Monthly Archives: August 2008

I just had to start off this post by laughing. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

When I came home this evening, I was relieved to find Noobie “chilling” at her usual favorite spot. I am pretty sure that she’s done delivering. I guess she is on the plump side thanks to my pampering. To be extra sure, I felt her stomach gently and found nothing unusual.

Then like a predator, my eyes went straight to the nest box. I knew one of the kits was a broken black (Skor junior). It was already very dark when I found it this morning. Noobie has taken great care of them and this is the reason why:

Meet Mo my replacement for Little Moo. LOL! Another Diary Cow. I better be specializing in Broken Black Hollands. My world is all about Black & White! LOL!!!!

This little fellow is plump and I am sure you cannot agree more. Turned out Noobie was busy nursing when I notice her going into the nest box more than usual. What a great mum!

Alright, what was all the laughing about? Here’s why:

Meet Charl ! A CHARLIE with a DE HOTOT twist. It is almost like a BLANC DE HOTOT with moustache. This is the first Charlie that I have ever seen. It is just so cute. My wife & I cannot stop laughing. Even our little 1 year old daughter started laughing as she was trying to follow us. Although it is not a desirable trait to have Charlies, we are just so tickled by this.

For all these I am giving Noobie these awards:

1) The best nursing doe

2) The best temperament & well behaved doe (I have never hear her growl at me, ever!)

As a conclusion, Skor & Noobie ROUND 1 is not that good of a combination. By right I should be getting 1/2 Broken, 1/4 Solid & 1/4 Charlie, in this litter it was 1/3 Broken, 2/3 Charlie. No sign of CHOCOLATES!

A blessing in disguise this is because it was not a litter of 6. I like the numbers in this litter and hope my future litters stay this size. No multiple breeding that is, just one take.

It is questionable if I will proceed going against the probability and odds to get a solid CHOC the next time. We’ll have to wait for Skor & Holly Hope combination next. But I am in dire need of a buck to continue on Skor’s legacy.

Now let us all laugh looking at Charlie Chaplin resurrected in the form of a HOLLAND LOP kit:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….

If you are a Holland Lop breeder, you will realize that this breed is about the “buts”. They always leave questions marks lingering on your mind. This is the very reason why they say it is a Hallmark breed and also the hardest to work with. I finally raise the white flag challenging this fact. Now I am a true believer that this is in fact a difficult breed.

Alright, here are the details and I will post photos later when I get home from work. Before I went to bed at 10.30 pm, I gently felt the kits in Noobie’s tummy and I realize that somehow they (the kicks from within) were lower than where I felt them previously. That gave me a feeling that they are moving into kindle position. I did not do an actual palpation of course because I have yet to master that skill (LOL!). I just place my palm gently on her lower abdomen to feel the little kicks. I then woke up at 3.30 am to find Noobie lining the nest box with fur. So I was assured that she will not have kits on the wire. Woke up at 6.30 am to find Noobie still looking big but out of the nest box with loose fur all around.

Then, I noticed something moving in the nest box! On closer inspection, I have 2 viable kits. 1 is a Broken Black for sure because its marking was really dark. The other I cannot quite make out which I think maybe broken chocolate or lilac.

To ensure I did not miss anyone, I had to reach out into the nest box and feel for any dead kit. I felt one big lifeless one and pulled it out. I believe this one is what they call a fetal giant. It was a fetal giant Charlie measuring a good 3 inches and it is abnormally big compared to all the kits I have seen. And it brought back sad memories of the first litter. It did look huge like those dead ones from Holly Hope’s litter.

So what are the question marks?

I know Noobie is a great doe with good motherly instinct but I have got a feeling that she is not quite done with kindling (just a gut feeling) because firstly, she still look a little “big” and secondly, she kept on going into the nest box. I do not think there are any stuck kits because there is no blood all around and she wasn’t crouching in the nest box. It does seemed like she is nursing the babies non-stop. Another reason that convinced me otherwise is that she only mated with Skor twice in 5 minutes and I should expect a rather small litter from her this time around. So the first question is whether we still have more kits coming?

The second question is whether Noobie will keep on throwing giants? I was expecting BlueBerry to throw giants because she is rather huge but Noobie is rather smaller.

I just want to finish up today quickly and get home ASAP.

Since I had to vacuum clean the cages yesterday and I did not want to scare the kits to death, I placed them in the playpen lined with newspaper (thus the title of my post).

They love to run and explore in the playpen.