Ritten Alert!!

I came home to squeakers! Evie gave birth to 7 but sadly one did not make it. Two of the remaining six aren't as pink as I would like, so we will keep a close eye on them.

We have 4 smoothcoat and 2 rex. Evie is still awfully round, but I think she's done. We'll see. I'll give her til the morning and take a look then. We'll palpatate and see if we feel anyone else inside. She is active and calm and shows no signs of distress.

The birth doesn't seem to have adversely affected Evie. There is a normal amount of blood on the bedding and she is eating fine. She enjoyed a piece of a milkyway bar while I checked out the babies.

Bub Watch!

I am positive that Evolet is pregnant! Just in one night she's bloomed and not like she did before when she was paired with DJ.

She's been moved to the maternity cage tonight and given nesting material. Her mammory tissues seem to be swollen so she may be preparing to produce milk. And she's nesting a little.

My grandmother has bought a new house and is moving, so I will be moving into her previous home. Evolet will not make the trip until we are confident she will not be over stressed. Its only a 20minute drive, but we are taking it safe. Until then, she'll be in the care of my mother while I will visit daily.

We are very excited about this litter. We look forward to seeing their bubs grow and especially to seeing if we end up with downunders, which is very likely!

Minor Update

Evie hasn't lost the pudge and seems to be plumper. We aren't sure if she's pregnant or not et, but we shall see :)

Isabeau has a little pot belly. We intend to put her back in with the girls and see if she continues to gain weight.

We talked to our mentor about breeding plans and have decided to take Pip out of retirement. Breeding a downunder to a hooded helps encourage the markings and will improve them as well. Pip is our only hooded (other than Navarre). He has good ears and he is very healthy. We intend to try him with Isabeau if she's not pregnant.

RRR Isabeau x RRR Pip Squeak
Russian Silver Berkshire DU Smoothcoat x American Blue Broken Hooded Teddy Rex

Expecting 100% dumbo, rex and smoothcoat. Expecting american blue, russian silver, russian blue, and a chance of RED. Could see agouti variations as well. Hopefully will contribute better size and improve the ears to the downunder line.

January 8th update

Evolet is on a tentative pregnancy watch, but we're not removing her from the breeding cage yet, just in case. She's put on some more pudge and careful palpatation reveals a firm uterus and potential baby lumps! We'll know within the next couple of weeks I'm sure.

We are considering potential bucks to be paired to JM Nimue in Febuary or March. We are considering RRR DJ and RRR Navarre. Our goal would be marked rats with headspots and facial markings.

Happy New Year!

Wow, 2010 already which means this March will be our second anniversary! So many things come and go in that time and we miss the furry members of our family that have passed this last year and the cage-climbers we've sent to their new homes.

We have nothing new to report about our breeding trio, we may seperate Evolet from the pair and try her with Melod and have the two seperate couples in the works at once. Perhaps someone will figure out the deal! lol

We are keeping an eye out for heat cycles and flirtation. Since Isabeau doesn't show much interest we may try Sorcha. She's saucy and would probably raz the poor guy into fits, but maybe he'll take a hint.

Everyone wish us luck for the new year. We hope to present big healthy and grown up downunders for the coming 2011 calendar contests. We shall see. We are trying for a new litter, but nature just isn't cooperating! However, we refuse to give up hope!