Monthly Archives: July 2008

As usual, there were quite a number of inquiries since the birth of BlueBerry’s kits and as usual I am again in a very difficult position. Why is it so difficult?

Being one of the pioneers of bringing in Holland Lops breed into Malaysia, I must be very selective in passing on the gene pool to responsible owners. And through my observations, the market is filled with many opportunists that never fails to take advantage of the situation to exploit any “commodities” in their hands.

It is very apparent that wherever the MONEY is, there will always be people rushing to those “gold mines”. The measure that I would like to take is to make sure that the opportunists do not exploit rabbits in Malaysia. Looking into the mixed breed market alone, I can see that it has been exploited beyond recognition.

I am truly sadden by this situation. But in order for me to hold on my stance, many has labelled me as stuck up because they cannot accept my approach in this matter. And that itself also goes to show that they will not be the right people to pass on my rabbits’ gene pool.

Some of the measures that I have taken include being super fussy and choosy on the inquiries. I normally go through a little background check or interview to test out of the basic care knowledge of potential new owners. I always emphasize and encourage the new owners to consider neuter/spay if they are not planning to breed their rabbits. I try to ensure that they never ever ever cross breed rabbit(s) they get from me with any other breeds. Be it intentionally or by accident (this would require the taming of desire of letting their rabbits mate on the human counterpart). It sadden me really that some human beings have greater desire to see their rabbits breed than the raging hormones of the rabbits themselves.

I do not think this is a selfish step and making it seemed as if I am the only one that has the privilege to breed. I have my beliefs on how responsible breeding should be and I impose them on potential owners of rabbits (given the fact that their hormones are greater than of their rabbits). Since I have no control over the actions of the new owner, all I can do is to continue educating them instead of just saying NO, YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS OR THAT.

I am not disallowing people to breed if they do it with ONE GOOD REASON – BREED TO IMPROVE THE BREED.

Ever since I started blogging about my rabbits, I just cannot live without internet access. I am just so addicted to this entire blog thing that I found myself thinking what to blog next all the time.

The blog statistics showed that I have a constant flow of readers dropping by the blog and I hope to increase the number further. There is no polling feature on wordpress so I cannot start a poll on favourite topics. I have yet to go through the most accessed pages. Once I ascertain what topics capture the attention of my readers I will write more of those topics. Previously there were many hits to my adoption page and I have since taken the page out of my blog because I do not have anything to offer. But I find the number of hits to the adoption page disturbing because it actually goes to show that many people want things for FREE.

That is definitely not a good sign because people will only go for things that they do not really care about for FREE. If something is of value to a person, they will spend some effort and money to acquire it.

I just got the phone line fixed yesterday and now waiting for the internet activation. Once I have got internet access, I will start posting photos.

Many people are still oblivious to the breeds of rabbits in Malaysia and I have an intention to write about the different breeds of lop ear rabbits and include some photos as example. Before I do that, I will need to get permission to showcase some photos that I have come across in other breeders’ blog/website. I hope these breeders are willing to allow me featuring their photos. And also hope that I will have the time to go through websites for photos.

One of the point I like to drive into a potential rabbit owner’s mind is that one should never ever buy rabbits younger than 8 weeks.

It is very obvious that 4 weeks old kits are irresistably cute and that is the main selling factor for pet stores here. If a person genuinely love an animal, it does not matter if it is cute or not. I believe we all have to understand that at the end of the day pet store is a business. And in order to sell their livestock, they need to prolong the shelf lives of their livestock. Therefore that is the reason why they take in younger rabbits.

Kits between the age of 4 weeks and 6 weeks seemed to look alright on the outside. But that is the time the entire flora content of their stomach is developing. Many people do not know that during this crucial period, the kits will feed on their mother’s cecal to get those nutrients that they themselves are unable to produce. Consuming their mother’s cecal will help them build up their stomach flora content so that they are able to be weaned off in a healthy manner.

One may be lucky to have their underage rabbit grow up healthy without any complications. Most of the time that is not the perfect scenario.

An ideal pet store for me is one that only sells pet supplies and not livestock. But unfortunately for the local market, livestock brings in the biggest part of the profit. So, since we are in a deadlock, the best compromise we can have is pet store continue selling livestock but they should ensure that their conducts are ethical.

So the next time you are tempted to pick up that underage kit, always think twice and be prepared for complications if you bring it home. We as consumer have the power to reverse this situation. If only we stop buying underage rabbits, then the demand for older rabbits will force business to be ethical. Businesses are formed to meet the demands of their customers. So who have the power to decide?

YOU AND ME.