denying it... you got off to a bad start. Not necessarily ALL bad, but not the start you realized you should had wished for.

This can be good, and this could be bad. Many exhibitors are not educated enough to know the fundamentals of the show world. Jumping the gun and buying whatever they see is not how a new exhibitor should start, but buy researching and making a decision based on importance. (is a color more important than the true overall quality of the rabbit? You decide.)

With being said, it is not all the buyer's fault. An honest hobby breeder should not only sell the rabbits, but ask questions the buyer may not understand. "Do you want a show, breeding, or pet quality rabbit?" With whatever they may choose, to me, I feel it is my responsibility to compare and contrast the difference. You wouldn't believe how many have said "pet", and later find out they MAY want to show the animal, too! It's no difference when asking a pet buyer, "Do you have a cage, you might want to get a brush, do you have young children?" I want to know if my rabbits are in safe hands.

When selling show animals, honestly is the best policy. I've turned down countless sales because I didn't think my rabbit was worthy enough for a good start or improvement for a better herd. I'm willing to show examples, teach, and convince exhibitors. I'm too willing to help them find that perfect rabbit. (well, in my breed of course. LOL.) Many 4-H groups track me down in hopes of finding that quality animal(not just in my breeds!) because of knowing I will do my best and be honest if that rabbit meets the quality to contend at shows. Of course, I can't guarantee it, but I am sure going to do my best in teaching them along the way of what is right and wrong, and anything in between of quality and improvement.

"4-H Quality" is no different quality than a show rabbit, but if you tell me, "I want a rabbit to show at fair, I DON'T CARE ABOUT TYPE." I won't care about type either! You'll catch me 100% of the time assuring this with you. Of course, I will not sell you a rabbit that is all terrible. I won't sell a rabbit with bad type to affect my name. I'm just saying, there's a high quality and a low quality, breeding and pet qualities in my mind. If you possibly cannot care enough about type and what you want, how can I?

I try my best to not only convince in quality but convince out of it, too. The reason being is I was to find determination and know if this is really what this person wants. I want to know if they are buying a PET what they are setting themselves up for, not for a show contender on the show tables.

There are breeders out there who will sell their culls to unsuspecting new exhibitors. Without knowledge, this could cause future heart break, distrust, and quick sell outs. It's a sad a vicious cycle.

For people building herds, I like to ask what colors they have in their herd. If the have shaded and I sell them a chinchilla, and they get shaded agouti kits who are unshowable, that's not fair. I feel it is somewhat my responsibility to keep track of how I'm going to IMPROVE their herd. I ask what colors they have, backgrounds, and what colors they "aim" for. And of course, again, if you say that you just want the rabbit because of it's color, you can have it! But it's not my decision.

I'm more than happy to evaluate your herd and give you advice or try to help you improve it. I'm not in this hobby for only myself, I'm also in it to help because compassion is in my nature. I'm not scared to loose a sale if it is not going to benefit you.

There are those, like me, that have learned the much much harder way in this hobby. I've been sold rabbits as show quality to be complete crap. I've been toyed around and that is OKAY. I'm okay with it! I'm now a much stronger person and value my own opinion more than any other. I don't mean it in a snooty way, but in a way that I have to trust and value my own opinion. I have to know whats right. I spread my knowledge because I love too. Many take advantage of it, too. Sad, maybe so, but I think it is even more sad for those who abuse little things like that.

Rabbits > Hobby.

My friend Timothy of Tru-Luv Rabbitry recently explored outside of the box and found true quality. I am very happy for him. It is not only a improvement for himself, but of all breeders in Malaysia. This will set a new standard of quality for the improvement of everybody's herds. A better person could not have been given for such fine examples of the breed, I believe he will know what to do.

It's not that he did it for himself. He did it for everybody else too. I honor him for that. Thank you Timothy.

Final advice is to do research and don't be afraid to ask questions! LOL.

Susie Cederlof
Wooly World Rabbitry


WWR Zoe, out of one of our first litters. Our first grand champion, and first rabbit to win Best of Breed. Not only that, she was HOMEBRED! :)

Your fellow exhibitors... or friends?

I'm a member of a forum anything rabbit, and recently a member posted saying they we're not too excited for a show due to lack of excitement at the show.

I feel for this person because I truly understand where they are coming from. Therefore I'd like to write a post on not only finding that excitement, but for overcoming your shy side and even some "breed promotion".

I'd like to first example myself about 6 years ago. I had been a very shy child. I was always the one right next to mommy's side and hiding behind her, and the fear I'd have to be around other people/children I did not know. And oh my, SHARING with others was the worst!

When I received my first rabbit, my mom had only heard about 4-H. When I got my second, she had signed me up, and getting my third and pedigreed "show rabbit" I was thrown into my first show a couple weeks later.

