Farm Fresh: Silver Fox Kits 6 Weeks Old

Alice's litter continues to thrive and we have 7 healthy happy kits. Three are the traditional black and 4 are chocolate (the color is "certified under development" by the ARBA since it is still so rare).  We are lucky to have so many chocolates.

The breed as a whole is a rare heritage breed which is known for bunnies with sweet temperaments. Here is an excerpt from the Livestock Conservancy's website:
The Silver Fox is a beautiful rabbit, which stands apart from other breeds. It was the first large breed produced that dressed out at 65% of its live weight. Does have large litters, produce plenty of milk, are excellent mothers, and make wonderful foster mothers. Silver Fox are known for their docile and gentle nature. The young are born either solid black or blue and begin to show silvering of their fur at about 4 weeks. The silvering process takes 4 months to complete. The fur is one of the most attractive and unusual features of the breed. It is extremely dense and 1 1/2 to 2 inches in length. When the fur is stroked from tail to head, it will stand straight up until stroked in the opposite direction. This trait is found in no other breed and greatly resembles the pelt of the silver fox of the Arctic.

We went to the Mid-Atlantic Rabbit and Cavy Show in Harrisburg, PA this weekend to see how showing rabbits works.  Big sis A thinks that she would like to show rabbits for 4H and everyone has told us that it is a great experience for kids. We walked around and looked at all the rabbit breeds represented.  When we found the Silver Fox rabbits all the owners were sitting together.  They said that even though they are competing against each other they are all good friends.  We learned a lot from talking to them and also from watching the judging and listening to his comments about each one. Chocolates are still COD so we can enter them to hear the judge's feedback and should continue to breed them to build up the strain, but they will not be awarded prizes. 

I bought a young buck at the show.  He is the nephew of a National Champion. I am hoping that we will be ready to show him and some of our rabbits in a year or so. 

These babies will be weaned in about a week. Then I will start selling some of them. It's hard to decide which ones to keep for breeding. We are not very experienced at the show aspect of rabbit breeding yet. My friends in the Silver Fox Club recommend only selling the best of each litter and culling the rest for meat.  It is a rare breed, but they said that it is important to keep the gene pool strong.