I attended meetings and talked to other youth who insisted themselves upon me. In no time my cocoon bloomed into a butterfly of compassion.

Here are a few things you can do:
1) ASK QUESTIONS- Don't be afraid to explore and learn more! I've always been told a smart person will ask questions. Ask if you could pet an owners rabbit and ask questions about it, its fur, head, color, or where it came from. You can even ask more "personal" questions what that person likes about that particular breed and why or if they have another they prefer.


2) PROMOTE- Your self, your herd, your breed. Setting up a grooming table(which can be as simple as a carpet square or towel on top of your show carriers) and setting your bunny on top to "romp" will gain attractors. Remember everybody is different and have different eyes to different looks. Encourage people who stop to feel free to "touch" (cause we all know once we touch it, we want it ;) and ask questions. Be courteous, open, and honest. When person says, "It's not my kind of rabbit." Understand and agree in their point of view as we all have different taste. Unwanted pressure to get "your breed" even if it lacks exhibitors isn't very fun to be put upon. If you think so and would like to "push", do it in a kind way and ask if they honestly are interested and if so you are willing to help, and if they would like a business card. Have a white board with your rabbitry name and your breed name set up.


3) LEARN MORE- You cannot learn enough about your own breed! TALK to judges, TALK to exhibitors. If you don't understand, then you don't understand. After judging consider talking to the Judge right after regarding your questions. Remember asking questions DURING placing can be against ARBA rules. Wait until the judge is done talking, and get them THAT moment if it is concerning a serious problem i.e. malocclusion, split penis, mismatch toenails, broken bones, eye spots, weight, anything DQ. Most times, the judge is willing to take a moment to tell you about it, sometimes even show you, and don't be afraid to ask if you do so politely to see the problem and ask questions, if you have more than one wait until judging is over as this could frustrate the judge or other exhibitors. Don't be afraid to ask after judging if you could get a run down on your rabbit(s) that is more hands on on whats good, bad, and what you could improve on, and going about so. FIND OUT what pinched hindquarters are. FIND OUT what long shoulders mean. FIND OUT how you can improve density to fur. Thank the judge for their time and knowledge, and always for judging.


4) EXHIBITORS- In following talking to judges, don't be afraid to ask fellow exhibitors if you can feel their winning rabbits, and even ask if the judge can tell you why of course, if it is agreed by the owner. Comparisons are great when building bases. Ask exhibitors if they are willing to show you a little bit on judging your breed, and always thank them for their time and knowledge. If they turn you down, don't take it personally, there are few who are reserved/competitive. If you are having trouble finding exhibitors try researching them online and seeing if they are attending shows you may be and try to meet up at a show one day.


5) GET INVOLVED- Though most of this is about getting involved, there's always more! Youth don't be afraid to look into 4-H and FFA and adults too! There are several clubs who would die to have a leader for a rabbit group. I'd only recommend it to the extremely dedicated who are willing to help youth get started the RIGHT way, as for doing team research with no miscommunicating with the parents. Find answers to questions and encourage more, our youth are our future, and not only are we speaking the rabbit world but on teaching life skills, team work and communication, responsibility and so much more.


If I think of more I will post more. Feel free to comment on this post with your own suggestions! 4-H has made me such a social person and has taught me how to communicate with others and understand myself and people so much better. It has made me love to take lead, teach, and encourage. I too love giving speeches and presentations because of being "involved".

Sorry for any misspellings or bad grammar, it's a tad late(12:30midnight) and I'm on my laptop! LOL.


I'll be attending the Turlock show tomorrow. This will be the third show in a row all this year attending and not showing, unless I beg the secretary if she'll accept an entry... lol.

One last thing, R.I.P. Erb's Boulder who will forever be held in my heart. I'll try and get my post up soon that is dedicated to him.



Until next time,
Susie Cederlof
Wooly World Rabbitry

I'm alive!

Hello world,
I'm excited to post. :) I guess there isn't too much to say... besides several on end bad "events" and life trying to bring me down! Well, this time, I'm keeping my feet in place. I feel a stronger person.

Not really any show results. I did good at Red Bluff in the middle of December(my last show I attended), I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not. No babies... no new rabbits... it's been quiet here lately, and may be like that for a few more months. I'm tryng to find the kick back into things.

I do have some new photos to share; enjoy.


WWR Alladin- Opal Junior Buck; small but AWESOME type!


WWR Audrey Kitching- chubby little girl!


LeSage's Shakira- Looking good, but she too has gotten fat!


Lucky Lop's Addison.


Wooligans Hello Kitty- unfortunately this girl is unshowable. We're still working on getting live kits from her.

My website has a new webset, however I'm going to change it. Too dark. I'll be making it lighter or something soon, when I have the time.

Hope everyone is having much better luck in life than I am! Maybe it's just the economy going to the toilet... :/

Have a good week!
Susie Cederlof
Wooly World Rabbitry